10 Feb Seven tips to flatten your stomach

You’ve seen the commercials: 10 minutes a day and you’ll have a flat stomach. Wear this special belt and it will melt away fat. Blah, blah, blah.
Just like with life in general, when it comes to advertisements to trim your belly fat, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
The truth is that it takes a steady, disciplined approach over the long haul to have a trim waist line. Here are seven tips to help flatten your stomach:

1. Do at least 30-minutes of cardio three times a week to burn calories and help boost your metabolism, which will help you burn fat. Treadmills, jogging outside, elliptical machine and exercise bikes are excellent ways to get cardio workouts, but even walking briskly will help, too.
2. Follow a regular strength workout program and write down your results to help chart progress.
3. Do proper abdominal exercises at least three times a week. Exercise ball crunches and the plank are two of the best.
4. Include fiber in your diet and reduce the amount of bad carbs – foods like white bread, pastas and white rice should be limited. Eat brown rice and whole grain bread instead. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
5. Drink lots of water. People should consume 6-8 glasses of water per day. It will help fill you up so you eat less and also cleanse the body.
6. Don’t eat late at night. This can make a big difference.
7. Eat 5-6 small meals during the day instead 2-3 big meals. Eating numerous small meals will actually help speed up your metabolism.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com