Tag weight loss

An Introduction to the Belly Fat Epidemic

Millions of people struggle with weight loss. One of the primary areas in which fat collects is around the midsection. We’re talking about abdominal fat or belly fat. And as you get older, the fat continues to accumulate around the midsection. It’s so common that we even have names for it. We call it the “spare tire,” “beer belly,” “muffin top,” or “love handles.”

Why is Belly Fat is So Difficult to Get Rid Of?

There are many different reasons why fat likes to accumulate in the midsection, and those reasons are the same explanations for why it’s so difficult to get rid of. Let’s start by exploring why belly fat is so difficult to get rid of and then we’ll dive into what belly fat is, why it’s so dangerous and how to get rid of it for good. Because it is possible to have a trim and healthy waistline.

Age and Hormones

Two things happen as you age. The first is that your metabolism slows down. So this means that you automatically burn less fat and calories during a standard day. The trouble is that you’re still probably consuming the same number of calories. The extra calories are stored as fat.

The second reason that fat accumulates as you age has everything to do with your changing hormones. Both men and women begin to see a decline in their sex hormones. We’re talking about testosterone and estrogen in this case. The decreasing amount of these hormones changes where the body stores fat. In both men and women, more visceral fat is stored.

Another way that these hormones impact fat storage and weight gain is through sleep changes. In women particularly, the hormonal change affects sleep quality. Sleep has been directly linked to appetite hormones like leptin. It may feel like your body is working against you. Your hormone levels drop, making you store more fat and making you hungrier.

Stress and Belly Fat

Stress is one of the biggest causes of belly fat. Cortisol is a hormone that is released when a person is under stress. The body shifts all of its focus to help you survive a fight or flight situation – even if you’re not in any actual danger.

Your brain cannot tell the difference between stress from rush hour traffic frustrations and a bear chasing you. It reacts the same way, which is to essentially shut down digestion and shift energy to help your muscles. Your heart rate and breathing increase, and all your fuel is stored as fat.

Yep, cortisol tells your body to store your energy and calories as fat. It tends to store it right in your midsection.

Good Old Fashioned Genetics

You can take a look at your family members and know whether or not you’re prone to belly fat. It tends to be genetic. There are three basic body types; mesomorph, ectomorph, or endomorph.

Male endomorphs tend to store fat in their abdomens and often have the “beer belly” that has become common. Female endomorphs tend to be curvy and store their fat in their backsides and breasts. They’ll be described as pear shaped or have an hourglass figure.

Mesomorphs, if you’re curious, tend to be muscular and athletic, while ectomorphs tend to be tall and thin. Female mesomorphs may store fat in their abdomen and can be described as apple shaped. Of course there are many different combinations of these body types and there is evidence that specific genes determine how many fat cells you have, as well as where those fat cells are most abundant.

Your Diet

You’re probably not surprised to learn that what you eat has an impact on your body fat. In fact, diets that are high in sugar and starchy carbohydrates cause insulin resistance. When your body is becoming insulin resistant it stores fuel as fat rather than signaling your cells to uptake the calories for fuel.

You eat more because you’re tired and your cells need the fuel. Unfortunately, this cycle leads to fat accumulation in your abdomen and eventually it can lead to diabetes. This is one of the reasons it’s important to recognize fat accumulating on your stomach and to take steps to get rid of it.

Childbirth and Your Abdomen

Childbirth doesn’t make you gain belly fat. What it does do for women is change the look of your stomach. After having a baby a woman may find that her stomach has lost its muscular tone. The good news is that even after having many children, a woman can get her flat stomach back.

Abdominal fat isn’t fun, and it makes clothing difficult to find and uncomfortable to wear, but there’s more to belly fat than meets the eye. In fact, belly fat is the most dangerous type of fat. Let’s take a look at the research behind the dangers of belly fat and then we’ll move into a discussion about how to get rid of belly fat.

What to Do If You Blow Your Diet Plan and How to Get Back on Track

If you stay on your healthy eating plan long enough, it will happen to you – guaranteed! You’ll blow your diet plan.

The key is to not let that one event define you and to get right back on your healthy eating diet plan. It is like riding a bike; when you fell off of it the first time, what did you do? You got right back on and learn to ride! It is the same with a diet plan.

