Useful tricks to lose tummy fat

With summer in full swing I can’t tell you how many times I’m getting asked the age old question – how do I burn fat from my tummy?
And I find myself constantly breaking people’s hearts by telling them that they can’t, it’s just physiologically not going to happen.

Your body will burn fat from where it wants to, not where you want it to. If you’re lucky enough that it happens to be from the tummy then good for you, but for most of us that’s just not the case. But all is not lost; there are a few ways in which we can have a flatter tummy and the appearance of having a lean stomach.

First, although performing a million sit-ups a day will not burn fat from the stomach, it will certainly develop the abdominal muscle groups and thus they will become much tighter. At the same time they will draw the abdominal wall inwards rather than being slack and hanging outwards. Doing a million sit-ups is a little bit excessive so I would look to perform 10 to start with, working up to 20 – depending on your ability – and try to achieve three to five sets of these. The key thing when doing sit-ups, in fact any kind of abdominal work, is to perform the exercise slowly and under control. Literally think about your abs as you are doing the exercises, you’ll feel them engage so much harder and you’ll soon learn how to engage them when you’re not doing a specific exercise but you just want to tense them.

Something I practice and encourage my clients to practice is a bodybuilder’s trick called abdominal vacuuming. This is simply sucking the abs in and up to create a vacuum in the abdominal wall – giving the impression of a hollow, slimmer stomach.The trick is to be able to hold this position and continue to breath and do light daily tasks. Doing this exercise as often as possible daily can also help with core control.

Secondly watch what you eat! Most people who approach me on how to burn belly fat are already changing their ways on food; perhaps reducing calories or eliminating a macro nutrient.
But what about foods that make you bloated? Most processed foods such as pasta and bread are the normal guilty parties, but what foods or food groups cause you to bloat out? If you can figure that out then simply avoid these foods and you’ll feel much better within yourself.
There are number of foods that can even reverse stomach bloat – fennel seeds, green tea, lemons and onions, to name a few – but remember you are individual and certain “anti-bloat” foods could have the exact opposite effect.

My final word of advice is try to avoid water retention. Granted this just cannot be helped sometimes, because of medication or even just the heat, but there are a few ways in which you can reduce the effects, leaving you looking less puffy and offering the appearance of a leaner you.
Avoid salt and refined carbohydrates as these are the perfect sources to hold onto water.
Try to increase your vitamin B6, magnesium and potassium intake as these have shown in past studies to aid female subjects with reducing water retention.
Certain diuretics will help by pulling the water out from the soft tissue, but please be very careful because the last thing you want is to become dehydrated and fall ill, particularly with all this warm weather.
Ultimately, in order to have a lean figure and flat tummy you will need to live an active lifestyle and be mindful of what you are eating and drinking. If you are feeling motivated to be more active and change your physical appearance because the sun is out then perhaps now is a good time to join a gym and set good solid training habits that will hopefully carry over into the winter months when you will almost certainly be less interested in joining a gym.