Whether you’re shaped like an apple or pear on stilts, you most likely know that stomach fat is the hardest fat to lose. No matter how many crunches, sit ups, or leg lifts you do, that stubborn fat just won’t come off. Stomach fat can’t be crunched away, and you really can’t reduce just one part of your body. In order to lose fat, you have to work it off with a combination of a low calorie, low sugar diet, aerobic exercise, your crunches, and a bit of overall body weight training.

Does that sound like a lot of work? It is! But by following this regimen, you will lose body fat!

If you have been doing abdominal exercises, you probably have a nice slim stomach and waistline underneath the fat that won’t come off, so you need to burn off the fat! Put yourself on a diet that gives you enough calories to not be hungry and break up your meals so that you eat 5 small meals a day. Your daily diet should consist of about 50% of the complex carbs that are found in whole grains and brown rice, 35% protein and 15% fats.

Stress is a factor that can contribute to the accumulation of stomach fat, and make it difficult to lose. When you are stressed, a hormone called cortisol is released. High levels of cortisol are believed to be related to storage of fat around the belly, hips and lower abdomen. A study at Yale of 60 menopausal women revealed that the more stress the women were under, the more fat they stored in the abdominal area. It is also believed that stress makes men of any age and older women to store stomach fat.

Studies have shown that eating three servings of low fat yogurt per day, as part of a low calorie diet, not only promotes weight loss, but fat loss too. In the study, people who included yogurt in their diet lost 81% more body fat than those who dieted but didn’t eat yogurt.

The real key to losing stomach fat, though, is sustained aerobic exercise. The first 30 minutes of aerobic exercise burns up glycogens-sugars-but the body doesn’t even begin to tap into stored fat until after that 30-minute mark. Sustained aerobic exercise for 30 – 60 minutes four times a week is considered best for burning off unwanted fat.

Resistance weight training helps with weight loss and keeping your muscles in shape. Although resistance weight training is an anaerobic form of exercise, it builds lean body mass, which raises your resting metabolic rate, so you burn more fat, even when you’re relaxing! It’s very important to do a total body resistance training workout. Focusing on just one muscle group causes muscle imbalance that could lead to injury. With abdominal muscle training, it’s essential to also develop the lower back muscles to strengthen them to lower risk of damage to them during weight training.

Losing stomach fat takes time, so don’t give up, especially when you can’t see results; your eyes can’t see what’s going on inside your body, but changes are happening, even if it’s just setting the stage for the next transition. By combining a nutritious, low fat and low calorie diet with sustained aerobic exercise, toning exercises, such as crunches, and overall body resistance weight training, you will achieve your goal of a flat stomach. So, stick with it and be patient!

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