Firstly, you need to realize belly fat goes further then just vanity issues. Belly fat is dangerous to your health! Belly fat is responsible for many short and long term diseases.

So, as motivation, keep in mind the dangers belly fat is causing to your health!

1. Ok, the first place to start would be reducing any unnecessary calories you don’t need. Cut out that extra can of soda or candy?

Reduce you calories in steps like 50 calories a day. This makes it a lot easier then a dramatic decrease in calories because you don’t notice it as much.

However, you should never reduce more then 500 calories a day from your diet. This could begin to have negative effects on you.

Also, make sure you include exercises, if you don’t have access to a gym you could do bodyweight workouts at home.

You could do a routine like this:

• Push ups
• Mountain climber
• Burpees
• Bodyweight Squats
• Tuck Jump
• Side Jumps
• 3x Ab Specific Exercises

Make sure to keep the intensity high, and this should take you about 20-30 min, and should help you burn between 200- 500 calories depending on intensity.

This workout is for both men and women, not only will it help flatten your abs, but also tone the rest of your body. The key to visible abs is low body fat.

2. Thou shall not underestimate protein. All lot of people think protein is for bodybuilders, therefore ignore it and don’t realize the actual fat loss benefits it has too.

The body finds it hard to digest amino acids found in protein, therefore the body requires a lot of energy to digest protein. Resulting in more calories been burn.

Protein is also vital for maintaining muscle tissue. What most people don’t realize is muscle tissue is responsible for speeding up your metabolism and burning fat.

If you don’t consume enough protein this will lead to a negative nitrogen balance, your muscle will begin to weaken, and this will cause your metabolism to slow down, and your body will begin to store fat easily.

Protein in take varies from person to person, there are may factors to consider such as age, gender and level of activeness.

I can’t give you a specific figure for protein intake. But you could consult with a nutritionist, doctor or you can use this protein intake calculator

Try to eat protein foods such as

• Skinless chicken breast
• Lean cuts of red meat
• Skinless turkey breast
• Salmon/tuna/fish of all types
• Low fat cottage cheese
• Whey protein powder
• Egg whites
• Skim milk

3. Know your carbohydrates. Not all carbohydrates are bad, try avoiding processed carbohydrates (known as simple carbs) such as white bread, cakes, most baked goods, soda and so on.

These types of carbohydrates contain empty calories with little or no nutritional-value. Eat too may of types of empty calorie carbohydrates and seen enough your body will quickly store them as fat.

Good carbohydrates known as complex carbs) are vital, because they are close to their natural state, and supply your body with many vitamins and minerals. Good carbohydrates are also high in fiber which helps you keep fuller for longer and naturally stimulates metabolism which promotes fat loss.

Good carbohydrates are foods such as:

• Oatmeal
• Brown rice
• Brown Pasta
• Wholemeal breads
• Wholegrain cereals
• Yams
• Beans
• Lentils

4. Not all fats are created equal! There are some goods fats out there that actually help with fat loss.

The healthy fats are – olive oil, nuts (excepting cashews), avocadoes, foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids (like sea fish etc.).

Healthy fats increase the amount of Essential Fatty acids (EFA) in your body and this increases your metabolic rate. Which in return, helps you burn more calories.

Conclusion

Getting flat sexy abs is all about low body fat, a lot of people think they can target just their belly in order to attain flat abs. but the key is to lose overall body fat and you belly will come along for the ride too.

However, with a bit of dedication and persistence it’s easily achievable.

For long lasting results the key is to be patient! If you follow one of the many quick fixes out there, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Some people may get desired results, but it won’t last for long because they have not spent the time on creating solid foundations for long lasting results.

Below are some tips to help you create foundations for long lasting results…

Your Food Habits

Yes, if you are serious about having sexy flat abs or a six pack, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your food habits. Firstly, don’t consume more calories then you can burn.

Remember, the more unnecessary calories you eat, the more weight you gain, and the first place that excess weight goes is around your stomach!

Secondly, keep an eye on where those calories are coming from. Calories from a KFC chicken breast are different to a home cooked chicken breast.

