Just about every person out there has a ‘problem area’ on their body. It’s that spot where you seem to gain weight the quickest and lose weight the slowest. For many women, that spot is the tummy. Pregnancy, hormones, age, and the natural shape of your body can all contribute to a tummy that is not as flat as you want. It can be frustrating to feel like you are doing all the right things and seeing little to no progress. Before you give up on your goal of getting a flat tummy (or start considering surgery) take a few minutes to read about the top 3 tips for women on how to get a flat tummy.
Cut out processed foods
Those convenient, prepackaged meals and snacks in your kitchen can sabotage your efforts to get a flat tummy. Processed foods are designed to be enjoyable and easy to eat. This is a big problem because they are often full of chemicals and calories. Processed foods lack the element you find in more natural options that lead to satiety – such as fiber. You can mindlessly eat hundreds of calories in processed foods. It would be much more difficult to eat the same number of calories in a more natural option that is full of fiber and nutrients. For example, to eat 100 calories of broccoli you would have to consume over three full cups of chopped broccoli. Conversely, a 1 ounce serving of potato chips comes in at 150 calories. Think of how much easier it is to eat 1 ounce of potato chips compared to 3 cups of broccoli! That difference is one of the things that makes processed foods so detrimental to weight loss. Cutting out the processed foods in your diet will help you lose weight overall and put you on the path toward getting a flat stomach.
Drink more water
If you replace calorie rich drinks like sodas, fruit drinks, sweetened coffee, and energy drinks with water, you can quickly reduce your overall calorie consumption. Sweetened drinks – as with processed foods – make it easy to mindlessly consume excess calories. If you drink alcohol regularly, giving that up in favor of water will also help you move toward your goal of getting a flat tummy. Beer and mixed drinks can add unnecessary calories and carbs to your diet. These elements can work against your efforts to get a flat stomach. If you replace the sugary and calorie laden drinks you typically have with water, you will start to see an improvement in your weight and in how you feel.
Focus on strengthening your core
Some women who want to get a flat tummy mistakenly believe that the answer is to do hundreds of crunches and sit-ups each day. Exercises that target your abdominals and surrounding muscles have a place in your workout routine but they are by no means the key to a flat tummy. When it comes to getting a flat tummy, you need to focus on strength training. Building strength in your core (the muscles surrounding the trunk of your body) will do more for flattening your stomach than endless crunches. Strengthening your core involves doing compound movements that engage several muscle groups at once. For example, the glute bridge engages your gluteus maximus, thighs, hips, core, and hamstrings. As you build muscle you will increase your metabolism and your ability to burn fat. This process will help you get and maintain the results you want.
It’s normal to zero in on a part of your body that you do not like and set your fitness goals around improving that problem area. The reality is, however, that you will get better results if you focus instead on improving your overall fitness. Cutting out processed foods, drinking more water, and focusing on strength training will all help flatten your tummy but the results will not be limited to that area of your body. If you commit to the steps outlined above, you will see changes in how you look overall and how you feel.
