With a growing number of overweight people, you're likely to see at least one pot belly on your morning commute.

A pot belly, or beer belly, is excessive fat in the center of the abdomen which makes the belly round and protruding. While women can get a pot belly, they tend to be more prevalent in men. The biggest causes are overeating and a sedentary lifestyle.

The only way to lose a pot belly is to lose weight. You cannot spot train body parts, but crunches may help tone the stomach muscles. Additionally, you must burn more calories than you consume each day, which is easier if you follow a low-fat, reduced-calorie diet and include at least 30 to 60 minutes of vigorous exercise in your daily routine.

Even if you don't have an excessive amount of fat hanging over your jeans, but still want to slim your stomach, avoiding foods that contribute to bloating can help. Cut back on salt and eliminate gassy foods like broccoli, onions and cauliflower. Carbonated drinks (like soda), alcohol, fried foods and spicy meals can also lead to bloating.

If you don't have a pot belly, but want to tweak another body region try these tips from That's Fit:
Love handles
Arms
Shoulders
Legs
Thighs

You spent all winter working hard on those abs -- counting calories, burning fat through regular cardio and doing planks and other core work to tighten up. So the last thing you want to see when you finally slip on your bikini is belly bloat.

Belly bloat is a combination of extra fluid and/or excess gas caused by eating certain foods. If you want to show off that hard-won belly at the beach, or just want to squeeze into a little something for a night out on the town, avoid the following foods for a few days beforehand:

• processed or salty foods
• gassy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and onions
• carbonated soft drinks
• fried or fatty foods
• spicy dishes
• artificial sweeteners

Since vegetables are good for you, you don't want to avoid even the gassiest for long. Cooking them can make them easier to digest, or simply eat them in small portions.

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Turns out you might not be fat, just bloated. And since getting rid of the bloat could be a whole lot easier than shedding pounds, the four tips that follow might be all you need to feel slim and trim.

Bloating is usually caused by either a buildup of gas or fluid retention, say the "Body Talk" folks at Ladies Home Journal. Both can make your belly feel heavy and distended, and we all know that zipping jeans over a poochy tummy is a real downer. Help is here -- LHJ offers these ideas for blasting the bloat.

• Fiber. If you have a bowel movement less than three times per week, your digestion might be on the sluggish side, and your gut may be growing as a result. A high-fiber diet can help -- get 25 grams per day if you're under 50 and 21 grams after that. Increase your fiber by three to five grams per week (one apple, one cup of oatmeal) -- any faster and you might make the bloating worse.
  
• Gassy Foods. Fried and fatty foods, and some high-fiber goods, like beans, broccoli and cabbage, can boost your bloat. Try avoiding some of these items for a few days and see if your mid-section melts away. You don't want to eliminate veggies, though, so just cut back and try to find some options that don't bother you. You can also try Beano drops or tablets before eating your favorite foods. Anti-gas medications can help too.
• Gulping Air. When you chew gum, drink through a straw, down sodas and smoke, you swallow air, and this can put carbon dioxide into your digestive tract. You don't want that, so stop smoking, cut back on the gum and straws and eat and drink slowly to reduce air intake.
  
• Hormones. Progesterone surges prior to your periods, and water retention and slower digestion follow. Avoid salty foods and alcohol consumption prior to your period, and up your exercise to stimulate your system.

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Welcome to Walking the Walk, a feature that takes a deeper look at commonly shared diet and fitness advice. Every other week, I'll choose one piece of advice and practice it for seven days. Then I'll report back on what I discovered about making it work in real life and how it affected my own personal fitness -- and how it ultimately can affect your own efforts.

January is the perfect time to try something new, isn't it? That's why I was clicking around over at AOL Health's America Takes it Off, looking for something inspiring to try this week on Walking the Walk. I've created a pretty good routine for myself -- limit my calories, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and be as active as possible -- but still, there's always room for improvement, right?

When I saw this tip from Jillian Michaels, I was intrigued. To get cut, she says, cut the salt ... and that doesn't mean just removing the salt shaker from your dining room table. Instead, she says, to beat the bloat, get your sodium intake down under 500 mg a day.

But salt makes things so tasty, you're thinking (or am I the only one?). Is it really that important to keep an eye on it? According to Jillian, yes. And her take on sodium has the support of top health organizations such as the American Heart Association. Our bodies need about 200 mg of sodium a day, but in reality, most of us eat much, much more than that.

Jillian's 500 mg a day is considerably lower than the 1,500 to 2,400 mg a day that most health organizations recommend. Because my blood pressure tends to fall into the "wow that's low, are you sure you aren't feeling dizzy" category, I've decided to split the difference and stick to 1,000 mg a day this week.

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Your paunch, your Buddha belly -- whatever you call it, you probably hate it and want to get rid of it. And fast. I'm afraid it's probably too late to slim yours in time for the new year, but you may be able to trim a few inches off your belly by the time you go back to work on Monday. How? With a little help from the Flat Belly Diet.

The Daily Mail recently did a two-part special on how to beat bloat, and it's all down to the food you eat. If you want to shed a bit of bulk from your belly, avoid these foods:

The next step? Keep it up.

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If you missed our daily postings this past week, we invite you to take some time to catch up on our prior week's news and gear up for a new week of healthy living information and inspiration.