Most of the big holiday parties are past us now (for this year), but we still have birthday parties, anniversaries, weddings and vacations to endure during the rest of the year. To help you minimize the “damage” from overeating at one of these events, here are 6 ways to handle occasional overeating:

1) Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over Your Diet Plan

You can’t “undo” what happened, so why dwell on it. Instead, focus your energy again on eating right. A one-time overeating binge may affect your weight loss for that week, but it doesn’t blow your whole dieting plan. If you do gain weight, a good portion of it will be water weight from the additional salt. It will flush out of your system in a couple of days.

2) Think of the Bigger Picture

Many dieters see their diet plan as a daily thing when in fact researchers have found that we typically tend to eat more on the weekends. So if you overate on a weekday, count that as one of your weekend days when you usually eat more calories anyway. Just be sure to make one of your weekend days a regular weekday instead.

3) Eat a Healthy Breakfast on Your Diet Plan

I know, the last thing you want to do when you feel bad about overeating the day before is to eat again now. But eating within 30 minutes of getting out of bed sets the tone of your metabolism for the rest of the day. By eating a healthy breakfast you are burning calories right away.

4) Do An Extra Workout for a Mental Commitment to Your Diet Plan

Granted, one extra workout is not going to totally erase the extra calories you had yesterday; it will do more for your mental state than physical, but it helps you get back in the right frame of mind. A step aerobics class or a light strength training session burns off a few of those extra calories, but its real value is refocusing you toward your goal.

5) Go Back to Your Diet Plan

Get back on track. If you normally eat three light meals per day with a healthy snack in the morning and at night, continue that regimen. There is a common tendency to start skipping meals/snacks as a way to “compensate” for yesterday’s overeating. Don’t succumb to these feelings. What you were doing before was working, so stick to your eating and exercise plan.

One bad day is not life altering. Don’t make more out of it than it is – merely a hiccup in your overall plan.

6) Drink Plenty of Water on Your Diet Plan

Hydrating does a couple of things. First by drinking your 64 ounces of water throughout the day (optimally one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight), it keeps you full so you have less tendency to overeat again. Second, it helps flush fat and toxins from your system.

Drinking the right amounts of water each day is probably the single most important thing you can do for both weight-loss and your overall health. Read “How to Make Water a More Enticing Beverage” if you’re one of those people who have a hard time getting enough water into your diet plan on a daily basis.

Have too many years of too many beers transformed your flat and ripped six-pack abs into a fat, round keg? What really causes a beer belly, and how can you lose it? It is true that beer drinkers around the world, especially men, tend to grow what is commonly called a “beer belly” if they drink beer frequently enough and long enough.

But is it really the beer that causes the beach ball stomach? You may know someone who has never had a beer or alcoholic beverage in their life, but is still sporting what is usually called a beer belly. How does this happen in a teetotaler?

And more to the point, how do some serious beer drinkers seem to avoid getting this profound paunch?

The Beer Belly Blame Game

As it turns out, too many calories and a sedentary lifestyle can turn your formerly flat and sexy stomach into a beer belly. It can happen with men and women, regardless the amount of beers you actually consume in your lifetime.

In today’s society, food rich in preservatives, saturated fats and other nutritional bad guys are the norm. This leads to fat which generally collects in the midsection, and if you take in more calories than you burn and get little exercise, you too may be sporting a lot of unhealthy belly fat.

Yes, You Can Blame Beer for Giving You a Beer Belly

The reason why beer and alcohol intake is associated with a bigger waistline is because your liver goes to work burning the poison alcohol in your body when you drink, instead of attacking fat. And with a standard beer sporting 150 to 180 calories, five or six in an evening can single-handedly net you half of the calories you should be taking in for an entire day.

So heavy beer consumption can definitely cause a beer belly, but it is certainly not the only culprit. Doctor Michael Jensen is an obesity researcher for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and he says that sugary beverages and over-sized meal portions should get just as much blame for creating beer bellies.

Compound the Beer Belly Problems with the Need to Eat

Of course, since alcohol consumption increases your appetite, you many times have something to eat while you are drinking. And the food offered at many pubs and bars is not the healthiest. Pizza, chicken wings and fattening fried foods often accompany beer drinking, and they are just as responsible for your overhanging belly as are the beers you are washing them down with.

