Do You Want to Know How to Get a Flat Tummy?

Imagine how wonderful it would feel when you get a flat tummy.

• All your clothes will look perfect on you.
• Your jeans will be flawless.
• And your tops! Don’t get me started on the whole new world of possibilities that will open up to you!

Like almost every other woman, I always wanted to get a flat tummy.

But, for some reason, I just couldn’t figure out how to do it!

Everything online was so confusing and I couldn’t find anything that gave me a clear, step-by-step road map.

Now, I know better and I’m here to share!

By the time you reach the end of this blog post, you will

1. Have a clear picture of exactly how to get a flat tummy
2. Understand the factors that determine whether you have a flat tummy
3. Get a bonus workout video

Let’s dig in.

BONUS: Abs Workout Video

Figured I’d just get this out of the way first. Here’s the bonus workout video 🙂

You can see my weight loss plan here

 

3 Factors that Determine whether You Have a Flat Tummy

There are 3 main principles that determine whether you get a flat tummy.

1. Your overall calorie intake
2. The ratio of carbohydrates to protein to fat that you eat
3. Your exercise routine

If you can nail all three of these factors, you will get a flat tummy.

The rest of this post explains how I adapted my lifestyle in order to address each of these three principles.

How to Get a Flat Tummy – My Method!

#1: Overall Calorie Intake

If your stomach is not flat, it means that you are carrying a little extra fat on your mid-section.

The best (and only) way to remove this extra fat is to lose fat all over your body.

To lose fat all over your body, you’ll need to look at your overall calorie intake.

Editor’s Note: Get a free meal plan here

That is, the total quantity of food that you eat daily.

The goal is to eat your ideal number of calories daily or less (preferably less).

For me, I know my ideal number of calories to eat daily is approximately 2,000.

Once I determined how many calories to eat daily, I aimed to eat that amount of calories or less. 

Some days, I easily stayed on target.

On other days, I ate a little more or a little less.

As long as I was averaging 2,000 calories or less over the course of the week, I knew I was on the right track.

The easiest ways I found to stay on track were to completely cut out fruit juices, soft drinks, and minimize consumption of things like puff puff and chin chin.

Take Away / Suggestions:

1. Calculate your own ideal calorie intake by using any reputable online calorie calculator.
2. Track your food for a week using a tool like Lose It
3. Aim to eat your ideal number of calories or less daily

Note: it’s not necessary to track all meals all the time.

It’s just a good practice to do it once in a while in order to develop an intuitive sense of how much to eat.

#2: Ratio of carbohydrates : protein : fat that you eat

This factor is one that prevents many women from reaching the goal of getting a flat tummy.

There is a huge misconception that fat is bad and must be avoided.

This is simply not true.

The goal is to find and maintain a good balance of carbohydrates, fat, and protein daily

For me, I find that a balance of

• 40% carbohydrates
• 30% fat
• 30% protein is perfect for me.

To achieve this, I started adding more chicken and less jollof rice to my plate at weddings.

I incorporated healthy fats like avocado and olive oil into my regular diet.

I also incorporated more complex carbohydrates like brown rice into my diet.

The surprising results of these changes were that I stayed fuller for longer and my energy was more balanced throughout the day.

Take Away / Suggestions:

1. Use a tool like Lose It to see how much carbs vs protein vs fat that you typically consume daily
2. Aim to consume no more than 40% of calories in the form of complex carbohydrates and veggies
3. Aim to consume about 1g of protein per pound of body weight (roughly 2g of protein per kg of body weight)
   • For example, if i weigh 100 pounds (45kg) , I’ll aim to eat 90 – 100g of protein daily from a variety of protein sources

#3: Exercise Routine

Get a 10 day exercise plan here

Get a 30 day exercise plan here

When it comes to getting a flat tummy, exercise plays two roles.

First, it helps to get rid of the excess fat mentioned in #1 above.

Second, it helps to give definition and tone to the tummy area.

For the purpose of discussing how to get a flat tummy, we’ll focus on the first role of exercise – getting rid of excess fat.

The goal is to burn enough calories to encourage fat loss in the most efficient way possible

For me, this meant exercising 4 days a week for about 30 minutes or less.

My exercise routine of choice was High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

HIIT has been proven to be one of the most efficient ways to burn fat fast.

With HIIT, your body burns fat not only during the workout – but also, while you’re resting afterwards.

Get this awesome HIIT workout here

I also exercised first thing in the morning before eating. 

It’s not hard to exercise before eating breakfast – I promise.

Research shows that, if weight loss is the goal, it is best to exercise before eating – that is, in a fasted state.

In the fasted state, the body uses fat for fuel (resulting in faster weight loss).

Comparatively speaking, if you eat before you workout, your body will burn the food you ate (instead of the fat you’re trying to get rid of).

Take Away / Suggestions:

1. Add regular HIIT workout sessions to your calendar as a meeting
2. Aim to exercise in a fasted state
3. Try to be as consistent as possible

In a Nutshell,

You see? It is not a mystery to get a flat tummy.

All you need to do is eat the right number of calories for your body, pay attention to the ratio of carbohydrates/protein/fat in each meal, and exercise in the right way.

In no time, you’ll be flaunting a nice, flat, toned tummy!