How To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
This is going to be the last article you’ll ever need to read on how to lose belly fat and get a toned stomach.
And I really do mean it.
Especially because if you were to look up “how to lose belly fat” right now, your screen would be littered with a bunch of clickbait titles like…
“HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT IN 2 WEEKS”
“DRINK THIS TO LOSE BELLY FAT IN 3 WEEKS”
“DO THESE EXERCISES JUST 2X A DAY FOR A FLAT STOMACH IN 42 MINUTES”
(Which to be fair, the only reason these videos and articles do so well is because of our desire to want to have achieved quick results by yesterday.)
But I digress.
The real reason why you’re here?
You’re sick of all of the BS information that’s out there.
You want someone who is going to give you honest, accurate, and simple steps you can take to lose that belly fat once and for all.
The only thing I ask of you is that you read the entire article. No skipping around. Otherwise, you’ll miss crucial information and end up being a victim to those clickbait videos and articles all over again.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
The 3 Things You Need To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
If you want to lose belly fat, there are three crucial things you need to address:
- Your Mindset
- Your Nutrition
- Your Training
Now let’s take a closer look at what addressing each of these three things will entail.
The Mindset You Need To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
The first thing we are going to talk about is your mindset because quite frankly if you don’t have the right mindset in place, nothing else is going to matter.
There won’t be a single nutrition or training plan that will help you unless you can actually get yourself in the right mindset to follow through and stay consistent (by the way, I have an article that teaches you how to stay consistent with your fitness which you can read about HERE).
The Scale Isn’t The End All Be All
Look, the scale is a great tool to use to measure progress, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you rely on.
It can be hard especially when you’re caught up with wanting to “lose weight.”
It’s in the name itself, when you lose weight, you celebrate success, when you gain weight, you wonder what you’re doing wrong.
Sound familiar? Well, firstly stop doing that shit.
Remember that you want to lose fat, not just weight.
Also, remember that the only you lose and gain on a daily basis isn’t just fat, your body is constantly gaining a losing body mass from a variety of things (mostly water).
Again, this doesn’t mean that you should ditch the scale and throw it into the dumpster, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you rely on and use to gauge how well your day is going to go.
Because truth be told, you don’t really care what the number on the scale says, right?
You might think you do or say you do, but it’s not really about that number at all.
It’s more about how sexy you thought you looked at a certain bodyweight or how good you felt in your body at that other point in time (which you think is associated with that number).
But the number on the scale and how sexy you felt or how good you feel in your body are not one in the same.
Allow me to explain…
If I were to ask you, “how much do I weigh in each of these photos?”
What would your answer be?
You would likely say, “You are definitely heavier on the left! Your muscles are so defined and visible on the right!”
What if I told you…that I weighed around the same in both pictures?
You’re probably thinking, “no way!!!”
Yes, way, and here’s why.
Body Recomposition To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
Enter body recomposition.
It’s basically just a fancy term for building muscle and losing fat at the same time.
This is exactly why when you step on the scale, the number won’t have changed one yet your clothes will fit differently, your measurements will go down, and your body in the mirror will look completely different, etc.
Check Out What My Coaching Client Cristina Accomplished
This is one of my online coaching clients, Cristina.
Not only was she able to lose that belly fat she thought was stubborn and got a toned stomach, but she’s also a badass for showing up to every single workout ready to lift heavy ass weights.
She has worked extremely hard day in and day out and it shows.
And the best part about this story?
She is weighing 3 lbs heavier.
(You should see the look on your face right now lol)
Again, here’s my point.
The Scale Doesn’t Tell The Whole Story
The answer to losing belly fat and getting a toned stomach isn’t going to be found on the scale.
You don’t really care about the number on the scale, the thing you care most about is how you look in the mirror.
As we’ve clearly seen with photo evidence, the scale isn’t necessarily lying, but it also doesn’t tell the whole story.
You’re going to have a much better idea of belly fat loss from taking measurements and progress pictures.
Again, this doesn’t mean that “the scale is evil” and that you should throw it out the window.
In fact, I still encourage you to weigh yourself every day (just like all of my clients do).
Why? Because it’s just all data. Nothing to attach your emotions to. Just a number on a piece of plastic that you log down with no feelings about.
However, as we’ve seen, it isn’t the most accurate form of representation for the way your body looks.
And this is something I want you to drill into your head because this is the single most important point I need you to understand.
Yes, more important than the nutrition and training.
Because unless you break free from letting the scale run your life and live in your head rent-free, you won’t even be able to appreciate any of your progress.
So stop only relying on the scale and make sure to taking measurements every 2 weeks and progress pictures every 4 weeks.
Got it? Cool. Let’s move on.
The Nutrition Approach You Need To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
This might sound backward but…
Most people think that the answer to losing belly fat is just to get into a calorie deficit to try and lose as much fat as possible.
When again, the answer as shown by both my clients and me is to not just lose fat, but to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously.
With that said, here are two scenarios that most people that I’ve worked with fall into.
If You Are “Skinny Fat”
If you happened to be in a similar situation as either my client or me in the pictures above, where you don’t necessarily have a lot of weight to lose, but you still have some fat in the midsection, then here is your exact nutrition plan.
You are going to eat at around maintenance calories, aim for 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight, and make sure you are following a real strength training program (which will be covered in more detail in the training section).
That’s the plan. But here’s the most important part.
