If you want to reduce your stores of that stubborn stomach fat, then you are going to have to internalize some basic concepts and rules in order to make it happen. The belly, love handles, and rolls of back fat didn’t get there by magic, it was months or years of poor dietary and exercise decisions, and getting rid of the fat won’t happen by magic either. If one wants to banish the belly fat for good, then it is necessary to learn these lessons.

 

The Short-Term Fix is the Wrong Answer

There are so many search queries online from people who are looking to lose all their fat within a week, month, or some other quick fix and arbitrary time frame. These types of short-term plans, aren’t realistic, and the diets people follow (crash and starvation) are downright unhealthy and unsustainable. Trying to change long-term fat accumulation with short-term solutions is a recipe for failure, as whatever fat one does lose, will come roaring back and many times, be worse than before.

The problem is you’re looking for a magic cure for something that requires a long-term change permanent in your lifestyle. The solution is to think of a healthier lifestyle and not a ‘diet’ you’re going to do for weeks before going back to your old ways. It is a process of getting healthier, losing fat, and making it something that lasts for the long-term.

 

Measure Your Calories

For some reason, many people have a problem with tracking calories. In fact, many diet and weight loss programs sell themselves partly by saying you’ll never have to count calories. The truth of the matter is, that if you want consistent results that you can tweak easily, then tracking calories is perhaps the best way. Do you have to do it? No. However, consider that if fat loss is a math problem of calories in versus calories out and you don’t know either part of the equation, how are you going to adjust your plan?

The fat loss that will come at the beginning of the journey is easy to get. If you don’t exercise and then start exercising, you’ll lose some fat. If you eat like crap and then clean it up a bit, you’ll lose fat. What happens when the fat loss stalls after the initial loss? Do you know what adjustments to make? If you track your foods and calories, you can easily eliminate and extra 100-200 calories per day, without  having to do anything besides change a portion size or simply by substituting one food for another.

I use the My Net Diary app for iPhone and with a ton of smart phone apps or one’s you can track on your computer, it makes tracking calories easy and painless. Common foods and portion sizes get saved, so you can quickly repeat the same meals again and again.