The stomach is one of the most difficult areas of the body to lose fat from. While it seems as though other parts respond well to diet and exercise, the stomach is reluctant to change, and there doesn't seem to be one effective way of losing fat there without taking it off elsewhere too. There is a lot of conflicting advice about how to loose your beer belly, from extra crunches in the gym that most people agree don't work, to special fat-burning pills which are mocked by the scientists.



Most people will tell you that there is no certain way of losing fat from just your stomach. If you want to lose weight, they will tell you, you will need to reduce the fat from all over your body; you can't pick and choose where the body takes its fat reserves from. They may recommend a very strict fat-free diet which can backfire, since the body's first reaction to starvation conditions is to keep what little fat it has. In effect, you will achieve the opposite of what you want. An ideal low-fat diet should have around 55% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and only 15% fat.

Gym fanatics will probably confirm that there is very little you can do to make sure the fat you lose is taken from your waistline. They may show you a few tricks, such as the extra-special crunches that are supposed to target your abs, to the recommended method by a former Mr Universe. Some of these exercises can be useful, but they are not as good as effective diet, which will benefit the whole body. You should also beware of the latest 'ab crunching' machine; the amount of use these devices get rarely pays for their cost. Most of them are useless, and since they don't take fat directly off the abs, you will have splendid muscles but you won't be able to see them under the excess lard.

Just as useless are diet pills, though these are much more dangerous than any exercise machine fad. Many fat-reduction pills have been withdrawn by doctors, as they have been proven to affect health. Also, messing with your body's metabolism in this way can mean that you

The problem will all of these devices is that there is no proven way to select the part of the body where fat will be taken from. When you burn fat, you burn energy, and this is taken from everywhere. A careful diet is, of course, essential when you are trying to lose weight, as is regular exercise; however, in order to lose the most from your waistline, you should be doing more cardiovascular, or aerobic, exercise. Most people do not do enough of this kind of workout, often stopping after half an hour. For the first 20 or so minutes, the body is not burning fat, but glycogen (carbohydrates), and only after this time does it start to burn fat. So with aerobic exercise, the key to burning stomach fat is to work out for as much as an hour continuously. You should be doing this at least 3 to 4 times a week.

As well as aerobic exercise, you should give some time to resistance exercises. This is of course, working out with weights, which many people find very daunting. On the one hand, weight training exercise will slow down the number of pounds you lose per week (as it increases muscle mass), but you will be loosing fat. Also, resistance training is generally beneficial to your health, and a complete weight-loss program will include aerobic and resistance exercises, as well as a low-fat diet.