How to Lose Belly Fat and Get a Flat Stomach

In this article we provide you with the our diet rules for losing weight and getting a flat stomach; specific advice for men, women, teens and seniors; exercise and lifestyle factors and exercises which are needed to maintain a healthy weight. We also review the weight loss advice given by major publications over the last decade. At the end of the article you will find links to several of our fitness workouts that will help you to lose weight. There are also over 1000 questions and answers (on the full PC version) which provide a lot of extra advice.

Knowing how to lose belly fat is the first step in gaining that flat stomach that so many people aspire to. Once the fat is lost you are only one step away from attaining the ultimate dream, six pack abs. However, even a thin layer of loose belly fat can be hard to shift.

If you are looking for advice on how to lose stomach fat then following these tips and tricks will help you to lose that gut quickly. Combined with a fitness plan, these tips to lose belly fat will speed up weight loss and get you in shape in no time. Not everyone wants a washboard abs, but if you just want to trim down some inches around the waist and get a flatter stomach, these tips can really help you.

Remember that central obesity is bad for your health and that losing belly fat reduces risks of developing more serious health issues in the future such as diabetes and heart disease.

Flat Belly Diet Rules

1. Throw Out The Junk Food – Reduce Sugar and Saturated Fat

To lose stomach fat you have to throw out the junk food. You are what you eat, so don’t eat junk. Do not keep junk food like cookies, chips, sweets and other similar products in your house. Junk food and addiction to sugar is considered to be the greatest cause of belly fat today. There are some foods that burn belly fat which will help you, but you still have to control calories.

If you do not have these bad foods lying around, you will not think about them and after sometime, you will break the bad eating habits. Most weight loss plans provide great nutrition advice and motivational tips to help you keep your healthy diet on track and this is essential for losing belly fat.

But, why is junk food so bad? Mostly it is due to the high sugar content of junk food. Most junk food consists of refined carbs and sugar, which when eaten quickly raise blood sugar levels, leading to reduction in fat burning and increase in appetite.

2. Carbohydrates and Losing Belly Fat – Low GI Carbs are Best

Consumption of carbohydrate is essential for losing belly fat, but there are good carbs and bad carbs. Refined flours and the foods that they create, such as white bread, pasta, donuts, cakes and biscuits (yes, biscuits cause weight gain) should be avoided. They can cause bloating, poor digestion, and lead to accumulation of fat, which is the opposite of how to lose belly fat!

“Good carbs”, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, should be eaten instead. Slow release carbohydrates are also beneficial, such as oats, brown rice, some pulses and sweet potato. A diet that takes most of its carbs from fruits and vegetables, as opposed to refined flours, is healthier. Read our Low GI Diet eBook to learn how the glycemic index help you to lose weight in the stomach area.

Ideally granary or wholemeal bread should be eaten instead of white bread, and biscuits / cookies and cakes should be avoided. Consuming too much carbohydrate can bump up your insulin level, which can slow down your metabolism (insulin stops the body breaking fat down). Your body cannot metabolize too much carbohydrate at once because the body does not need so much energy at once. The excess sugar from the carbohydrates will just turn into stomach fat. For a more complete explanation of this process read our page, What Is Fat?

Much research has shown that adopting the Atkins Nutritional Approach, i.e. a high fat/protein diet, is the way ahead to lose weight fast. Avoiding carbs increases the fat burning metabolism (lipolysis), which helps to reduce belly fat to get a flat stomach, and this is a key element to your flat belly diet plan.

Combine your meals with a good mixture of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. Your source of protein should be in the size of a deck of cards; the carbohydrates in the size of your palm and the major bulk of your meals should come from vegetables, ideally low GI vegetables.

3. The Natural Way to Lose Belly Fat – Eat Like a Cave Man

Following a natural food idea is a great way to lose belly fat as if combines the rules above, that is you avoid all junk food and all processed food, sugar and saturated fats. Following a Caveman Diet or a Low GI diet are two ways to lose belly fat the natural way.

It is important that you avoid gimmicks and pills when try to lose weight. You need to make a lifestyle change and carry on eating a healthy diet and exercise after you lose weight. Systems such as the HCG Diet and Lemonade Cleanse / Maple Syrup Diet may aid fast weight loss initially but in the long-term there is a much greater risk of putting the weight back on again.

