How To Get A Flat Belly

The process of flattening or getting a tighter belly takes time, motivation and dedication. You don’t need expensive surgery, pills or even a gym routine. As cliché and over-the-top as it may sound, what you do need is a healthy diet and of course, regular exercise. For some unnamed reasons, an overwhelming number of women like to avoid intense cardio exercises. 

The good news is, even if you plan on staying away from cardio, you can still reach your goal. Cardio exercises are perfect for slimming down the whole body, toning certain areas, and improving your breathing, heartbeat, circulation and overall health. It is, however, easier to concentrate on just one part of your body (in this case, your belly) with exercises that are focused on carving down the extra fat in that specific area so you will be able to see results in the shortest time possible.

How Effective Is Strength Training Workouts?

Let’s see why strength training workout is immensely effective in shaping the waist region. First of all, it aids your body to burn fat faster than usual. When you exercise regularly, you increase your metabolism rate - by almost two folds. 

This gives you two separate benefits, First of which is: you’ll be able to burn fat at a faster rate around your belly, so you will be seeing better results with every workout session; and secondly, even if you “cheat” on your diet at times, remember ‘cheat meals?’ you will not gain weight that much faster than usual. 

The fact that your metabolism rate is high means that the food you eat is converted into energy faster instead of being stored as lipid molecules that make up the fat. So, for all the ladies who find intense cardio plain and tiring, below are few, but very useful; types of easy, fun exercises that you can try.

While cardio can squeeze the last drops of energy out of you, these workouts will help you relax, attain a flat belly without running or other intense cardio exercises and pump you full of energy.

• Dance workouts – Dance workouts are a good way to get your flat belly in no time while simply having fun and practicing what is widely considered a great endorphin- inducing hobby – at no cost to you or anyone. There are many dance classes available everywhere, but you can also find some online routines that are free and will work just as well. Being part of these activities allows you to practice dance workouts without even leaving your house. Some of the most common dance workouts available are the hip hop dance style, the ballet and the well-known belly dance. Just to be clear, the fact that belly dancing has the word “belly” in it does not imply that it targets that specific area of the body better than other types of dance workouts. Most of the belly dance routines actually focus on strengthening your hips and butt area – you will only be able to start doing belly rolls when you are an intermediate level dancer. Having said this, do not expect to see results right away. It takes time and commitment.
• Yoga – Not only does yoga help improve your elasticity, making your body relatively immune to pre-mature aging, but it also relaxes you muscles and mind. Time spent practicing yoga is a very “Zen” time that helps chase negative energy away. How does that help you get a tighten belly, you ask? Well, it is rather simple. Recently proven, stress can lead to a bulging stomach and abdomen in various ways. For example, emotional stress can lead to overeating, thus leading to weight gain too. Many women report that when they are stressed out, they help themselves with sweet foods much more than usual, and sugars, as it will later be pointed out in this post, is to be avoided when trying to reduce fat around the waist. Yoga will help you avoid all of that simply by enjoying a relaxing and calming exercise.
• Walking around with a book placed on your head – this exercise is exactly what it sounds like. As silly is it may seem, this is a very effective form of exercise that is meant to help you keep your posture straight. To do this exercise, you first need to find a hardcover book. Make sure it is not too heavy! Stand up with your legs slightly apart, step forward with one leg, and place the book flat on your head. Once it is balanced, place your hands on your hips and begin walking slowly. Keeping your balance may seem difficult at first, and there is a good chance you will drop the book a few times, but you will become used to walking with this load on your head in no time. Because of the way the human skull is shaped, having a flat book placed on top of it will force you to lift your chin up and straighten your back as you walk, thereby contracting your abdominal muscles to sustain balance. Ten minutes of this exercise every day will generate results soon enough – a perfect and desirable tightened belly.

How Long Will Getting A Flat Belly Take?

Unfortunately and most of the time, this question is what determines the amount of motivation people – usually women - have that wish to flatten their bellies. The reasoning behind this is that we, as human beings, are deeply aware of the element of time in our lives. Most people do not want it bad enough to keep working on it for a prolonged period of time. In fact, marketing experts use this information to their own advantage, trying to sell dieting products with phrases like: “Lose weight without even trying” or “flatten your belly in just one week”.

While these type of products is intriguing to say the least, it should be noted here that most of them pose a great deal of risk to one’s health. Beware of pills that have not been fully approved by respectable authorities, especially those that give unrealistic promises. The time it takes to flatten your belly depends upon a variety of factors, including your sex, age, health condition and hormone levels.

Your “starting point” will also play an important role. What I mean is that, someone who is in good shape, has a healthy weight, but wishes to get rid of a small bulge in their stomach can achieve a flat belly much quicker than someone who suffers from obesity. Different body shapes will also take different times to reach the same outcome. The following are some factors that can slow down the process of tightening your belly:

• Lack of motivation – motivation is perhaps the single most important factor when it comes to losing weight or toning a specific area of your body – like your belly in this case. It is important to accept the fact that flattening your belly will take constant work and a huge motivation.
• Choosing the wrong diet and workout for YOU – Educating yourself about different types of régimes and understanding your specific body need is crucial. Everyone is unique, and different people require different lifestyles. For example, a business woman whose job requires a great deal of alertness will need to follow a diet that is higher in glucose than an athlete, whose body requires a lot of protein, or a woman who is planning to become pregnant, and whose body will need more vitamins and folic acid. Oh! You didn’t know that, did you? Now you know.

If you desire to lessen the process of flattening your belly from taking too long, you have to set your mind to undergo the challenge that it may pose for you and educate yourself about your body needs. Allow yourself some time before you start examining your waist in a mirror, looking for results; which leaves you grumpy.

The thing about one-week programs is that they set your expectations way up high, but have the highest failure rate. This is because accelerated programs are concentrated programs. They do not simply allow you to flatten your belly with a week’s worth of work, but rather encourage you to squeeze a month’s work into seven days. Quite unrealistic, don’t you think?

Starving your body and working out too often, for too long; will not give your body enough time to properly react by losing sheets of fat. Instead, your system will start launching unhealthy defense mechanisms to keep your cells from deteriorating.