How to Burn off Belly Weight

Having a baby, gaining weight or even just getting older can cause many people to build up fat around their stomach and torso. Dieting to reduce caloric intake and engaging in exercises targeted at stretching and strengthening abdominal muscles can help you burn off belly weight that you've been carrying around. While losing belly flab is not easy and does require watching what you eat as well as repetitive stomach-building exercises, the work is worth it -- excess stomach flab can lead to health problems down the road, including obesity, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes.

Things You'll Need

• Incline bench
• 3 or 5-pound weight disc

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Instructions

• 1

  Calculate the number of calories you are currently consuming by keeping track of everything you eat and drink in a food diary for one week. Try not to change how you are eating, but simply to record what you eat and drink throughout the day and evening. Find calorie information on food labels or online for everything you eat.

• 2

  Consider what you can cut from your diet each day to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories. Start by cutting sugary sodas and sweets as well as high-fat junk food from your diet. Realize that one pound is equal to 3,500 calories, so cutting 500 calories a day should result in weight loss of one pound per week.

• 3

  While watching what you eat, engage in three stomach exercises daily to reduce belly weight. Lay down on an incline bench and grab hold of the bench behind your head with both hands. Raise your knees off the bench until they are positioned above your waist. Lift your hips off the bench toward your head which will make your knees rise slightly. Perform three sets of 10 repetitions.

• 4

  Lay down on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat. Place a light weight disc such as a three- or five-pound weight disc on your chest. Hold the disc to your chest with both hands. Raise your shoulder blades off the ground, focusing your attention on your stomach muscles, using them to pull your torso up off the ground and to your knees. Perform three sets of 10 repetitions.

• 5

  Sit down on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Cross your feet at your ankles and raise them off the floor a few inches. Fold your hands together so that they form a cup. Twist your torso, touching your fingers to the floor on either side of you, moving from side to side for one minute. Take a break for one minute and repeat, trying to do three sets of one minute to perform the oblique exercises, understanding that this exercise will stretch your side stomach muscles and along with the other two, will help you burn off belly fat on the front and sides of your stomach.