How To Get A Flat Stomach: 5 Steps To Get There
If you’re reading this, you’re looking to eliminate your muffin top and the extra hang over your pants. You saw the incredible claims that diet pills and cleanses make to help you lose pounds of fat almost overnight but you want a natural, healthier solution.
Here I’m going to share 5 steps to help you reduce belly fat and create a more toned, flatter stomach without pills and cleanses.
Why a Flatter Stomach is Important for Overall Health?
Reducing belly fat is something that many struggle with especially if they’re skinny fat.
Belly fat is the visible fat surrounding your organs. Compared with subcutaneous body fat, which is fat underneath the skin, it’s the more dangerous kind of fat to have.
There are many health risks associated with having belly fat. It increases the risk of developing some types of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, and is associated with liver problems. A study done by the Annals of Internal Medicine found that no matter a person’s weight or BMI, having belly fat increased their risk of dying of heart disease.
How flat of a stomach you can achieve and how much belly fat you lose is dependent upon many factors such as genetics, diet, and activity levels.
Follow this 5-step plan to get a toned, flatter midsection and a healthier you.
Step 1 - The Ideal Diet for a Flatter Stomach
The amount you eat and the quality of your diet play an important role in reducing belly fat. Healthier food choices that are in alignment with your digestion help reduce bloat and support your body in absorbing essential nutrients that promote burning fat.
Here are 6 tips for creating the ideal diet that supports a flatter belly,
1. Eat in a calorie deficit
For your body to use up its fat stores you must be eating fewer calories than it needs or burning more calories than you’re eating. However, an extreme calorie deficit is unproductive and not necessary because it will slow down your metabolism and reduce the rate at which you’re burning fat.
Using a calorie calculator will help you calculate the right amount for you to burn fat and optimize your metabolism. To track your calories, an app like Nutrionix can help you track what you’re eating and how much so you know that you’re in a caloric deficit every day.
I recommend the Nutritionix app because the database is created by dieticians and not user inputs which makes it much more accurate than other apps on the market like My Fitness Pal.
2. Focus on filling your diet with minimally processed foods
There’s a good chance that eating in a caloric deficit means you’ll be hungry, which is a positive sign. It means your body will have to start burning its fat stores as a source of fuel.
On the flip side, too much hunger is not sustainable and not desired. To maximize fullness and satisfaction, focus most of your calories on minimally processed foods. They will fill you up with the fewest calories possible and provide the nutrients your body needs.
Comparing calories of 100g of food, unprocessed (top row) versus processed (bottom row).
3. Eat lean protein at every meal
One of the reasons nutritionists and personal trainers always emphasize eating protein is for its fullness factor. No other macronutrient will fill you up and give you the satiety level like protein especially if you’re in a caloric deficit.
A good starting point would be a handful of protein at every meal. Guidelines for how much protein and what types of protein to eat is covered in the role of protein.
A handful of protein.
Protein shakes can be a good source of protein too but there are a lot of shady industry practices that are unknown to consumers. It’s processed, not as filling as eating your protein, and with hundreds of options only a small percent of them contain healthy ingredients with minimal artificial ingredients.
Your best options are going to be getting your protein needs from food.
4. Reduce and eliminate all processed sugars
Regular consumption of high amounts of sugar can lead to weight gain and body fat putting you at risk for developing heart disease. Taking a look at the ingredients of most packaged foods, you’ll find that a lot items contain natural or artificial sugar.
Even items that are labeled as sugar-free but still taste sweet contain artificial manmade sugars. There’s accumulating evidence that suggests that artificial sugars can alter the gut microbiome and negatively impact our glucose tolerance increasing our fat storage.
People’s digestive systems can also be sensitive to artificial sugars. Some side effects include bloat, headaches, dizziness, and nausea.
Ingredients considered artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols.
5. Eat a high-fiber diet
A high-fiber diet is essential to a healthy gut microbiome and overall health. It’s helpful in increasing satiety and adding bulk to our intestines to expedite bowel movements.
