Many of us dream of a flat stomach and washboard abs. But despite dieting and exercising, fat around the middle can be especially hard to shift. Now, personal trainer James Staring, from Fit to Last, a London-based fitness company, claims he has four simple tips which can help anyone achieve an enviable stomach area.
From writing a food diary to doing short burst of tough exercise, he reveals the best ways to burn away belly fat...
Avoid white bread and pasta and only eat carbohydrates after exercise.
Avoid carbohydrates that are refined i.e. white bread and pasta as these enter your blood stream much faster.
They are also absorbed very quickly, and cause an insulin spike followed by a dip in energy.
Unprocessed carbohydrates (i.e. whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits) increase feelings of feeling full and release sugar into the blood stream at a much slower rate.
This stabilises blood sugar level, so you don’t get peaks and troughs, and your body composition will likewise remain stable.
According to Dr. John Berardi from Precision Nutrition, your body is more capable of processing carbohydrates directly after exercise – so this is the best time to eat them.
HOW THIS WILL HELP YOU: When you consume excess carbohydrate (and, by extension, if your carbohydrate consumption isn’t paired with activity) these carbohydrates are stored for future use, often as body fat.
The more muscle groups you use, the more calories you will burn both during and after exercising.
By doing complex movements (i.e. chin-ups) as opposed to isolation movements (i.e. bicep curls) you are using more of your body at once, therefore requiring more energy.
You will burn more calories after exercise due to EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption).
When you start exercising your body goes from rest to increased metabolic activity, thereby requiring more oxygen.
Carrying out full body exercises will speed up metabolism and means a person will burn more calories afterwards. This will assist in losing inches around the middle
Your body’s delay in responding to this increased oxygen requirement causes ‘oxygen debt’.
When you finish an exercise session your body ‘pays back’ this oxygen debt through EPOC.
Your body needs to consume more oxygen to replenish energy and nutrients, causing more calories to be burned.
HOW THIS WILL HELP YOU: EPOC has the additional benefit of increasing your daily energy expenditure as well as your metabolism, turning your body into a calorie-burning furnace, which will assist in losing those inches around the middle.
Do short bursts of high intensity exercise
The most common excuse for not exercising is lack of time. But if you want to lose belly fat, you must exercise, full stop.
Doing short bursts of high intensity exercise leads to higher energy demands and more calories burned, which will help shed weight from the stomach
According to a study from Canada’s McMaster University, high intensity interval training (short blasts of exercise followed by short recovery periods) enables you to achieve the same exercise benefits in less time than slogging countless hours on the treadmill.
Therefore, you can actually accomplish more by exercising less.
HOW THIS WILL HELP YOU: High intensity interval training will create a positive knock on effect in terms of EPOC, leading to higher energy demands for recovery and more calories burned for longer.
Write down what you eat (including how you feel two hours afterwards)
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