4. No More Late Night Snacks – Stop Comfort Eating

Try not to have late night snacks. The main problem with late night snacking is that there is not much activity done afterwards. People go straight to bed right after the late night meal because they are tired. So, this will cause high sugar levels in the blood stream and no energy spent after that. The excess sugar will just turn into belly fat very quickly.

You can reduce you hunger and food cravings by following a low glycemic diet. Fluctuations in blood sugar causes increases in appetite. Losing stomach fat requires a strict diet so avoiding hunger is essential. Late night snacking is often emotional eating and not eating to nourish.

5. Drink Less Alcohol To Lose Weight

Decrease alcohol consumption. If you drink a lot, you will accumulate fat around your waist. Excess alcohol consumption can really give you a belly. Have you seen people who are slim all over but have a beer belly sticking out? Well, that is the effect of excess alcohol consumption.

Alcohol does not contain any nutrients at all. So, all the energy consumed through alcohol will be stored as belly fat! If you want to lose weight fast then you need to stop drinking for a while.

You do not need to give up alcohol completely, but just drink in moderation. Do not drink everyday and limit yourself to just one glass of wine or one bottle of beer.

Lifestyle Changes To Help Lose Weight

1. Turn Out The Lights Before Bed

Sleep research has shown that sleeping with a light on, even just a dim night light, is enough to cause changed to appetite. Researchers found that subjects that sleep with a light on gain more weight.

2. Exercise for Weight Loss – Burn Fat With Cardio and Weights

Exercise is vital for weight loss and long-term health. Exercising has an immediate effect on weight, in that as you exercise you burn energy (mostly glycogen stored in muscle tissue). The body replaces the lost energy by breaking down sugar reserves in fat cells. This is why we lose weight (fat) when we exercise. Exercise also helps build muscle and this means that your metabolism is raised permanently. Finally, the more exercise you do, the fitter you get. The fitter you are, the more you can exercise and the more calories you burn.

If you do not know how to get started, find a fitness class, hire a personal trainer or learn from or guides. If you want to exercise by yourself then books exercise can help (there are some old but free books on gymnastic exercises here). We have a growing selection of advice and articles to help you get fit here at MotleyHealth.com.

Do Crunches Really Work?

In short – no, they do not. Crunches are done to develop the abdominal muscles. This will not cause your abdominal fat to melt away. For that you need cardio and full body workouts, not just crunches. However, crunches are an important part of your overall fitness – a strong mid-section makes you more athletic, more stable and will help in many aspects of life in general.

3. What is the Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat?

The question that is so often asked has finally been answered by sports scientists. Researchers from the Duke Uni Medical Center have found that aerobic exercise is more effective at burning visceral (belly) fat than weight training.

Visceral fat is the least healthy of fat too. It causes diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer.

“Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass. But if you are overweight, which two-thirds of the population is, and you want to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the better choice because it burns more calories.” – Dr. Cris Slentz, Duke University Medical Center, 2011.

How to Lose Belly Fat with Exercise

The key to losing belly fat is to exercise often. We suggest exercising at least 7 times per week. If you can fit in 2 workouts a day all the better. Although sports research has indicated that intensive exercise is most effective, this new research suggests that really it is just a matter of burning more calories. So whether you spring or walk makes no difference, so long as you do the work. Sprinting obviously burns calories quicker than walking but if you can only walk that just means is that you have to exercise for longer each day.

There are many exercise routines that will help you to get a 6 pack once you have lost all your belly fat. However, the most important thing is to combine different workouts. Weight training is essential, as building muscle speeds metabolism. Intensive exercise, such as interval training and circuit training burns fat fast. Keep it varied, and you will lose weight. Remember that although stomach exercises will not help you to lose belly fat, they will help to tone the mid-section and develop your abdominals.

If exercise is simply not an option for you then you should read the section on How to Lose Weight which explains the role of food, hormones and fat loss.

Although diet plays the most important role in losing weight and belly fat, exercise really is essential. Fortunately there are some fitness and weight loss plans that are tailored to help people lose belly fat.

We have many workouts in our fitness section. There is really no single “best exercise” to lose belly fat, what is important is that you do exercise on a regular basis and burn as many extra calories as you can.