WARNING: after reading these flat stomach tips you may
experience strong, uncontrollable urges that will cause you to flash your flat
belly in public. Proceed with caution...
Stop doing so many crunches
Stock up on whole grains
Stop doing so many crunches
Most people
think that to achieve a flat, toned stomach you need to do a thousand crunches
every morning before work, but that’s just not true. The surprising secret is
that doing lots of ab specific exercises will only help you tone that area on a
short-term basis, if at all.
To get the
flat stomach you want, you have to work your entire core, building up its
strength and flexibility. Doing exercises like Pilates or stability ball work
will help you do this. Working your core is the key to achieving a flat stomach
because it works all of the muscles in your stomach area, such as the rectus
abdominis, your internal and external obliques and your transversus abdominis.
Stock up on whole grains
A study that
was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discovered a surprising secret for a
flatter stomach. The study gave participants a healthy diet to eat, consisting
of fruit, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, meat and fish. However, they gave
one set of participants wholegrain foods to eat and the other set of
participants refined grain foods.
At the end
of the study those participants who had eaten the wholegrain foods had lost
more weight from their stomachs than those who ate the refined grain foods. The
researchers believe that the participants who ate more whole grains and ate
less refined carbs lost more from their waistlines because this change in diet
mobilised people’s fat stores because of a shift in their glucose and insulin
response. If you want to swap refined grains for whole grains, eat less
yeast-based breads, pasta and cakes or cookies and eat more foods such as oats
(which contains as many antioxidants as broccoli and spinach), brown rice and
wheat berries.
Get some sleep
It may
seem as though sleep has nothing to do with your dream of having a flat
stomach, but it does. If you don’t get enough sleep then your hormone levels
change, which can make you feel hungry and can also make you feel less
satisfied once you have eaten. This can lead to overeating. Plus those late
nights watching TV or going out with friends gives you more time to snack and
reach for unhealthy foods.
So, how
much sleep should you be getting? The Mayo Clinic advises adults that they
should sleep for no less than seven hours a night. If you struggle to get this much
sleep make sure you are exercising regularly, that you don’t nap during the day
and that you eat foods that contain tryptophan (an amino acid that helps
you sleep), such as chicken, milk and yoghurt.
Time your meals
If you
eat food quickly then you might find that you are eating more than you actually
need to. Slowing down the pace you eat meals at will help you to achieve a
flatter stomach because you will eat smaller portions. Also a study published
in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology
& Metabolismfound that eating quickly did not allow the hormone that makes you
feel full to kick in. Therefore when eating quickly you are far more likely to
eat more than is necessary.
To stop
eating so quickly you should make sure you eat at your dining table and do not
eat in front of the TV. Concentrating and savouring what you are tucking into
will help slow down the rate you eat at. You could also set a timer and try to
consciously slow down so that you eat the last bites of your food when the
timer goes off. Also, a study found that soft lighting and gentle music helped
participants eat less quickly so you could always dim the lights and put on
some Enya too.
Tuck into some enzymes
An enzyme
that will help you achieve a flatter stomach is called bromelain and it can be
found in pineapples. The bromelain enzyme digests protein and is called a
proteolytic enzyme. It is useful for those who want a flatter stomach because
it aids the digestion of foods that are high in fibre, such as beans or
vegetables. By aiding the digestion of these foods this enzyme eases bloating,
which is a major obstacle that stands between many people and their flat
stomachs.
If you
want to get a flat stomach and think the bromelain enzyme might help you to
achieve this then you should eat some fresh pineapple before a meal to aid your
digestion. The enzyme can also be taken as a supplement.
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