Avoid process foods and try to make sure your food is prepared from scratch with fresh notorious ingredients.

Avoid process carbs and stick to carbs that are in their natural state. Instead of 2 – 3 big meals a day spared it across 4-6 meals this helps speed up your metabolism and burn more excess fat.

Include high protein foods in your diet. Protein actually helps burn excess fat. Also, if your last meal is at night, make sure it’s a high protein meal. And never skip breakfast.

Exercise

Weight training is one of the best types of exercises for maintaining a high metabolic rate. Yes ladies this applies to you too, don’t worry it wont make you huge like bodybuilders.

You know those female fitness models with perfect body’s? They weight train too, because they know the fat burning benefits of weight training.

Did you know that weight training continues to burn fat up to 24 hours after you’ve finished your workout?

Your weight training should consist of compound lifts such as squats, bench presses, dead lifts, shoulder presses and so on.

Also, cardio should be done after your weight training sessions to help burn excess fat.

Don’t do too much cardio as this will start to eat in to the muscles. And it’s the muscles that continue to burn fat after your workout.

And finally the obvious, add some ab specific exercises to help build abdominal muscles.

Follow these tips and they should help you build solid foundations for long lasting eye popping abs.

What most people don’t realize is the actual danger abdominal fat causes to your health! In fact, did you know that scientific researches from all over the world has proven how damaging excess abdominal fat is to your health?

Did you know that excess abdominal fat is linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer. And that the deepest layer of belly fat actually poses the most risk to your health!

Types of abdominal fat you need to know about!

The two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area are subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Subcutaneous fat – This fat lays directly on top of your abs, if you pinch your belly now, the bit you’re holding is subcutaneous fat.

Visceral fat – This fat lays deeper in the abs and wraps it self around the major organs.

Although both of these fats posse a threat to health, science has regarded excessive visceral fat even more harmful because it releases more inflammatory molecules consistently into the body.

Visceral fat plays an important role in giving that ‘beer belly’ appearance where the abdomen pouts excessively as well as feels sort of hard if pushed.

These two types of fat increase the risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, stroke, different types or cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Tips to work on, to reduce your abdominal fat…

If you really care about the future of your health, then you must get rid of that extra ugly fat around your waistline in order to live a healthy life.

Proper diet – There are many ways in which you can eliminate the danger of excess abdominal fat and one of the most important and effective ways to reduce abdominal fat is to keep a close eye on your calorie intake.

Unless you put a limit on your calorie intake, you will not be able to lose fat from around your belly. A scientific study has proved that people eating whole grains with five servings of fruits, vegetables, three servings of low-fat diary and two servings of lean fish, meat or poultry lost more belly fat than those eating the same diet only with all refined grains.

Eating whole grains bring a change in the glucose and insulin response in the body and helps reduce belly fat and visceral fat from the body.

Exercises – Regular exercises will not only keep your weight in control but also will make you feel better. You will need to exercise 3-4 times a week. You can run on a treadmill, engage in some cardiovascular exercises like swimming, jogging and Aerobics.

De-stressing - Relaxing and de-stressing also helps in reducing that extra flab from your waistline. If you are stressed, the body will create several hormones which are pumped into your bloodstream. And these hormones play a part in increasing belly fat.

The four main abdominal muscles are:

• Transversus abdominus – the deepest muscle layer. Its main roles are to stabilise the trunk and maintain internal abdominal pressure.

• Rectus abdominus – slung between the ribs and the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis. This muscle has the characteristic bumps or bulges, when contracting, that are commonly called ‘the six pack’. The main function of the rectus abdominus is to move the body between the ribcage and the pelvis.

• External oblique muscles – these are on each side of the rectus abdominus. The external oblique muscles allow the trunk to twist, but to the opposite side of whichever external oblique is contracting. For example, the right external oblique contracts to turn the body to the left.

• Internal oblique muscles – these flank the rectus abdominus and are located just inside the hipbones. They operate in the opposite way to the external oblique muscles. For example, twisting the trunk to the left requires the left side internal oblique and the right side external oblique to contract together.