How To Lose Tummy Fat The Right Way

Growing up I was skinny as a rake – at 16 I was 5’10 and only had a 22″ waist. I was involved in several school sports teams including basketball, cross-country running, and field hockey; and I ate like the proverbial pig. Didn’t seem to matter what I ate, or how much I ate, I never put on any weight.

That was 20 years ago. 2 years ago I found myself in my mid-thirties and totally out-of-shape. Your metabolism slows as you age, and post 30 is when most people start to really notice it.

While I never got obese, I did get to what I would consider was overweight, and I had a rather obvious gut growing. I wasn’t active in any sports, not really active at all outside the home except for the occasional casual walk with the family.

My job consisted of mostly sitting on my backside in front of a computer for ninety-five percent of my day – which didn’t aid my health one bit.

Having a 2 year old at the time, and another newborn, I was finding myself struggling to keep up with how active they were becoming.

Soon, enough became enough, and I decided I had to do something about it. So I started walking more, riding my bicycle more, and while it helped a little over the summer, once the weather turned I found myself back at square one.

So, by Spring I joined a gym. I went three days a week, I stuck at it, I pushed myself continually harder – lifting more weights, doing more reps, doing more crunches… guess what the result was? I got noticeably stronger, my arms and legs got into decent shape, but my tummy? Well, that never really went away.

I had the muscle, my core was strong, but I still had tummy fat. It just wouldn’t go away; so what did I do? More crunches to target my abs, more weights, more often… it still didn’t help.

Why didn’t more crunches work? Firstly, there is no such thing as spot fat loss – meaning you can’t just target a single area such as your tummy and work on just fat there.

Lose Tummy Fat The Right Way

So, what did help? What did I do that helped me shed that stubborn tummy fat?

Firstly I went out and got some education, and after working with fitness professionals I did two things. I stopped going to the gym (although I still work out at home), and I reworked my diet.

Exercise should be an important part of any weight or fat loss effort – exercise helps to stimulate your metabolism – a higher metabolism increases the amount of calories your burn without even trying.

No amount of exercise alone is going to remove all of your tummy fat, however. No amount of cardio is going to help you shed those last lingering ounces of fat that hide those gorgeous abs you know you have underneath.

Secondly, you need to rework your diet. If you have an unhealthy, or just poorly balanced diet, your body will continue to stockpile extra calories around your stomach. You can start simple by cutting out items like soda and candy, and even beer.

I don’t recommend drastic changes too quickly (it’s hard to stay motivated with drastic changes, start small and build up), cut out one thing the first week, something else the next, and work on increasing your protein intake, and reducing your carbohydrate (carbs) intake at the same time.

If you want to lose tummy fat the right way, you need to work on both diet and exercise in combination.