As you age, hormonal and metabolism changes make it harder to burn fat, so the same poor diet your body easily shrugged off when you were young can quickly become the basis for a beer belly now that you are older.

Does above average and consistent alcohol and beer consumption cause a beer belly?

It certainly can, if your overall nutrition and exercise do not compensate for all those extra calories. Because men have less subcutaneous fat than women, they store most of their fat in the midsection. This tends to make the classic beer belly more prevalent among males than females, but women who take in more calories than they burn can also develop this classic beer drinker’s belly.

From type II Diabetes to high blood pressure and multiple heart problems, too much belly fat surrounding your vital organs can be dangerous, and sometimes deadly. Take up a weekly exercise regimen, practice smart nutrition habits, and a few adult beverages after work and on the weekends will have a much smaller chance of cursing you with a beer belly.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

How to Keep Motivated with Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

With a new year comes new resolutions and if you’re like many people, one of your New Year resolutions could be to start a belly fat loss plan. But statistically, like most people having the same resolution, you have already broken it by now.

The number one reason people fail to keep their resolutions is a lack of motivation. We need something to keep us focused on our goal.

People are motivated by different things. Here is a list of the top 6 things that work to keep your motivation up:

1.) Set Realistic Goals for Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

Goals have to be realistic and attainable for them to keep you motivated. So before you write down your goal, ask yourself if it is doable. If not, you are setting yourself up for failure. It does no good to have a goal of losing 10 inches off your girth in two months – it ain’t gunna happen, it isn’t realistic and it certainly is not attainable.

2.) Keep a Journal of Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

Now that we have a realistic and attainable goal, writing it down and posting it where you can see it keeps you more accountable to yourself than just saying it. Also through journalism, your fears, frustrations and successes flow out through your pen or keyboard.

3.) Monitor Your Progress of Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

To know if you are making progress or not, you have to have a starting point. Measure your waist before you begin your belly fat loss program. Once a week take a reading at the same place on your waist and record the results in your journal. Don’t forget to write something about how you feel with that number.

4.) Pace Yourself on Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

One of two things that help you lose belly fat is exercising, especially cardio training. The other is food and portion choices. But if you have not exercised in a while, doing a high intensity routine for an hour will be counterproductive. You will be so sore for the next couple of days, that you won’t be able to exercise – thus defeating your purpose. Instead, take it slow and work up to an hour workout.

5) Mix Up Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

If you do the same cardio routine day after day after … you’ll soon tire of it. Instead, try new things, like cross training. Or sign up for a Pilates class. Frustrated? Try kickboxing or boxing itself. The point is there are so many different ways to exercise. Keep it fresh by occasionally adding in new things.

6.) Make Smart Food Choice on Your Belly Fat Loss Plan

This is where many people go wrong. Clean out your pantry/refrigerator of temptations. Get rid of the food you should not eat. Instead stock fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tuna and walnuts among other “good” foods so that when you do eat, your have nothing but good things to choose from. Another trick is portion control. Instead of a regular size plate, eat from a smaller plate. The smaller amount of food looks like more, thus tricking your brain to think you are full.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

When people think belly fat, they usually think of possible natural components like fat and carbohydrates. But did you know that proteins can actually affect how much belly fat you carry?

Actually, it is not necessarily the protein itself, but the lack of protein in your diet which can cause you to gain and retain high levels of fat in and around your stomach. Let’s take a look at exactly how proteins affect belly fat, and what you can do with this information to ensure that you do not sport a spare tire around your midsection.

Reduce Belly Fat with Protein in the Morning

Many people in today’s busy world take little or no time to eat breakfast. The problem here is this means no protein is there to start your day. When your body does not get enough protein in the a.m., you suffer those mid-morning snack attacks.

And what do people eat for a snack a couple of hours before lunch when they are feeling run down and tired? Unfortunately, high-calorie, high-sugar and high-fat treats with little nutritional value are often chosen. These are the types of foods that literally go straight your waistline, creating unwanted and unhealthy belly fat.

This is why you are more likely to pack on the pounds if you skip breakfast. You have not had anything to eat since the night before, and your body begins storing calories instead of burning them, since it doesn’t know when the next meal is going to be coming.