Shortening bowel movement times means your body has less time to digest and absorb the nutrients from food leading to a reduction in body fat.
The best way to increase fiber in your diet is to eat more plants and a variety of them. They include fruits and vegetables, legumes or beans, and nuts and seeds.
6. Reduce and eliminate alcohol intake
Drinking alcohol switches your body from fat-burning mode to metabolizing alcohol for up to 72 hours after your last drink. At the same time, it also causes the creation of new fat cells in the liver.
The reason your body stops burning fat is that your body treats alcohol similarly like it treats sugar, it’s the preferred energy source above everything else. When alcohol is available it will be the primary source of energy used and will be metabolized first.
Even if there are other sources of energy like protein, fat, or carbs available in the bloodstream they will be converted into fat cells and stored while your body metabolizes the alcohol as its energy source.
If you are serious about eliminating belly fat and getting a flatter stomach it’s best to eliminate alcohol from your diet.
Step 2 - The Exercise Routine That Burns Fat
An effective exercise routine paired with the right diet is the best way to get a flatter belly. Although you cannot spot reduce any area, a cardio routine combined with strength training helps to boost your overall metabolism so that you’re burning more calories at rest.
Here are 3 tips to help you create a fat-burning exercise routine.
1. Do cardio 3 times a week
Cardio helps to reduce both belly and liver fat and burn calories.
The best types of cardio involve both the upper and lower bodies to help burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time. Other examples of cardio include running, swimming, and cycling. But the best cardio for you is the one you enjoy the most which leads to greater consistency.
Start with doing cardio 3 days a week for 20 to 30 minutes a day to get into fat-burning mode.
2. Start a full-body strength routine
Lifting weights helps to conserve and build muscle mass to increase overall metabolism. There are lots of programs to choose from but the best strength programs focus on full-body, compound exercises.
These are exercises that challenge the largest muscle groups, keep your heart rate up to improve your fitness levels, and burn the most calories. These factors make compound exercises superior to isolation exercises for fat loss.
Ideally, you’d want to start off with 2 to 3 days a week of strength training for best results.
3. Incorporate N.E.A.T. into your routine
NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis and is part of your metabolism responsible for burning calories outside of intentional exercise. It helps you increase your total calories burned.
Simple ways to incorporate NEAT into your routine include getting up from your desk, going on brief walks during the day, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking further away to get in extra steps.
It’s a great fat-loss tool in addition to cardio and strength training.
The different categories that make up total energy expenditure.
Step 3 - Factors Influencing a Flat Stomach
Other lifestyle factors influencing a flat stomach include hydration levels, stress levels, and sleep quality. These are factors you want to optimize both for a flatter stomach and for improved overall health.
1. Drink more water
Being well-hydrated helps to flush away excess fat and toxins, reduce bloat, and reduce our daily calorie intake.
Sometimes we mistake hunger for thirst and reach for food when we are actually thirsty.
Drinking water before meals promote satiety and signals to your brain that you are full, helping you eat fewer calories.
Studies have shown that drinking water increases your body’s metabolism helping you burn more calories. Even if these effects won’t contribute to substantial weight loss it’s still important to stay hydrated for other health purposes.
Looking at the color of your urine helps give you timely feedback on how hydrated you are. A light, pale yellow indicates you are well-hydrated while a darker color urine indicates you need to drink more water. Your goal is to aim for pale yellow.
2. Manage and keep stress levels low
Chronic stress is one of the main contributors to belly fat. When stressed, your fat cells produce a hormone called cortisol which puts you in a fight-or-flight mode. This mode causes your body to store fat primarily in the abdominal region.
Some women secrete more cortisol than others when exposed to the same stress and repeated cycles of chronic stress can cause an accumulation of belly fat. What’s unfortunate about this cycle is that an increase in belly fat increases cortisol production leading to even more belly fat.
