You will often hear “Abs are made in the kitchen” or “Diet is 70%, Exercise is 30%”. Catchy phrases like this may simplify our understanding of challenges we face but it’s not the full story for moms on getting a flat tummy.
Excess Abdominal Fat vs. “The Pooch”
A distinction needs to be made between the two aspects that prevent a “flat tummy”:
- Excess abdominal fat, and
- “The Pooch”
Yes, Layers of Fat does not equal Flat
There is more than one part to this seemingly simple concept….lose the fat around your tummy and reveal flat sexy abs – right?
Not exactly....
You Can’t Target Fat Loss
Excess abdominal fat will certainly prevent you from having a flat tummy. It’s why the saying “abs are made in the kitchen” is so popular. It’s communicating that your nutrition is a key aspect of fat loss and therefore an important part of dealing with excess tummy fat.
However, you can’t choose to lose fat from a specific area. So when you diet, you can’t say “Ok body, fat from my tummy and not my boobs please!”. Fat loss can’t be targeted to a specific area. You’ll lose fat from your back, arms, face, neck, thighs, butt and anywhere else there’s fat on that glorious body of yours. You don’t get to pick where it comes off .
This mean the saying “fat loss is made in the kitchen” is more accurate…yes, some fat will come off your tummy but you can’t target the fat to come off just your tummy.
You & Your Hormones
It’s important to know that hormones play an important role in fat loss, especially the last 5 or so pounds that are so hard to lose. Even some very lean women hang onto the last few pounds right on their tummy. What’s up with that?
Hormones. Then add in stress, which raises our cortisol hormone, and you’ve got a recipe for a bit of extra belly fat.
When your stress and cortisol levels are high, your body actually resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it hoards the fat you eat or have present on your body. Cortisol tends to take fat from healthier areas, like your butt and hips, and move it to your abdomen because it has more cortisol receptors. Hello ab flab! In the process, it turns once–healthy peripheral fat into unhealthy visceral fat (the fat in your abdomen that surrounds your organs) that increases inflammation and insulin resistance in the body.
Your hormonal health, which includes stress management, exercise and eating foods/herbs that help to rebalance your hormones are also an important factor in a flat tummy.
“That Pooch”
Imagine a woman, let’s call her “mom”, that has a healthy fat to muscle ratio as well as a balanced hormonal profile such that those last 5 pounds came off her tummy. She’d have a flat tummy, right?
Probably not.
A weakened core after having a kid or two (or more!) and you’ve got a mom pooch, not a flat tummy. You know the “mom pooch” – it’s that lower poochy part of your tummy. No matter how low your body fat or balanced your hormones, that pooch prevents a flat looking tummy.
In particular, the deeper abdominal layers are in need restoration or mom will have a mom pooch for the rest of her life - whether she’s recently post-partum or decades later.
That’s what the BMGF Flat Tummy Plan addresses. It’s a core restoration program that works from the deepest layer to strengthen your abs for a flat (and functional) tummy. If it were a few simple exercises, everyone would know them by now and we’d just post them here for you. Instead we put together the 10 easy-to-follow modules that we teach our clients so you can address the “pooch” part of the flat tummy equation.
What To Do First?
You’ve learned there is a more than just one component to a flat tummy: fat loss, hormones and “that pooch”. What do you work on first?
Let me ask instead, why not work on them together? Like, now?
A flat tummy should be representative of optimal health. One that you have as a lifestyle not just a 12-week program.
Learn to eat well. Be smart about fat loss. Manage your stress and hormonal health. Restore function in your core lost during pregnancy and childbirth.
The truly “fit moms” are the ones that tackle each of these areas – sure, not full out all at once, but they are committed to make real changes to change for good. To them it becomes much more than just about a “flat tummy”.
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