Eating Enough Protein Helps Reduce Belly Fat

Fortunately, you can use protein’s relationship with body fat to your advantage. Sufficient protein levels in your body keep insulin levels low. Insulin stores sugar as fat, so plenty of protein in your diet actually helps reduce belly fat.

To keep the proper hormonal balance working to your advantage, bump up your protein levels. Multiple studies show that approximately 20 to 25 g of protein per meal, and 10 to 15 g per snack, are reasonable levels of protein to include in your diet. This will keep your blood sugar balanced and insulin low, which is a perfect metabolic formula for appetite control and belly fat loss.

Protein also boosts many of your fat-burning and appetite-quenching hormones when consumed in the right amounts.

A Simple Formula: Protein Up – Belly Fat Down

Diabetes Care conducted an important study about the protein relationship with belly fat. 54 obese women and men with type II Diabetes were given either a high-protein or low-protein diet. Belly fat and total body fat were both reduced in much greater quantities in the test subjects eating a high-protein diet.

The Best “Belly Fat Down” Choices

What types of proteins should you focus on for the best belly fat busting performance? Stick to lean chicken and turkey, and low-fat cheeses such as ricotta and cottage cheese. Get Omega-3 and protein-rich eggs and fish in your diet, and your body’s protein levels will be affecting your belly fat in the most positive manner.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

The right answer is it depends on you! It depends on when you want to commit to exercising and eating healthy. But keep in mind, you didn’t gain belly fat overnight, nor will you lose it in that same amount of time. But dedication and persistence will pay off in a slimmer, healthier you.

Burn Belly Fat – The First Step

To know you are making progress, you have to know your starting belly fat measurement. Measure your waist just above your hip bone with a tape measure. The tape should be loosely around you and exhale just before taking your reading. This number is your starting point. Now when you take a periodic reading, you have something to compare to (and something to show you are making progress). This can be a huge motivator!

6 Ways to Burn Belly Fat Fast

Everyone has to start somewhere, so here are 6 tips you can use to start burning belly fat fast:

1. Sleep more
2. Drink more water
3. Do cardio exercises
4. Cut out sugar and processed foods (think fast food)
5. Get some color on your plate
6. Eat fat – yes you read that right!

Sleep more – Strive to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. Not getting enough sleep can trigger sugar cravings and throw off your hormone levels leading to extreme blood sugar swings.

Drink more water – Keep a water bottle with you at all times. Occasionally sip from it throughout the day. Not only will it invigorate you, but if you drink a glass before a meal, you’ll feel fuller and end up eating less.

Do cardio exercises – Exercises that work your large muscles groups burn the most calories. Strive to do step aerobics, bicycling, jogging, walking, swimming, using an elliptical trainer, or racquetball. These exercises burn between 360 to 1,000 calories per hour of exercise.

Cut out sugar and processed foods – Calories from these food types end up as stored fat in exactly the areas where you don’t want it – the belly and buttocks.

Get some color on your plate – The more color you have on your plate in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables, the better it is for you. These foods are normally high in fiber, but low in fat and calories.

Eat Fat – The key is to eat the right type of fat – the Omegas 3. Foods such as salmon, tuna, avocados and walnuts are chocked full of nutrients that keep you satisfied throughout the day.

The key to losing belly fat is not how fast you can do it, but to keep making steady progress. These 6 tips will help you get started. Seeing the numbers drop through periodic measurements will keep you motivated to keep going!

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Numerous studies have shown that excessive stress is associated with weight gain. Dating back to when our ancestors were wearing animal skins and hunting with spears, when the body encountered a fight or flee situation, it released a series of hormones as a response to the situation.

While our fight or flee situation today may be more related mounting credit card bills or something that happened at work, instead of getting attacked by a wounded Wooly Mammoth, the response by the body is the same.

The Body’s Response to Stress

When your body feels stressed, it releases three hormones – adrenalin, corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol designed to give us energy needed to deal with the stressor. In most people, the effect of adrenalin and CRH is a short-term decrease in appetite. Cortisol on the other hand lasts longer and is designed to replenish our bodies with food after the stressor has passed.

The problem of today is that dealing with our stress does not involve physically expending calories, however, the effect of cortisol is the same – eat after the fight or flee. So eating becomes the relief from the stress. While that response worked well for our ancestors, it leads to weight gain for us today.

