Everyone wants that tummy that’s so flat, you could bounce a quarter off it or one that looks dazzling in low riders and a midriff top. There are a lot of steps to achieving it. Of course, exercise is one of those ways. Diet is another. Diet helps in two ways. First, if you have a layer of fat covering those toned abs, nobody will see that flat stomach. The second reason diet helps is that there are foods to avoid for a flat tummy.
Soft drinks should never be part of your diet.
Whether you’re choosing full calorie/full sugar soft drinks or diet drinks, they’ll both sabotage your efforts. Full calorie soft drinks put added sugar in your diet, which is both habit forming and fattening. These are empty calories, providing no benefit but to slather on the pounds. Drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup are even worse and add inches to your middle. Even diet drinks have a drawback. One recent study showed diet drinks also add to your circumference and add visceral fat, belly fat.
Refined carbohydrates are not your friend, even though they may be your comfort food.
Does fresh baked bread sound delicious? Is a donut or bagel a great start to your day? If you want to get a flatter tummy, drop that habit and choose fresh fruit and a hard boiled egg or other protein. Not only will you be keeping fat off your midsection, you’ll also be boosting your energy level. While white bread and refined carbs may be off limits, having a whole grain option is better. It offers more nutrition and keeps you feeling full longer.
So called diet foods may be deceptive and add inches to your middle.
Something happens to the flavor of food when you take the fat out. It just doesn’t taste good. Manufacturers often cure that problem by adding sugar. That sugar can increase your blood glucose level quickly and drop it just as quickly, so you’re hungry soon after eating. However, even though the food had fat, foods like yogurt have healthy fat. That fat increases the leptin in your body, the satiety hormone that makes you feel full. Full fat yogurt also contains conjugated linoleic acid—CLA—which helps burn fat! Other low fat foods, such as salad dressings also have added sugar and don’t have the fat necessary to transport fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.
- Expect all manufacturers to jump on the low fat bandwagon, even though the full fat is often better for you. Don’t trade in healthy natural peanut butter for the low fat type that can pack on the pounds and increase your midsection.
- Instead of stopping for a drink to get rid of the day’s stress, go to the gym. A thirty day study showed that people who had more than a single drink in a sitting, even once a week, had more abdominal fat than those who drank smaller amounts.
- Too much dairy, or should I say, the wrong type of dairy can put inches on your middle. You can eat healthy cheese like fromage, a soft cheese, in small amounts.
- Come into Revolution Training and we’ll help you with both your diet and your workout. Before you know it, you’ll have that flat stomach you’ve always wanted.