A thick or bulging stomach can be due to several factors: Too much fat under he stomach skin, too much internal fat, weak stomach muscles and engorged intestines due to trouble with he digestion. To get a really nice stomach all these factors must be taken care of with appropriate measures.



THE RIGHT DIET

A right diet is one important key to getting a nice stomach. A good diet will help you loose fat, regulate your stomach function and help to build strong belly muscles.

The diet should not contain great amounts of fat and carbohydrates, but it must contain a good portion of full valued proteins at each meal. The diet should also be as natural as possible, without much added sugar, much added fat, chemically altered fat or refined carbohydrates.

Good protein sources are fish, seafood, foul, mushrooms, lean diary products, eggs, spawn, lean meat, nuts, almonds and sunflower seeds.

You need of course some carbohydrates and fat even though you should not exaggerate the consume of these. Good sources of carbohydrates are full corn bread or cereals, peas and beans. Good sources of fat are nuts, sunflower seeds, fat fish, almonds olive oil, rape oil, almond oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil, sunflower oil and nut oils.

Try to vary between many oil types to get a right mixture of fatty acids. Do not only use soy oil, palm oil or corn oil as some do, since this will give you too much of only some fatty acids.

Food sources with much fibre, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants will help your body to get rid of excessive fat, help to build muscles and help against bulging of your stomach due to digestive trouble. Full corn bread or cereals, vegetables and fruit contain good amounts of these necessary substances.

EXERCISES

Another necessary means to get a nice stomach are muscle exercises. You can find many good stomach exercises from a detailed instruction book, but here are three simple ones. Do at least 4 series with at least eight repetitions of one of the exercises at least every second day.

- This exercise strengthens your lover stomach area: Lie on your back. Use your hands as support under your buttocks. Lift your legs so that your feet are higher than your pelvis. Hold that position some seconds. Then lower your feet again. If your legs are straight, the exercise can be a little hard for your back. In order to make it less demanding for your back, you can flex your knees somewhat when you do the exercise.

- This exercise strengthens your upper stomach area: Lie down straight on your back. Place your hands under your neck. Lift your upper body some distance over the floor. Your whole lower body shall all the time have contact with the floor. Hold the position some seconds. Then lower your upper body again.

A variation of this exercise lets the effect work more on the sides of your stomach than at the central part: Flex up your knees and twist your knees and lower body to the left side. Then lift your upper body some times. Then flex your knees and lower body to the right side and lift up your upper body some times again.

- Training devices that allow you pull or press down with your arms are also good to strengthen your stomach muscles. You stand on your knees, then stretch your arms right out, and then push or pull down at the device. Such devices are also good to strengthen the sides of your stomach. To do so you straighten out one arm to the side and push or pull down some times, and then do the same with the other arm.

Of course you should not only exercise your stomach muscles, but have a complete exercise program for the whole body where the stomach exercises are just one module. Regular condition training like running, cycling, swimming or skiing is also valuable, because they help you to loose fat, including fat on your stomach.

It is also important not to exaggerate the stomach exercises. If you do so, you can end up with thick abdominal muscles that make your stomach look fat.

SUPPLEMENTS

On the market you can find supplements of fibres, minerals, vitamin and probiotics that are meant to increase your fat or sugar burning, regulate your digestion or stimulate tissue development. Such supplements may be of use to loose stomach fat and stimulate the strengthening of your stomach muscles.