For many people, the food they turn to are simple carbohydrates (aka sugar). The body’s response to sugar (a sugar high) is to release insulin (and usually more than it needs). Because insulin is the hormone that allows those calories to be stored as fat in our cells, and we have more of it in our bloodstream that we need at the time, too much sugar is stored resulting in low blood sugar (the crash). Our body recognizes that it needs more sugar … and the cycle continues.

While initially this is a behavioral response, it can quickly evolve into a learned response, meaning you consciously turn to food in times of excessive stress. So how do you break the effects of stress?

Do These Six Things to Break the Stress Cycle:

1. Exercise – Find an exercise that you enjoy doing. Not only will it burn calories, but it will help control your cortisol level.
2. Eat right – Focus on eating six small meals per day consisting of foods high in fiber, but low in sugar, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats.
3. Get enough sleep – Sleep deprivation increases cortisol levels.
4. Relax – Choose an activity that makes you feel relaxed and calm. It will counter the biochemical effects of stress.
5. Avoid caffeine and alcohol – These can also raise cortisol levels and can keep you from getting enough sleep.
6. Take multi-vitamins – Stress can deplete essential vitamins, especially the B and C complexes.

While you may not be able to completely control the stressors in your life, you can control how you react to them. Use the information in this article to take control and avoid stress-related weight gain.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Most of what you read suggests drinking alcohol and losing weight do not go together. For the most part that is true, however when done in moderation, you can drink a little alcohol and still lose weight.

Let’s first tackle the moderation part by defining a “drink”. A drink can be 5 ounces of wine, 1 1/2 ounces of an 80 proof/40% alcoholic drink such as whiskey or vodka, or 12 ounces of beer. Generally speaking each one has about 150 calories. Mixed drinks can have significantly more calories due to the sugary “mix” added to the alcohol.

For women, moderation means one drink per day; men can have up to two per day. Drinking alcohol becomes a problem affecting weight loss when it is not done in moderation.

What Happens When You Drink Alcohol?

Knowing how the body metabolizes alcohol helps explain why excessive drinking sabotages any weight loss plan. First, alcohol is recognized as a toxin in our body, therefore after one drink our liver gives the alcohol priority and it starts to break it down, use it as energy, and get rid of it. After as little as one and a half drinks, your liver has shut down as much as 75% of its fat burning so it can concentrate on breaking down the alcohol.

So not only is your body not burning stored fat while it is breaking down the alcohol, it is not burning the calories from the food eaten while drinking. Drinking in excess diminishes your reasoning ability, which not only leads to eating food while socializing, but eating too much of the wrong type of food – food not good for you, such as high calorie/high saturated fat appetizers or meals.

It is not uncommon for the calories you eat while drinking to equal or exceed the calories consumed from your drinks. Because your body is burning up the alcohol, the calories in food gets stored as fat, plus your body is not metabolizing the store fat it would have otherwise burned had you not been drinking. This is the main reason drinking in excess raises havoc with weight loss – consuming calories in excess and not burning them off.

Health Benefits of Alcohol in Moderation

However when done in moderation, alcohol and weight loss can cohabitate; actually there are some health benefits derived from alcohol, such as a decreased risk of:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Alzheimer’s

It can also improve your immune system, raise your HDL- the “good” cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

As you can see, drinking in moderation can have some positive health benefits and still not derail your weight loss plan. The key is to know where the line is and having the reasoning ability (and will power) to not cross it. By factoring in the calories of your drinks into your daily intake, you can avoid sabotaging your weight loss plan.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Smoothies for Weight Loss and a Flat Belly

Flat belly smoothie recipes which help you lose weight should also make you feel full. This promotes fat burning and overall fitness, and keeps your stomach full of healthy foods instead of making you crave unhealthy snacks.

A peanut butter and banana smoothie blended with nonfat milk, chocolate whey protein powder and a few ice cubes is surprisingly great for weight loss, and tastes outstanding as well.

