The Real Secret to a Flat Stomach is Not Crunches

This is something I learned a while ago that I found very useful. If you want to lose weight around your midsection and get a flatter stomach, you might think you need to do a lot of sit-ups, crunches or other abdominal exercises. That's not the case.

Something like an Ab Roller, one of those stomach tazers or anything like that isn't necessary. Those things won't help you get a flat stomach, or at least they're not the most effective ways.

If you already have a flat stomach, and just want to work towards 6 pack abs, you'll need to do crunches and exercises to work your lower abs and obliques. There's no avoiding that, but if you're not quite there yet, and you want to slim down around your waist there are better ways to do it.
What you need to focus on is reducing fat. The best way to do that is watch what you eat, no surprise there, but that's not all.

Muscle burns fat, not only that working out your muscles burns fat, and it doesn't matter where your muscles are. For the most part, your body burns fat all over your body, not just around the muscle you're exercising.

Now, you could do abdominal exercises and burn fat, but your abs are relatively small muscles. So you'd have to do a lot of sit-ups to lose that spare tire.

You're better off working out larger muscles. Exercising larger muscles means you'll burn more calories and lose more fat. Your leg muscles are some of the biggest muscles you have.

If you want to lose weight around your waist, exercise your leg muscles. Kinda like that old saying if your feet are cold, wear a hat. Your legs can be easier to exercise, since many people don't like sit-ups. You can walk, jog, run, bike, step, cross-country ski, or any other exercise you feel comfortable with, watch your diet and you'll lose weight faster than just doing ab exercises.

You don't just have to work on your legs, work your arms, chest, back... the more you add, the more muscle you build, the more fat you burn.

If you're after a washboard stomach, you'll want to add some ab exercises 2-3 times a week. That way, when the fat melts around your waist, your newly developed muscles will start poking through.