The Best Way for Women to Lose Belly Fat

Many people incorrectly believe that doing crunches will help you lose belly fat. In truth, sit-ups and crunches will only create muscle over the fat tissue. If you want to burn the fat you have to implement a specific type of weight loss and fitness plan. The best way for a woman to lose belly fat is to change her diet habits and do specific exercises that burn fat. This requires a serious commitment. It requires a lifestyle change.

Buy the Right Foods

• A flat tummy starts with food. What you eat has a significant effect on the size of your waist. Collect foods that are high in protein and fiber. Stock your shopping cart with yogurt, fruits and vegetables, fish, shrimp, chicken, romaine lettuce, brown rice and lean meats. Buy whole grain bread and pasta in place of white bread and pasta. Get turkey bacon instead of regular bacon for your morning breakfast. Also, fill your refrigerator with eggs. Buy a big jug of olive oil as you will be using this in place of butter to cook. Both olive oil and avocados are chock full of monosaturated fats, which promote weight loss.
  Some ladies love fruity alcoholic drinks, but you should replace your sugary cosmopolitans and apple martinis with simpler drinks. For instance, regular white Bacardi with diet coke has no carbohydrates or sugar. Finally, get a box of green tea in your favorite flavor to drink when you have a desire for a hot beverage with Splenda sweetener instead of coffee with regular sugar.
  Don't neglect the desire to snack, but you need to snack with the right food. Get the following snack foods to fill that need: carrots, celery, whole grain crackers and raisins.

Daily Diet

• Eat three square but smaller portioned meals a day and one or two healthful snacks in between. Reduce your portion size by up to 25 percent. According to a recent study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a woman will feel just as full on a small portion as she would if offered a larger portion. A suggested meal day would go like this: Two slices of turkey bacon and two eggs with one of the yolks taken out for breakfast. An 8-ounce salad with sliced chicken breast for lunch. Two pieces of baked tilapia fish and a half a cup of brown rice for dinner. As a snack, you could have whole grain crackers with tuna fish.

Exercise Tips

• Cardiovascular exercise is the final key to losing belly fat. The best cardio exercises for women include a quick jog in the morning and floor based exercises like dancing (consider taking a salsa class) or step aerobics. These are great because they only take about a half an hour to an hour at a time and are activities that many women enjoy. Swimming is also one of the best exercise routines for a female because the motions help to trim a woman's body in all of the right places. Think of the hand motions involved in taking swim strokes and how it works the sides of your torso. When you sweat you know you're burning calories.