Keeping with the chocolate theme, you can create a yummy mocha smoothie that is a healthy alternative to sugary and fatty snacks. When you get that sweet tooth craving, combine a few ice cubes with a half cup of low-fat vanilla frozen yogurt, one shot of espresso and a couple of teaspoons of cocoa powder. Blend until smooth, and allow this high-energy chocolatey smoothie to contribute to your weight loss by replacing baked goods, candies and other unhealthy, fat producing snacks.

Good and Simple Smoothies for Weight Loss

Watermelon is extremely low in both fat and calories. And when you combine it with lemon sherbet or low-fat vanilla yogurt and some ice cubes, you have an incredibly simple smoothie that fills you up while promoting weight and fat reduction.

For an equally simple weight-loss smoothie, cut up a banana, add a few strawberries and an orange, and slip in some low-fat yogurt or milk. Then blend with a few ice cubes for a unique and flavorful combination that will help you trim your waistline while also quenching any hunger cravings you may have.

Blueberries are commonly referred to by leaders in the health and nutrition industries as the perfect food. Super high in wonderful antioxidants which aid in losing weight, when combined with flaxseed oil, a large banana and apple juice or honey, blueberries form the basis for a great tasting weight-loss smoothie that might become your new favorite breakfast drink.

Combine one half of a large banana with 1/2 tablespoon of flaxseed oil, 1/2 tablespoon of apple juice concentrate or honey, and 1 teaspoon of psyllium seed husks. At 8 ounces of water, 1/3 cup of soy protein and 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries to blend together this healthy, fat burning smoothie.

And from the respected Doctor Oz comes a breakfast drink that the good doctor enjoys himself. Very high in fiber, low in calories and heavy on the vitamins, this green drink powers up your energy and your taste buds while promoting fat and weight loss.

Add 2 cups of spinach with one half a cucumber, one half of a bunch of parsley, and one quarter head of celery. Add 3 carrots and 2 apples, as well as one quarter orange, one quarter lime, one quarter lemon and one quarter pineapple. Blend well for 28 to 30 ounces of a delicious weight-loss smoothie that you can use to start your day in a healthy way.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.

Tone Your Belly with Crunches, Planks and Your Bicycle

Once you have lost your belly fat, it is time to start working on toning muscles around your middle. While there are numerous different exercises that target the belly area, these three are the tried, true and get results:

• Crunches
• Planks
• The Bicycle

The nice thing about these exercises is that none of them require any equipment. However, you can use a yoga or exercise mat to make you more comfortable.

Tone Your Belly with Crunches

Crunches are similar to sit-ups, but not as stressful on the back and neck. To start, lie on your back on the floor (or a mat if you have one) with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor shoulder width apart. Keep your hands across your chest or locked behind your head.

Inhale and lift your head and shoulders by tightening your abs so that your shoulder blades are just off of the floor. Hold this position for a few seconds, exhale and slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position. Do as many crunches as you can right now with an eventual goal of two sets of 10 to 20 crunches per set.

Tone Your Belly with Planks

There are several variations of the plank; the one explained here is the full plank. Start by lying on the floor face down; your forearms, elbows, hands and stomach should touch the floor. Tighten your abs and lift your body off the floor. Only your forearms, elbows and feet should now touch the floor.

While in this position, your body should be in a straight line from your shoulders to your feet; avoid the tendency to raise your buttocks or to arch your back. This defeats the purpose of doing planks.

Hold this pose for 10 to 30 seconds. Relax and slowly drop to the starting position. Work up to the point where you can hold the pose for a full minute. Do as many repetitions as you can.

Tone Your Belly with Your Bicycle

The starting position is to lie on your back with your fingers locked behind your head and legs bent at the knees. Now lift your left shoulder blade off of the floor, twist slightly and bring your right knee up toward your left elbow. At the same time, straighten your left leg. Now switch sides by straightening your right leg, bending your left leg, and bringing the right elbow up to the left knee. Keep alternate sides in a pedaling (bicycling) motion. Strive to complete 8 to 12 repetitions.

While there are several more exercises that target the abdominal muscles, these three will get you well on your way to having 6-pack abs and looking great. Start working your abs today so you’ll be ready to show them off in a bikini or short top this summer.

You can find more “Belly Fat Success Tips” in our weight loss category found at http://myfitnessnut.com and while you’re they, be sure to subscribe to our monthly fitness newsletter and be kept up to date on the latest developments in the world of health and fitness.