Want a flat stomach?
Posted at 20:32 in Food, Training
Do you yearn for a flat stomach?
How much of your exercise regime is taken up by isolating your abs? Do you spend 10 minutes at the end of every workout knocking out a hundred crunches or sit ups?
How would you feel if I told you that you’re going about it all the wrong way?
One of the questions I get asked the most is “how do I tone my stomach?”
Those that know me or read my blog regularly will expect my answer – you can’t. There is no such thing as “toning” – it is a myth that I wish really would just die already. Sadly, it is still perpetuated by women’s fitness magazines, dvds and poorly informed fitness instructors the world over.
If you want to read more about the myths of “toning” you can find more information in my article – “The Myth of Toning”.
Before we go any further, I will say that a flat, firm stomach is 80% diet, 10% smart training and 10% genetics.
If you are naturally an apple shape, you will store more fat on your stomach than any other part of your body, unlike a pear shape who stores most fat on the hips, buttocks and thighs. Pear shapes very often have a naturally flat stomach. Hour glass shapes have a generous bust and hips with a visibly smaller waist and a slightly rounded tummy.
You can only work with your natural body shape so now is a good time to start appreciating what you have rather than berating yourself for what you haven’t!
So, if you want to achieve a flat stomach, what do you need to do?
First of all, realise that without hard work, consistency and perseverance, you can kiss a sexy stomach goodbye. That is, of course, unless you are genetically blessed, which the majority of us are not.
As diet is the most important factor, it seems a good place to start!
DIET
It’s safe to say that if your diet is poor, you can do all the exercise in the world but results will be extremely limited. My friend Mr Nonsense, an ex personal trainer, has a fabulous saying “you can’t out run your mouth” – so true!
What do you need to be eating to achieve your dream stomach? Well, there is no secret, no magic formula, you just need a healthy, nutritious, balanced diet, consisting of good quality protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, fruit, vegetables and water.
For more ideas about what to eat, check out my essential food list.
You will obviously need to eat at a calorie deficit if you have fat to lose from your stomach. However, be careful not to make the all too common mistake of slashing calories too drastically. Reducing calorie intake by 10-15% is often plenty, along with burning off 200 calories or so via exercise. This should equate to around 1lb of fat lost per week, which is plenty. It is important to remember that we cannot pick and choose where we lose fat from so to lose fat from the stomach, you will need to lose it from all over.
Losing fat slowly and steadily is important because not only does it mean you feel less deprived and are therefore less likely to “fall off the wagon”, the longer it takes to lose the fat, the more chance you have of forming those good habits for life.
I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I will always advocate cutting out or limiting the amount of “fake foods”, convenience and junk foods you consume: frozen or chilled ready meals, meals in tins or jars, pre-made sauces, diet or “lite” foods and junk foods such as cakes, poor quality chocolate, biscuits, crisps, sweets, etc. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy those kinds of foods but ideally, they should be limited to once weekly treats rather than an everyday part of your diet.
The reason for this is because most of these kinds of foods are pretty much nutritionally devoid. Cheaply, mass produced they are mostly filled with sugar, salt, trans fats and all manner of additives, preservatives, artificial colours, flavours and E-numbers. They are simply calories and don’t really offer much in the way of nutrition to our bodies.
EXERCISE
So you think that to get a flat, sexy stomach you have to perform a hundred crunches a night right? Wrong. Have a look around you the next time you go to the gym and see the people using the ab cradles or the weighted ab crunch machine. I can pretty much guarantee that they will be mostly obese people trying to reduce the size of their belly.
The mistake these people are making is thinking that spot reduction of fat is possible. It isn’t. Training a body part more is not going to make it get any smaller.
As I said in the diet section, fat loss comes from eating at a calorie deficit, so what you want to achieve through exercise is working the body as a whole so that when the fat has melted away, you are left with strong, firm, shapely muscles.
Picture your abdominals as a piece of corrugated iron.
Now imagine it with a thick blanket or duvet placed over the top of it. That is what fat covered abs are like. The abdominal muscles are there but with the padding on top of them, it’s hard for the shape of them to show through.
Another mistake so many people make is they only work the rectus abdominis – this is the long, tube like muscle that runs down the centre of the mid section. The mid section, or core, is made up of a variety of different muscles:
and all of these muscles will need to be targetted, both directly and indirectly if you want a strong, firm mid section ready and waiting when the fat has melted away.
What exercises should you be doing?
First of all, if you are looking for fat loss, your exercise regime should include some form of resistance training. If you’re hitting the weights in the gym, you can target your core indirectly by performing big compound exercises such as:
These exercises all use the abdominal muscles as a stabiliser, meaning they get a workout without even targetting them. Not only that, compound exercises use a number of different muscle groups and are therefore fantastic calorie burners. No weights regime should be without them!