Recently discovered: The best weight loss drink in the world! What is it? Jonny will tell you. (Hint: It's free and you can get it from your kitchen faucet.)
use spend in the bedroom. Laura has six tips for better sex. Hey, it can't hurt ... might help, right?

Trying to squeeze into a slinky black dress for that holiday party? Fitz tells you how to banish the bloat from your belly for the big night.

Get fit on a treadmill without using your feet? Yes, really. Let Fitz andWiggle Anthony Field teach you some innovative new moves.

A lifetime of crash dieting may (may) leave you thin, but happy? Not so much. Valerie Frankel speaks out about the 150 diet plans she's tried over the years.

When a character in a Stephen King story gets on a treadmill, weird things are sure to happen. Find out how the king of scary feels about exercise machines.

Don't wait until 2009 to make your New Year's resolutions. Bev has 13 things you can do right now for a fitter 2009.

He's not only President-elect, he's also a great role model for good nutrition. Find out how Barack Obama eats.

Have a great week everyone!

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answers. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I just bought a fairly fitted dress for a party this weekend and am desperate to avoid a poochy tummy. I'm in pretty good shape but often get bloated. I can not wear this dress if I'm bloated. Help! Andrea

A. Hi Andrea, Bloating is a bummer, but I can definitely help you avoid it. You're just going to have to be smart about what you eat and drink for the few days prior to your event.

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Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answers. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Fitz, I'm sick of feeling sick at the end of Thanksgiving Day. I seem to eat all day, even when I'm not hungry. I literally feel like the clothes I put on that morning don't fit me anymore. I'm dreading it this week. What do I do? Alex

A. Gobble Gobble, Alex! I mean ... don't Gobble Gobble, Alex. (Bad joke, I know). Holidays, particularly Thanksgiving, often lead to really weird amounts of mindless eating. It doesn't help that this particular day is actually based on a feast. Darn Pilgrims! Why couldn't they show their gratitude with a running race? I can help you avoid this scenario, though. No one likes to unbutton their jeans to be able to sit down. It's uncomfortable, embarrassing and depressing. So let's get proactive, make a plan and stick with it.

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Paunch, Buddha belly, spare tire, food baby -- whatever you call it, you're sick of the excess belly bloat you're carrying around. Dieting is one way to get rid of it, but what if you need results fast? The experts over at Prevention magazine put together a four-day jumpstart plan for reducing belly bloat, and they claim that if you follow it, you could lose up to seven lbs!

Here are some tips to follow over the four days:

• Avoid salt, meaning don't add any to your food and don't eat really salty foods either
• Avoid excess carbs, especially white breads and pastas
• Avoid gassy foods, like peppers, legumes, broccoli and citrus foods
• Avoid gum. Strange but true -- instead of helping you lose weight, it causes bloating because you're swallowing air.
• Cook your veggies. You get just as many nutrients in a smaller amount of cooked veggies than you do in a large amount of raw veggies, taking up less room in your GI tract.
  

For more info, check out the Flat Belly Diet on Prevention.

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Well this is one of those subjects, that I, even with all of my degrees and such ... I just can't wrap my head around explaining it perfectly to you. I guess that's what links are for!

Let's just put it this way, a combination of: fruit, gas, fermentation, constipation, pelvic rotation and inflammation can be causing your back pain. I don't think this article will provide the answer to everyone's back pain, but for some ... maybe so!

The article even suggests that a "pooping situation" or "lack of pooping situation" might be responsible for weight gain. So! Without further a-doodoo, click here.

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Ladies, of course you can choose to see the negatives and focus on PMS and bloating or whatever, but when your period rolls around every month why not focus on the positives instead? And the rest of the month, as things are happening and changing in your body, why not use all that to your advantage also? Although hormone fluctuations generally have a bad reputation, they can have benefits if you understand them. For example, in days 1-10 of your cycle (1 being the first day of your period) it'll be easier to quit smoking, days 11-14 are the best times to schedule a routine OB appt or to make a large corporate presentation, and days 15-28 are the most conducive to burning and losing belly fat.

Who knew? Mark your calendars!

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As I sit here writing, I am sipping from a glass of water. Why? I'm thirsty! But beyond that, there are so many good reasons to drink enough water each day.

1. Drinking water helps keep your body from retaining it. This is good for our health, but let's face it -- it helps our appearance too. Who wants to look puffy?

2. Water in your stomach means less room for overeating. I know this is my husband's favorite trick. When he gets the munchies at work, but is not truly hungry, he'll have a glass of water instead. It suppresses the urge for the munchies and gives him all the great benefits of water to boot.

Believe it or not, summer is almost here. Well, spring is almost here, but summer is right after that! And now is the time to start "thinking thin," because clothes will start getting steadily smaller as the days get steadily warmer (yay for warmness!).

Besides starting (or sticking to) a good fitness and/or weight loss plan, something else to consider is making moves to reduce puffiness from water retention. Everybody hates it, but pretty much everybody deals with it at some point. Plus winter is a season of comfort foods, and unfortunately many of them contribute to that not-so-thin feeling, even if you haven't actually gained any inches or pounds.

So take a look at this article, which outlines 6 tips for both reducing bloat and burning extra calories -- just in time for those cute spring skirts.

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