You need to actually stick to this plan for at least 85-90% consistency for the next 3+ months.
Now that we know the “what” to do, we need to establish the “how.”
First up, if you don’t already know your maintenance calories, HERE is my completely free calculator to help you out (follow the “maintain your weight” option).
Secondly, if you weigh 160lbs, then aim for about 160g of protein.
Now, you’re probably wondering, “But wait, I thought that if I want to lose fat I should be eating in a calorie deficit.”
Yes, this is still true. The laws of thermodynamics have not changed (since this article was written I might add).
But here are two things we need to discuss in further detail.
By doing all of the above: eating around maintenance calories, eating 1g/lb of BW worth of protein, and following a proper strength training program, this is what will happen.
You’re going to build lean muscle mass which will result in a couple of things.
Firstly, by adding lean muscle to your body, you’re going to be adding lean body mass which will help indirectly lower your body fat percentage and improve your body composition.
Many people just think about body fat percentage as only gaining and losing fat, but it’s more so a comparison of your body fat mass versus lean body mass on your body.
The number one reason why people have the “skinny fat” look is that they don’t have enough lean muscle mass.
While you can try to perpetually calorie deficit your way into losing that belly fat or getting the look you want but…
Secondly, when you build lean muscle mass, this increases your metabolism.
(Think what’s more active and burns more calories in your body? Your fat or muscle?)
So when you start off at maintenance, you’ll eventually go into a slight deficit.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “why not just start with a deficit, to begin with??”
Because if we were to start off in a deficit, then we won’t have as much of a chance to optimize building lean muscle which means we’ll lose out on the benefits we covered above.
So quit trying to constantly diet yourself into having a lean and defined physique, it ain’t gonna happen.
If You Have A Lot Of Body Fat
For this situation, this is if you have a lot of body fat to lose. I’m talking if you have 20+ lbs to lose.
In this case, we’re going to want to get into an actual calorie deficit.
However, we don’t want to be in too much of a deficit because, again, we want sufficient calories so that we can build lean muscle mass so you end up looking the way you desire.
HERE is my free calculator again. This time follow the “lose 0.5 lb per week” option (if you have 40+ lbs, you can go with the 1 lb per week).
There we have calories covered.
Now for protein, follow the same suggested guidelines of 1g/lb of BW.
And for workouts, we still want to be following a real strength training program (more details below).
The Training To Do To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
Nope, not cardio…
Now, don’t get me wrong.
Cardio is an excellent way to improve your heart health, increase your daily calorie burn, and improve your recovery between strength training sessions (if you want to know everything under the sun about cardio, check out my other article HERE).
However, doing hours and hours of cardio along with eating 1,000 calories a day isn’t the answer to losing belly fat.
As discussed earlier, while the above is great to just simply create a huge calorie deficit to lose fat, it doesn’t address the other piece of the puzzle: building muscle.
Starving yourself and doing cardio for hours on end isn’t a great way to build lean muscle to get the tone and definition you want.
This is where your training plan will play a key role. Specifically, a well-rounded strength training routine, not just YouTube HIIT and ab workouts (not that these are bad, they certainly do help a lot of people get moving, but they aren’t very good for building muscle).
Enter Strength Training
So what entails a well-rounded strength training routine? (Hint: Not doing endless reps of ab exercises)
Now, I could go on for days talking about all the considerations of designing a good workout routine.
Oh wait, I did. You can find that in this other article HERE.
But just a few key things that a well-rounded strength training routine should have:
- Good movements that train each major muscle group of the body
- You training hard enough to stimulate muscle growth
- Progressive overload to ensure that you’re increasingly challenging your muscles over time
And look, I’ll cut to the chase.
If the “program” you’re following doesn’t have these three things, you’re not going to see much progress in terms of losing belly fat and getting the muscle tone and defintion you’re after.
Which a lot of HIIT and ab workouts you find online won’t have.
So don’t completely ditch the cardio, but don’t also make that your main focus if you want to lose belly fat and get a toned stomach.
Final Thoughts And The Exact Blueprint To Lose Belly Fat And Get A Toned Stomach
Every single one of my clients you see follows a proper, well-rounded, and intelligently designed strength training program that has them working out 3-4x a week with an emphasis on training hard and progressively overloading.
They also aren’t completely ditching the cardio, but that also isn’t their primary focus. Most of them walk. Yes, walk. They aim for 5-10k steps a day.
In addition, they absolutely crush their nutrition plan by eating an appropriate number of calories and not starving themselves, and eating adequate protein to help them build lean muscle.
Seriously. No BS like I said.
It really is that simple, detach from the scale, strength train 3-4x a week, get strong AF, walk.
And before I let you go, yes I get it.
It doesn’t sound as sexy as “do this ab workout for 14 days” or “rub this cream on your belly” or “just drink this detox fruit water.”
What I am telling you here in this article will require hard work, consistency, and patience.
But it will work.
Because truthfully, I’m not here to rip you off for all of your money (otherwise I wouldn’t be here writing this completely free article for you, would I?).
I just want to best help you by giving you time-tested and guaranteed methods to help you achieve your goals.
And if you’re thinking, “Damn Austin, this is so much to figure out. Why don’t you just tell me exactly what to do?”
Then I got you.
You sound like you might be a good fit for my online coaching program.
Otherwise, I hope this helped. Now, let’s go crush this.
Until next time,
-Aus
