Blast through belly fat to uncover your abs

Even if your goal isn't to build abs like Michelangelo's David, you may still have interest in trimming your waistline. Easier said than done, right? Not exactly. Well, then again, I take that back ... it is easier said than done. It would be ridiculous to suggest otherwise. I mean, what does it take -- all of one second to say "I want a trim waist"? Getting that trim waist, however, requires far more time than that. Still, I think the underlying point remains: Getting a fitter stomach is not impossible. There, now that's a much more grounded statement.

The first thing to realize is that you can't really spot reduce fat. When we lose weight, we lose it from all over. Liposuction is probably the only exception to this rule, and I surely wouldn't classify that as an exercise-based weight loss method. The second thing to realize is that performing dozens of sets of crunches and other ab exercises won't do much to whittle your middle. Will they harden the abdominal muscles that lie underneath? Absolutely, which is why you shouldn't abandon your ab routine altogether. But, will they reduce the amount of belly fat you carry and give you the stomach you've always wanted? Not by themselves they won't.

It's all about total body fat loss, and the way to ramp up this process is to eat a healthy diet and do cardio. Lots and lots of it. Resistance training is a great way to help accelerate this fat loss, but at the end of the day, it's the hardcore cardio sessions that will strip away the fat.Think of it this way -- if a person is lying on a bed, the more sheets, blankets, and comforters that are placed on top of them, the less we can see the contour of their body. Do these sheets, blankets, and comforters only cover the person's body? No, they cover the entire bed. The same basic idea applies to your stomach; the more layers of fat you have on your whole body, the more you also have covering your abs -- and, much like the person lying in the bed, the less defined they will appear. That's what makes total body fat loss such an important part of slimming your waistline.

So, if you want a statuesque -- or even just a smaller, healthier -- stomach, don't spend all your time on the floor doing crunches. Get your body moving, get your heart pumping, get your muscles working and start chipping away the layers. Not quite as easy to do as it is to say, but certainly not impossible, either.