How to burn abdominal fat

Everyone wants to have a flat stomach, or what’s known as “six pack abs.” For most people, their abs are not visible because they’re hidden under an accumulation of fat. Our eating habits and sedentary lifestyle, are contributing factors in these fat deposits. What can you do to lose abdominal fat, and get closer to them appearing? It’ll take consistency, and a great deal of dedication to stick to the necessary steps to get closer to flat abs. You can do all the abdominal exercises you want, and go to the gym and use fancy ab machines, but that won’t get you anywhere closer to better looking abs alone. There’s no magic potion that can help you either, but there are a few lifestyle changes you can make if you want to succeed.
- Dietary changes.

The most important part in the fat loss equation is diet. Make a list of everything you’re eating daily. Take notice of the foods that are high in fat and sugar, and make an estimate of the total amount of calories you’re consuming each day. If you’re overeating, those calories are being stored as body fat. That doesn’t mean that you should starve yourself either, because if you eat too little, you’ll slow down your metabolism, which does the same. You’re goal is to find the right balance of calories for you, so you’ll burn the calories you eat, and burn stored body fat as well. You should be following a healthier diet, one which includes fruits, green vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates, such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, and oatmeal. For fat loss, it’s a good rule, that you follow a diet which has the least amount of processed foods in it. It’s also important that you know how to eat to get your metabolism working for you as best as possible, such as by eating 5-6 small meals per day, and never skipping breakfast.
- Have more meals throughout the day.
The more smaller meals you eat each day, you’ll build muscle, burn fat, and with proper resistance training, you’ll be on your way to seeing those abs. It does take some planning to prepare your meals, making an eating schedule and sticking to it, and you need to make sure you always have something to eat for those times you’re on the go. It becomes easy once you get the hang of it. I usually prepare extra food whenever I cook, so at least I’ll have another 2 days worth of leftovers I can put in plastic containers and take with me to
work. I also make sure I have a few packaged snacks in my bag, such as protein bars or granola bars for those unexpected moments I can’t have a meal as I’d like. Eating right isn’t always easy, but the body you’ll be achieving will make having the patience and taking the time to prepare healthier food worth it. The easiest way to stay away from excess calories, that you’d otherwise store as fat, is to prepare your own food, and have it ready to go when you need it. If you don’t feed your body a few times per day, and get the proper amount of calories, your body will go into starvation mode, your metabolism will slow down, and you’ll do the opposite of what you’re intending, by storing body fat instead. By feeding your muscles and your metabolism, combined with weight training, you’ll be speeding up your metabolism and burning body fat due to the addition of lean muscle mass.
- The importance of protein.
It’s very important that you keep your protein intake high when you’re dieting to make sure you don’t burn off any muscle tissue in your quest for six pack abs. The reason why you need protein in your diet, is because it’ll boost your metabolism, burn more fat, and help preserve and build your lean muscle tissue. Most people neglect this part of the fat loss equation, and instead they burn up their muscle, because they don’t get enough of the right foods to support the muscle building process.

- Drink water.
One of the best ways to lose abdominal fat is to drink a sufficient amount of water. Most of us do not consume the recommended amount of 8 8 oz glasses of water per day, and that’s not nearly enough to lose body fat. You should really be aiming for a full gallon of water per day. When you start getting a sufficient amount of water, you’ll be optimizing your bodily functions, allowing it to run more efficiently and start burning stored body fat for energy. It’s also a good idea that you reach for a glass the next time you’re hungry, because you may be mistaking thirst for hunger. Wait a few minutes, and determine if you’re still hungry or not. What temperature should the water be? There are different theories to it. According to Ayurveda, drinking as much hot water as possible helps burn fat. On the other hand, some studies point out that drinking ice cold water is best, providing a thermogenic effect. I say go with your preference. If you’re
like me and you much rather prefer to linger over a few cups of hot tea each day, that’s fine. As far as the case for ice cold water goes, the body is forced to heat the water up, and doing so takes energy, i.e., calories. You can burn another 50 to 100 percent by drinking one half gallon of ice cold water per day.
- Exercise.
In combination with a healthy diet, exercise is a very valuable tool for weight loss. You should be doing both weight training and cardiovascular training. A lot of people do one without the other, but they’ll never quite reach the results they could if they did both. Weight training is the best way to burn fat and boost your metabolism, and that’s why it’s important that you build muscle and do everything you should to hold onto it, such as eat enough, and rest after hard workouts. You can also do abdominal exercises, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get closer to a six pack, but that’s where diet and cardio training come in to help.
- Especially weight train.
Most people, especially women shy away from weight training, because they think they’ll “bulk up.” This is not the case. And, for men who decide on not lifting weights to “appear thinner,” it’s the wrong idea for having a fit body. To burn abdominal fat, I’ve talked about the importance of increasing your metabolism, and that’s what weight training does. After an intense weight training session, your metabolism will remain elevated for up to 39 hours after your actual workout. So, your metabolism will remain stimulated where you burn more calories while you’re doing nothing.
Eat right, exercise, and do everything you can to have your metabolism working for you, and you’ll turn your body into a fat burning machine. In time, you’ll see the big difference you’ve made in the amount of abdominal fat you’ve lost.