If you were to run a survey which asks people which part of them they would most like to see toned or reduce the chances are the majority would point to their stomach. Men and women alike are looking for a more defined abs look and to reduce or eliminate that belly fat.
Many people believe that in order to burn that fat off and work on defining their abs you need to be doing crunches, sit ups and similar stomach focused exercises. If anything these hard-core exercises should be avoided as they are more likely to cause injury due to excessive levels of compression on your spine. If you are looking for exercise that will help with ab definition look at planks or ab roll outs instead. These will strengthen your core which is ideally what you need in order to enjoy the abs you really want.
Exercise alone here is not going to do the trick as no amount of planking is going to burn off your stomach fat.
What you need to do first and foremost is to cut out the sugar from your diet. If you are serious about getting rid of the belly fat and doing exercise that will help as opposed to potentially hurt you these tops tips could be just what you need.
- Ditch the refined carbs. You need to cut out the processed foods, especially the processed ones and reduce or get rid of the bread, pasta, rice, cereal and so on. If this sounds like it ruins your breakfast choices think again as there's no reason why you can't enjoy some lean bacon, poached egg, tomatoes, mushrooms and more which feels bad yet in reality is so good.
- Make sure that your fat intake is high enough. Contrary to popular belief a very low carb diet can be more harmful than helpful.Many believe that a high protein diet is the same as a low carb one and of course if you don't have enough fat in your diet you aren't going to have enough energy and will be hungry which is when you are most likely to fall off the healthy eating wagon. Have a play around with your fat, protein and carb ratios for each meal and ensure that you are getting a decent enough healthy fat portion.
- Organise your meals so that you have two or three large meals a day and where possible cut out the snacks. If your snacks are really healthy and you need that extra energy fine but we're talking about sugary snacks such as biscuits and the like here.
- If you are looking for something to give you a boost try a medium level caffeine hit such as that found in coffee or enjoy a stimulating green tea. Do not be tempted to fall back on sugar-packed energy drinks or fizzy pop as these will have the opposite effect to what you are looking for.
- If you are going to have refined carbs only have them (and a sensible portion) after a HIIT workout because these high intensity sessions are best by far for using up stored glycogen. This means that the sugars from your refined carbs are better used up at these times in order to replace those burned.
Be committed, cut the sugar, watch your diet, stop doing the traditional ab crunching exercises before you damage something and before you know it you'll start to see results.