1) The key to losing weight is confusing your metabolism and exercise. Fitness is more than simply losing weight. It is a combination of metabolism, cardiovascular and good eating habits. Your body gets used to the same routine and therefore must be tricked sometimes into believing you have changed your daily routine. Instead of eating 3 regular meals each day, you may want to try eating 5 small ones. This can trick your metabolism into thinking it is going to get much more than normal nourishment, therefore it is okay to use some of the fat and calories it has stored. After your body is used to this eating habit, usually when you hit a plateau and are no longer losing weight, change it back to your regular 3 meals each day. Don't forget to continue your exercise regimen as usual. You may even want to consider additional abdominal exercises to assist in the flattening of your stomach.

2) Don't let your body stockpile your carbohydrates. When you eat rice, wheat, pasta or potatoes and do not exercise, your body stockpiles the carbohydrates you just ingested. If you eat any of these carbohydrates make sure you plan to exercise to allow your body to burn off the carbohydrates. When eating a lot of carbohydrates make sure it's during the day or just before you go to the gym so your body has time to burn them before you lay down to rest.

3) Eat healthy fats. Your body naturally craves fat. You can quench this craving by simply eating healthy fats like nuts, cottage cheese, fish and hummus. These foods contain unsaturated fats and these are fats that your body can distribute instead of storing them. Try to refrain from fried foods. Fried foods contain saturated fats that cannot be distributed well throughout the body therefore the body stores them for later use. So instead of burning these fats it goes straight to your hips or stomach and creates fat cells within the tissue.

4) Mix up your exercise routine. Once your body gets used to your normal exercise routine you hit a plateau where you are no longer losing weight. Sometimes this discourages people trying to hit a target weight. If you want to jazz up your exercise routine, try adding free weights to it. This keeps your routine from being boring. Other ways of mixing up your exercise routine is add sprints such as, hill sprints, swimming sprints or rock climbing. The gym is not the only method of exercise you can get. You may want to try staircase workouts where you use your stairs at home to work out or maybe sandbag training.

5) You must be consistent with your nutrition and workout. If you only exercise once a week you aren't going to burn the calories and fat that you would if you exercise 3-4 times a week. Make sure you eat consistently with your nutrition. The right foods will help you stay healthy while promoting weight loss and firm muscles.