While we cannot eliminate stress, we can learn better-coping mechanisms to improve how we respond to stress. Some of these include having a supportive social network, daily exercise, and stretching and meditation.
3. Getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep
A lack of sleep contributes to the production of excessive cortisol and belly fat.
When we lack sleep our body will look for other energy sources during the day to make up for it. This includes increasing our cravings for sugars, fast carbs, and other types of junk foods for a quick source of energy.
Sleep deprivation also changes the regulation of hormones that impact our hunger and appetite levels. It may take more food to help us feel fuller so we overeat and we may not digest it as thoroughly leading to eating more meals and snacks.
A lack of sleep also leaves us feeling tired and unmotivated to hit the gym and get our exercise in to help us burn calories for a flatter stomach.
Step 4 - Using Supplements to Relieve Bloat
Sometimes no matter how healthy we eat or how hydrated we are we still may not have a flat stomach. What we think is belly fat may actually be bloating or indigestion.
Here’s how to tell the difference.
For belly fat, the size of your abdominal area stays the same throughout the day. If you’re suffering from bloat, your abdominal area will expand with each meal.
Bloat happens when food is not digested properly before it reaches the small intestine. In order for us to absorb nutrients they must be further broken down into smaller pieces by bacteria in our small intestines. A byproduct of bacteria helping us with digestion is the production of methane gas which leads to abdominal expansion making it look like we’re carrying belly fat.
This is why your abdominal area grows with each meal and gets bigger towards the end of the day.
Example of a bloated belly. Credit to Tiffany Brien.
Here’s one tip to help you with your digestion and reduce bloat.
1. Include a digestive enzyme supplement with your meals
Sometimes our pancreas doesn’t produce enough digestive enzymes to help us break down our food so we can absorb their nutrients. Signs that we are not producing enough digestive enzymes include gas, belly cramps, diarrhea, and bloat.
You can help your digestion by taking a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme supplement before your meals. They begin working within 10 minutes of ingestion to help give you immediate digestion benefits and relief of bloat.
Step 5 - Staying Consistent and Motivated
Reaching a flatter belly is not an overnight process. It takes consistent effort and a change of lifestyle to start losing belly fat. So how can we stay consistent once the motivation and excitement wear off?
By creating new habits.
Here are 2 tips to help you develop a new daily routine with new habits.
1. Use a wall calendar
Developing consistency means being clear on what we need to do and what habits to develop. We improve what we measure and we measure when we track what we’re doing.
This brings up an effective simple technique of using a wall calendar to form new habits.
We start by hanging a wall calendar in a place that we frequent in the house like the office or the kitchen. When we complete a new habit we mark a red X on the calendar to track what we did.
The goal is to create a chain of X’s and never break the chain.
Wall calendar of completed habits.
2. Visualize reaching your goal
Your brain cannot tell the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined. This is why we still react to movies we watch even when we know it’s not real.
When you visualize creating new habits and reaching your goals, your brain will assume that it’s already happened. And it will subconsciously help you align your behavior with your goal so that it becomes easier to form new supporting habits.
According to your brain, it’s already ‘seen’ what needs to do to accomplish the goal. You just haven’t gotten there yet at the present moment.
Conclusion
To re-cap, a flatter stomach is not just for looking good but it’s vital to your overall health. To achieve a flatter, toned stomach naturally,
Eat in a caloric deficit and focus on minimally, processed foods
Start an exercise routine that combines cardio with weightlifting
Focus on improving your health by staying hydrated, monitoring your stress levels, and getting enough sleep.
Use digestive enzymes to help you manage the bloat
Results don’t happen overnight so create better habits
Candace is the owner of Rhodes To Strength. She provides weight loss and mindset coaching services to women around the world so that they keep the pounds off for good. She believes in working with clients to create sustainable habits that work for their lifestyle.
You can find her rollerskating, hiking, and bird watching in her spare time.