Sunday, December 21, 2008

Flat Stomach Formula

By Jose Loni

The formula for a flat stomach is not difficult. However, in order to be successful with the flat stomach formula, we need to understand three basic factors that will determine how flat our stomach will get. Those factors are: monitoring the frequency and quality of our food intake, increasing our energy expenditure and decreasing stress in our lives.

Nutrition: Cut down on the fat intake in your diet as well as intake of sodas. Also try to cut back on processed carbohydrates like: breads, pasta, rice and potatoes. Instead of eating 3 big meals per day, eat smaller sized portions and divide your meals into 6 meals per day. Your meals should be well balanced from each of the basic food groups and drink lots of water. Try to make healthier alternatives to the foods you regularly eat. For example: instead of eating chocolate bars, substitute it with fruits or carrot sticks.

Physical Activity: when you are first starting out, you can begin with walking for at least 20 minutes per, then progress up to 30 minutes, three times a week. Try to maintain a good elevated heart rate while walking so you are challenging your system.

People think by doing countless ab exercises, it will get them to their goal of a flat stomach. It is important to do ab exercises to maintain or increase core strength, but doing multi joint exercises are much more effective at reducing overall fat and increasing our metabolism. When we increase our metabolism, we increase our body's efficiency to burn fat, and that will be more effective at flattening our stomach.

When our bodies are in a stressful situation, it reacts by releasing a hormone called Cortisol, which tells our bodies to preserve fat and prepare our bodies for emergency situation. That fat is thereby stored in our stomach area. By utilizing various techniques of stress management exercises, we can affect our bodies to optimize its fat burning capabilities, which will lead to a flat stomach.

One method of coping with stress is deep breathing. Take a deep breath through your nose, try to feel the breath go deeply into your lungs and into your diaphragm, then slowly breathe out and exhale through your mouth. This technique allows for more oxygen in your system as well as help remove carbon dioxide from our bodies.

Flattening your stomach can be as easy as 1-2-3, nutrition, physical activity and stress reduction. By committing to making changes in our lives, we are able to achieve that flat stomach. - 15266

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