Having excess stomach fat can make you feel not confident, which is why it is a common fitness goal for many to tighten up their midsection. Besides, this excess fat can also be a serious health problem. When the fat surrounds your organs, this can cause pro-inflammatory chemicals to be released which can lead to cardiovascular disease. Want to know ways to tighten stomach? This can be done by burning the right amount of calories with the right exercises. Read on to learn more.
How to Tighten Stomach
Exercises
Choose exercises that use your whole body. While you may be focusing on trying to lose your stomach fat, you don't want to restrict your exercises to just ab workouts. Aerobic exercises are great options like running, swimming, biking or even walking. These workouts are ideal for getting rid of hidden fat that builds up under the abs.
Build muscle. One of the best ways to lose fat is to turn it into muscle. Try some muscle building exercises with light weights to work out the arms, legs, and core.
Try a core circuit routine. Planks, sit-ups, crunches, trunk rotations, and bicycle crunches are all great ab workouts. When you combine them into a whole workout, you will burn more stomach fat. For this, you will want to do 15 repetitions of each of the exercise and repeat 3 times. Perform this core circuit routine every other day.
Try some of these ab exercises:
Screamers. Start in a side plank position where the forearm is on the floor and the hips are raised up off the floor. Begin by driving the top knee in towards the belly, Keep your feet flexed, as you then extend the leg out at a 45-degree angle in front of the body. Then swing the leg back to the starting position. Do 15 reps on each leg.
Helicopters. Begin lying on your back with the knees bent, feet flat on the floor and arms out to the sides with the palms facing up. How to tighten stomach with this exercise? Tighten your core muscles as you bring your knees to the chest when you exhale, press the lower back into the floor and lift the legs up towards the ceiling. You will create a 90-degree angle with your legs and body. Keep the toes flexed as you move the legs in a clockwise motion. Perform this exercise for 30 seconds, keeping the legs extended, and then repeat in a counterclockwise motion.
Around the clock. Lay down on the floor with face facing the ceiling, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Keep the hands extended at the sides with the palms facing down as you tighten the core to bring the right leg towards the stomach. Then, extend the right leg out to make a 45-degree angle, then reverse the direction to the original starting position. Repeat 15 times and then switch to the other leg.
You can also follow the video below to do the exercises.
Diet Tips
Be aware of how many calories you consume. In order to lose stomach fat, you need to be burning more calories than you take in. You can speak to your physician to understand just how many calories you should be consuming to maintain a healthy weight and then calculate how many calories you should be consuming to reach that goal.
Eat foods that will help you burn fat. Cut out processed foods like refined grains found in white bread and pastas. Instead, choose a whole grain bread and whole wheat pasta and rice. The whole grains will help you lose the excess belly fat. Tips to how to tighten stomach muscles isn't just about exercise. Eating more fruits, veggies, lean meats and low-fat dairy products are just as important.
Cut out sugars. Sugar can be the number one cause of excess stomach fat. It is a good idea to skip any sugary foods as well as drinks like sodas and fruit juices.
Eat more veggies. Plan to include more vegetables with your meals and when you sit down to eat, start with the veggies first. This way you will fill up on the more healthy foods.
Eat lean meats. You want to eat about 3 ounces of meat which is about the same size as a deck of cards. Stick with lean meats like fish and chicken.
More Lifestyle Changes
Be more aware of how you can be more active throughout the day. Take the stairs, bike to work instead of drive, take a few minutes during your break to walk around and consider a standing desk if you work in an office all day.
Girdles can help make your stomach look flatter. While they may not tighten your stomach, they will give the appearance that you have a flatter midsection. When wearing one, wear loose-fitting clothes and wear darker colors that will give you an overall slimming appearance.
Begin accepting your body. While you want to tone and tighten your midsection, you don't want to develop a negative self-image for how you look right now. Be kind to yourself and understand that not everyone's body type will allow for a perfectly flat and toned stomach.
How to tighten stomach cannot always be done through exercise and diet alone. When you lose a lot of weight, you might think that it is stubborn fat hanging around your midsection, but sometimes it is not fat at all. Loose skin can be an issue for many who have lost an excessive amount of weight. The skin loses its elasticity and even though you may have lost the weight, the skin won't go make to its tight and firm form. If the loose skin around your stomach is an issue for you, you can consider having surgery to remove the skin. This surgery will remove the loose skin and tighten the tissues around your midsection.
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