Fed up with your beer belly,or muffin top. Well with a little help with your diet and doing a little more exercise you to can have a flat stomach. Lots of people try situps and other abdominal workouts to try to get a flat stomach or six pack. These exercises are great but on there own will not give you the flat stomach you are after. This is where a lot of people go wrong right from the start. Just focusing on abdominal exercises alone will not burn body fat.

Everyone has the potential to create a great midsection. Before embarking on the abdominal workouts your first aim should be to loose the body fat around your midsection. So how do you get rid of this layer of fat? In simple terms you will need to follow a structured program that incorporates both exercise and nutrition. The fact is a good nutritional program will account for probably at least 80% of your success when trying to achieve a flat stomach or six pack. Even your meal times and the amount you eat is absolutely crucial.

Some of the best exercises for burning body fat are swimming, fast walking, cross training, rowing etc. When doing any of these exercises you need to get your heart rate to a suitable level depending on your rested heart rate. Below shows you how to do this.

Below is an example of the Karvonen formula for a 23 year old person with a rested heart rate of 65 beats per minute (*to get your resting heart rate, take your pulse for one full minute.):

220 - 23 (age) = 197
197 - 65 (resting heart rate) = 132
132 * 65% (low end of heart rate) OR 85% (high end) = 85.8 OR 112.2
85.8 + 65 (resting heart rate) = 150 112.2 + 65 (rhr) = 177
The target heart rate zone for this person would be 150 to 177

For this person to work in his 'fat burning' zone, he would need to stay around 150 beats per minute or lower. To work within his 'cardio' zone, he would need to work at 150 bpm or higher.

Before undertaking any physical exercise you should see your GP Doctor to make sure you do not have any health problems. When you get the all clear, you can then start your training program. When doing any kind of training you should always remember to train on alternate days, so as your body has a day to recover. So you have started your training, and hopefully started a good nutritional program, with both of these in place you should start feeling better and hopefully loosing that unwanted weight around your midsection. If you are doing any kind of resistance training e.g. weight training, this does build muscle and we all know muscle weighs more then fat.

If nothing else I hope this hub makes you think a little about how all of us are all getting a bit lazy, and how a little exercise every other day can keep you that much healthier and fitter. So why not grab your gym kit and do something today, and enhance your tomorrow.

Below are some links you might find useful.

Fat Burning Fat Burning Cardio