How to Get a Flat Stomach for a Woman

Trying to get a flat stomach will improve your health. The MayoClinic website states that women with excess fat around their waistline are at a greater risk for heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. To get a flat stomach, you have to reduce the fat around the waist, which requires more than just doing countless stomach exercises. You have to make exercise and healthy eating a priority.

Instructions

• 1

  Cope with stress in your life so your stress hormones stay level. Take a short break from work every 90 minutes and breathe deeply to stay relaxed. Practice meditation or yoga to manage stress. The Natural Health Website for Women states that excess stress in your life can increase fat around your waist because of the stimulation of the stress hormone cortisol.

• 2

  Read food labels to find out about the sodium content in food products and reduce your overall salt intake because salt makes your body retain water, which leads to bloating. The American Heart Association recommends you eat less than 1,500 mg of salt daily.

• 3

  Provide the body with constant nutrients by eating smaller portions, five to six times per day instead of eating three large meals. Eating frequently keeps your metabolic burn going and will make you feel satiated because you are constantly eating. Make healthy choices such as vegetables, fruits, avocados, olive oil, chicken, turkey, egg whites and whole-grain and fiber-rich products.

• 4

  Reduce your body fat, including stomach fat, by increasing your heart rate and metabolism with cardiovascular exercise such as running, biking or swimming. The Women Fitness website suggests you exercise for 30 minutes per day, up to four times per week.

• 5

  Add weight lifting to your workout sessions so you burn fat and increase muscle tissue, which stimulates your metabolism all day long. Tone the whole body and don't just focus on the stomach.

• 6

  Target your abdominals with abdominal exercises no more than three nonconsecutive days per week. Perform a variety of exercises such as crunches, reverse crunches, side bends, leg lifts and bicycle crunches. Challenge yourself by holding a dumbbell in your hands as you do crunches, or perform the exercises on a stability ball. Keep your abdominals guessing.

• 7

  Learn the stomach vacuum exercise because you can do it anywhere and anytime. It works the transverse abdominals, which hold together your entire stomach like a corset. Lie down on the floor, on your back, or sit up straight in a chair. Exhale so there is no air left in you lungs and pull the bellybutton in toward the spine. Breathe normally as you keep your tummy pulled in tight for as long as you can. Release the tension and repeat the exercise. Work it up to hold the tension for 60 seconds.