To directly target the core, you should be including the following exercises:
I also came across this site which has 5 exercises for sexy abs, along with an instructional video:
What is your favourite abs/core exercise?
I personally loathe doing dedicated core work as I find it so boring so most of mine is done indirectly with big compound exercises. This is a bad habit I want to get out of though!
Nice advice, and I love your blog.
I’m confused though. I want to build muscle, but I also want to lose fat as well, as I have quite a bit excess on my chest and stomach (I realise this can’t be spot reduced).
Do I need to have a calorie surplus to build muscle, or a deficit to lose fat? Which one do I need to do first?
Thanks!
I think it can be done simultaneously but it would need a super strict diet and I think progress would be quite slow. It’s better to pick a goal and stick with it. Obviously, if you don’t have much muscle mass it might be worth trying to build some before you start cutting or you can risk looking scrawny but if you have a good base, cut then bulk :)
Do you know how effective eating my maintenance calories and doing cardio and weights 3 times a week would be?
I think it would be effective :-) It’s basically what I have been doing since I reached my goal weight and though my progress is slow, it’s still constant and had I been really consistent with my weights, I think I would have made much better progress.
I’d give it a go for 6-8 weeks and then re-assess. You can always restrict or eat a surplus if you aren’t getting the progress you want :)
Babes, thanks for this!
Im currently on a mission to get my flat belly back but i cant shift the round lower tummy (usually can)…im wondering if my healthy low carb eating of boiled eggs for snacks is making me bloated lol :)
I want my ab’s back!!!(actually maybe i should stop drinking excessively most weekend haha, might help)xxx
Hey beautiful, I’m sure you stomach looks ace, I remember seeing pics of it and wanting to lick it mwahaha!
Cutting down on the booze is probably the best thing you could do really mate, it’s empty calories and so easily stored.
Turkish get ups are ace for ab full body strength
Not heard of them before mate, got any info? I’d like to see if I can do them :D
hey great article! thanks for that! x
Thanks Rowena :-)
Hi Jo, I know what exercises can strengthen the abs but what ones are good for not building them up? I want my tiny waist back and I know that certain exercises are a no-no as they thicken the obliques, my goal is a small waist and flat, feminine tummy. Of course my number one prority is melting the fat off and this is happening nicely ;o) Any advice?
Thanks, Katt x
I’m not absolutely certain so if anyone else can help, feel free to chime in. What I would recommend is steering clear of any weighted ab/core work such as weighted crunches and especially weighted side bends which will build up the obliques and thicken the waist line.
I’d recommend a weights regime consisting of lots of big compounds, such as the ones I listed in the post along with planks, jack knifes, mountain climbers which are all fantastic core/abs exercises :)
Hi Jo,
I just wanted to say great article and fabulous blog.
It’s inspired me to begin a blog of my own and document my journey.
Your diet and dedication is such an inspiration and I just wanted to say keep it up! So many people read this blog and have come to rely on it as a kind of support system.
I for one, will continue to draw my inspiration from you and your wonderful posts and articles.
Thanks xxx
Hi Danielle, thanks for such a lovely, supportive message!! How fantastic that my blog has inspired you to document your own weight loss journey, it will become an invaluable resource to you and is a great way of keeping track of your progress. It’s also a good way of keeping yourself accountable for what you eat and the exercise you do.
I’ve added your blog to my reader and look forward to following along with your progress
xx
Mountain climbers and x body mountian climbers are great x
Yes, and they are brutal too hahaha!
Super, super article Jo! And that girl has an AWESOME body – I might stick that on my fridge for inspiration :-)
You make some really interesting points and reminders and even though I broadly know about them, I still find myself doing ab work sometimes (as in mostly rectus abs) after a workout. I am quite lucky though as my abs develop very quickly, but interestingly to the detriment of my core and my lower back, since they are so tight that the other ocre muscles do not perform their support functions as they should, and hence I am very weak in the core and lower back.
Must do more plank work (but it hurts!!!!!). Oh, and thanks for reminding me that diet counts for ALOT………I have just relented for a Twix and you’ve reminded me I won’t get there by eating that rubbish – shame I didn’t read it beforehand hey?!!
Charlotte x
Thanks Charlotte, that girl’s body is really smoking isn’t it? She was in my inspiration file and will soon be on my inspiration board :-)
I find working my rectus abs too much makes them really tight and that my posture often suffers because of it. Glad to remind you about the diet, hopefully it will stop the next twix attack :-D
Thanks for reading honey
xx
Thanks Jag and CB x
No worries chica xx
What a great resource!
Thank you
I am just making a blog related to this. If you agree, I would like to use some of your content. And with full refernce of course. Thanks in advance.
- Josh
Of course
Thanks a lot for that extremely cool post.