Teens, athletes or models aren’t the only ones who can boast a flat stomach, you can do that too.
In case you have always wondered about it, here’s some expert advice on how to get the perfect flat belly regardless of your age.
Getting a flat belly in your 20’s:
Frankly speaking, the 20’s is not the age to worry about getting a protruding belly. Even though your metabolic rate starts to drop by a per cent or 2 when you cross 20, that can’t still have any significant effect.
According to Dr. Scott Isaacs, M.D., the author of Hormonal Balance, your body produces large quantities of estrogen in the early 20s which cause deposition of fat in your hips and breasts.
But at the same time, the growth hormones cause the body to liquidate the reserves of fats to provide strength to the muscles. So these two hormones cancel each other off.
However, if you happen to have a sedentary lifestyle, a high carb diet, and unhealthy eating habits, chances are, you can get a stomach that’s anything but flat.
The key to getting a flat belly in this phase of your life is to control your diet as well as to get engaged in a proper physical activity.
According to Dr. Lisa Young Ph.D., you should “help keep insulin at a healthy level by following a moderate-carb diet, in which most of your carbs come from nutritious unprocessed sources like whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables.”
You can easily lose your excess fat in this phase of life. A study published by the Journal of Nutrition found that healthy people who were given a mildly-low carb diet containing 43% carbs, 18% protein, and 39% fats lost 11% of their abdominal fat in just 8 weeks.
As of physical activity, experts recommend 30 to 40 minutes of steady state cardio sessions twice or thrice a week to keep your body in a good shape. The workouts need to be at or above 7/10 on an intensity scale. Flat abs are quite easy for you to get, you just need to be careful about what you eat and also about a proper workout.
Getting a flat belly in your 30’s:
This is usually the age for women to bear children. Pregnancy can cause complications in the muscular structure of the abdomen and can cause deposition of fats in the abdominal region.
However, during this age, metabolic rate is still at an acceptable pace and you can still rely on the growth hormone to make things work for you in having a flat stomach. Though your estrogen levels also start to fall, that isn’t an issue until you are well into the forties.
Getting your body back in shape after the pregnancy requires two things; burning the fat covering your abs and strengthening the muscles damaged by pregnancy.
Experts suggest you follow a high-intensity, time-saving workout routine. Your workout must include the moves that strengthen and tone your damaged muscles. It must also make you move so fast that your heart rate spikes to a considerable level.
Here’s some workout advice from Trainer Sara Haley that you can use. After warming up, do the following moves for one minute each: high knees, knee repeaters, plank squats, and dead bugs. Rest for one minute and then repeat the whole cycle, followed by a proper cool down.
Haley, the creator of the Expecting More pre- and postnatal exercise DVD programs, warns against crunch as “crunching and twisting movements can make any separation worse because they repeatedly open and close the abdominal muscles.”
You must also have a proper 7 to 9-hour sleep every day as lack of sleep can cause you to gain weight at an incredibly fast rate. Even though it is difficult to get enough sleep with all the household chores – including caring for your child – you need to have proper sleep to remain healthy.
Getting a flat belly in your 40’s:
At this age, the levels of estrogen – which used to dictate fat deposition in butts, breasts, and hips – fall down significantly, resulting in increased fat deposition on the abs.
Though your body hormones are not in your favor anymore, you can still maintain yourself in good shape. The key is to do moderate to high-intensity workouts with more reps and shorter rest intervals.
Nicholas Ratamess, Ph.D., a professor of health and exercise science at the College of New Jersey, says: “Moderate- to high-intensity programs with multiple sets, high reps, short rest intervals, and exercises that target multiple large muscle groups at one time produce substantial acute growth hormone responses.”
Muscle degeneration also starts at this age. That’s why you ought to consume 50 to 60 grams of good quality protein diet daily to keep your muscles in good shape.