We know you’ve got flat tummy goals and that those goals hit different when the temperatures get warmer and your clothes become less forgiving. While everyone and their mothers have the same goal to slim down their waistlines, most people don’t have a clue where to start. Once gyms are open again, you can try every ab exercise created in hopes for stronger abs and a slim waist, but the best ways to achieve a crop-top worthy stomach don’t involve a single crunch.
Move After Meals
Someone in your life probably told you more than once, “never lie down on a full stomach.” Well, it turns out that this old-school advice is actually correct. Staying seated, or even worse, lying down, after a meal slows down digestion and causes a spike in your blood sugar levels. Why is this bad? Well, slow digestion can cause your body to absorb higher levels of fat if you sit around after every meal.
As for your blood sugar, those high blood sugar levels will make you feel hungrier even after you eat. What’s worse is that consistently high blood sugar levels can put you at greater risk for diabetes and even heart and kidney diseases in the long run. While all of this sounds very scary, you can reduce these health risks simply by making it a habit to take a walk or do some light activity for about 15 minutes right after eating. Not only can you avoid major health complications over time, you’ll also speed up digestion and satiety and prevent your body from hanging on to excess belly fat.
Swap in Strength
This just in: you don’t need to do crunches and cardio 5 days a week for a flatter stomach. In fact, you can put your abs to work whenever you do a strength training session.
You might not know this, but moves like weighted squats, glute bridges, shoulder presses, back rows, and planks, can fire up your abs while working larger muscle groups at the same time. On top of the bonus ab work, lifting weights can speed up your metabolism, which is that thing you had in your 20s that let you eat whatever you wanted without putting on weight. So, if you’re only doing cardio and crunches in hopes of getting the waistline of your dreams, keep dreaming. Strength training is far more effective than cardio and crunches alone. If you need a place to start, check out this full body kettlebell workout.
Break up with sugar.
They say the devil is in a blue dress, but the devil actually comes in the form of high fructose corn syrup, sodas, and sweetened drinks. It’s easier than ever to overdo it with sugar, but if you know what to look out for, you can cut back your sugar intake and reduce your belly fat. The reason sugar is the enemy of flat stomachs is that the body stores unused energy from sugar as fat. And that fat likes to hang out in the belly when you tack on other evils like high stress and a sedentary lifestyle.
Fortunately, all of this can be turned around if you look out for excess sugars, especially those hiding in drinks, yogurts, and condiments. If you can keep your sugar under 35 grams a day, your flat belly won’t be too far away. When you shop, read the ingredients and try to avoid consuming too many foods with fructose, sucrose, malt, dextrose, and all the syrups (high fructose corn syrup being the most popular). These are code words for sugar and sometimes they have higher concentrations of sugar than the original, plain sugar.
So, before you sign yourself up for 6 cardio classes and crunch your body to insanity, be sure to focus on these flat-tummy tricks to help you trim your waist in an effective and long-lasting way.
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