The one question I am asked more than any is "How do I lose weight from my stomach?"
It seems to be the main weight loss concern of most new mothers and we've all seen those articles or the online ads telling you how to get a flat, toned stomach. Most of the time, the tips are wrong or the aim is to sell you some sort of crash diet.
Losing weight from your stomach is not about doing 100 sit-ups a day, cutting out carbs or eating cabbage soup. Here are some realistic and proven tips that will help
you get on the right road to a flat tummy:
- You need to burn fat to get a flat tummy and we're talking 500 calories or more per day, every day, than you take in for a week. Doing this will burn off 1lb of fat. The average female body will burn between 1,400 and 1,900 calories per day. This is before you do any sort of exercise. Add the 250 odd calories you burn in a fitness class and you could end up burning 2,000 calories for that day. So if you eat 1,500 calories, you have burned 500 more calories than you have taken in. Click HERE to work out your estimated Basal Metabolic Rate. (This is an estimated number as it doesn’t take into account your muscle mass and activity level.)
- A good way to increase your metabolism is by building muscle and being more active on a daily basis. Interval training and high intense cardio exercises, paired with strength exercises, will help you increase your metabolism. The type of training we do in our classes and on the DVD is called or High Intense Interval Training (HIIT) and it is designed to keep your metabolism heightened for up to 36 hours after you finish your workout. Steady state cardio like running, walking and swimming is excellent for the cardiovascular system however it will not achieve the desired effect on the metabolic system.
- Keep doing your sit-ups and ab exercises but be aware that the toned ab muscles underneath will only be seen once the fat covering them is burned.
- As always, it's not all about exercise, you have to look at your diet too. There are some foods to stay away from. As a general rule, ditch the sugar. It sticks to fat cells around your mid-section so cut out all sugar in tea, coffee, cereal etc. Sugar is also found in white breads, rice and pasta. Don’t be fooled by 0% fat yoghurts either. They are loaded with sugar to make them taste nice. In general, avoid anything that claims to be low or no fat.
- Read the ingredients on food labels and get to know what you should be looking out for. They are listed in order of quantity. For example, a 0% fat strawberry yoghurt may list the ingredients as "milk, sugar (dextrose/lactose), strawberries…" This means that the sugar content is quite high as it’s listed second. Look at the sugar per 100g too - more than 12g of sugar is too high. You should only take in 24g of added sugar per day. Foods with high sugar content include cereals, cereal bars, chocolate, sweets, fizzy drinks and fruit juices.
Basically, it’s as simple as eat less and move more! If you do metabolic training exercises, cut out the sugar and have smaller portions, you should see a difference in your stomach in just a couple of weeks.
Steph Sinnott is a prenatal and postnatal fitness trainer. She founded the Baby Body Fit website in 2010 to help women get through the maternity cycle while maintaining a level of fitness and staying healthy. Baby Body Fit is Ireland’s first and leading prenatal and postnatal exercise company. Find out more or book a class HERE. 
