How to Tone Your Stomach Fast

Don’t know how to tone your stomach fast? The reality is, you can’t lose just your belly fat. You have to lose fat all over your body to flatten out your tummy.

The good news is, however, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Here are five steps that will enable you to lose stomach fat now and keep it off for good. It takes a little planning, but it really works.

1. Choose a target weight.

Can you “pinch an inch” of belly fat? Two inches? A foot?

Your first target weight goal should be inches of belly fat you can pinch between your fingers times 5 if you are weighing yourself in pounds (or 1 kg per cm if your scales are metric). If you can pinch two inches of belly fat, your first weight loss goal should be 10 pounds. At the end of your diet, you want to weight 10 pounds less than you do now.

2. Choose a calorie target.

Now that you know how much want to weigh, you need to figure out how many calories a day you need to eat to reach your goal. If you don’t exercise at all, or you exercise less than 1 hour a week, just multiply your target weight by 10. For instance, if your target weight is 140 pounds, you should eat 1,400 calories a day.

If you exercise more than one hour a week, add 1 to the multiplier for every hour you exercise. Suppose you want to weigh 140 pounds and you work out 2 hours a week. Then multiply 140 times 11 and get a calorie target of 1,540 calories a day. Or if you work out three hours a week and you want to weigh 140 pounds, multiple 140 times 12 for a target of 1,680 calories a day.

3. Eat by the numbers.

Now you need to figure out how those calories should be distributed between protein, fat, and carbohydrate. You need 1 gram of protein for every pound of your target weight. If you are trying to reach 140 pounds, then you need to eat 140 grams of protein every day (although you can probably do OK on less). Every gram of protein is usually labeled as 4 calories, so you’ll need 560 calories a day in the form of protein.

You need 1/2 grams of fat for every gram of body weight. (Yes, even when you are losing weight, your body still needs healthy fats.) So if you intend to weigh 140 pounds, you need 70 grams of fat a day. Every gram of fat is usually considered equivalent to 9 calories, so you need 630 calories a day in the form of fat.

You need some carbohydrate, but not a whole lot. Your body can actually make sugar out of protein if it needs to, but it can’t make its own essential amino acids or essential fatty acids. The carb you eat should be mostly from raw, fresh, crunchy and delicious vegetables, or steamed vegetables, and a couple pieces of fresh fruit. You’ll need 1400 – (630 + 560) = 220 calories a day in the form of carbohydrate, but that is a great deal of raw veggies and fruit, more than enough to keep you full.

4. Allow yourself a cheat meal every three days.

If you eat 1,400 calories each and every day, your metabolism is going to figure out that you are eating less. But if you allow yourself something extra about every tenth meal-and only every tenth meal-your metabolism will keep on burning calories at its customary rate. You actually lose weight faster if you get off your diet about once every three days. You can eat twice much as food as usual at this one meal, but you still need to avoid MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, and food additives. Eat more food, but wholesome food.

5. If you exercise, time your cheat meals to coincide with your heaviest exercise.

Cheat meals are great for building muscle, and you can only create new muscle if your muscles get both carbohydrate and amino acids in the first 90 minutes after heavy exercise. Doing resistance training twice a week, and rewarding hard work with extra food, is a great way to keep losing pounds.

You really do have the willpower to count calories, and every three days, you are entitled to a treat. In fact, the occasional treat not only does not ruin your diet, it helps you tone your stomach faster. Diet and exercise really do tone your stomach, and if you allow yourself occasional pleasures, you can keep the pounds off for good.

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