A
female
age
30-35,
anonymous
writes:Dear Cupid...if a person wants to have a flat stomach, how many situps would you advice them to do a day? Thank you Reply to this Question
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male
reader, lakers_lover09 +, writes (11 March 2011):
H.I.I.T. look it up and it only takes 20 minutes a day
A
reader, anonymous, writes (11 March 2011): Everyone except Sincerely Yours has given great advice.
Targeting a single muscle group is a waste of time. You can't get rid of fat from only one area in your body, you have to lower your entire % body fat to get a flat stomach.
Full body workouts work the best.
Cardio and calisthenics are best.
Go to your doctor and ask if how you can do this, then go do that.
Sincerely Yours advice is the opposite of what you should do. You should never work the same muscle group two days in a row, because rest days are vital so the body can repair the muscle and make tone them. Plus doing exercise at separate time in the day doesn't rate the heart rate nor provide any kind of fat burning exercise, all you'll have is a rock hard stomach under a big layer of fat. Pointless.
Eat a balanced healthy diet of roughly 2000-2200 calories a day. Workout 3-4 times a week.
What I do currently is 30 minutes fartlek, high intensity, high resistence training on the rowing machine, 30 minutes skipping (jump rope), then about an hour and a half of weights. Every second day or when DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) subsides. My workout is very advanced and I compensate by eating 3500 calories a day.
All you have to do is 40 mins every second day of skipping and keeping your diet down to 2000 cals a day, supplement this with resistance training to burn extra calories (but you'll have to eat more calories if do that.)
Go talk to your doctor about it.
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A
male
reader, Jmtmj  +, writes (11 March 2011):
 Flat stomach or firm stomach? Apologies if you know this already, but you can't target where you want to lose fat from simply by targeting that area with specific exercises.
Say you do a million sit-ups... You'd build muscle fibres and they'd make your stomach firmer underneath the fat layer, but it won't make you lose fat from your stomach- not directly anyways and not by much.
Those million sit-ups won't make a flat stomach unless you're consistently burning more energy (exercise, BMR) than you're putting into your body (diet). See fat is stored in our bodies everywhere, we can't choose where that cupcake goes, similarly, we can't choose where to lose that cupcake from. Our genetics alone chooses where fat is stored in our bodies.
I suggest you not just focus on sit-ups to get a flat stomach... Eat a healthier diet, do whole body workouts with weights and 30 minutes of cardio 4 or more times a week and you will hit that stomach from three different weight loss angles. That's how you get a flat stomach... not through sit-ups alone.
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A
female
reader, Nime +, writes (11 March 2011):
 Situps alone are not going to give you a flat stomach. In order of importance:1. Most important: you need to reduce your bodyfat all around (there's no such thing as spot reduction, i.e., losing fat in just one area). That's the ONLY way you're going to achieve that hard, flat look: lose the fat. You can build up a firm wall of abdominal muscle, through situps or whatever other core exercises, as much as you like, but you won't be able to see that firmness unless you lose the fat over it. Even if the rest of you is slender, if your belly doesn't have that flat and firm look, you've got a layer of fat over it. 2. If your belly looks firm and hard but it's sticking out or bulging (no fat, but not flat), there may be several reasons. First, some people's internal organs naturally bulge out more than others'; in this case there is nothing you can do. Second, you may not be moving your bowels (going #2) often enough and you've got trapped gas and feces pushing your stomach out. If this is the case, eat smaller and more frequent meals high in fiber and take a probiotics supplement. Third, you may have a layer of fat built up UNDER your abdominal muscle (visceral fat). This is very difficult to remove and unhealthy for your heart.3. Look into other core exercises; situps are not very effective and they are hard to do correctly (most do them incorrectly and think they're doing them correctly).Good luck!!
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A
male
reader, uncle bob  +, writes (11 March 2011):
 Start by paying attention to what, how, and when you eat.Eat your meals at the same time everyday, eating three meals a day. Keep the meals light, low in fats and carbs.I'm not saying cut out fats and carbs, just cut back on them.If you feel the need to snack between meals, try some foods high in fiber. Things like raw veggies.Fresh fruit is good, but even though the sugars in these are all natural, it's still sugar. So be careful.As far as exercise, choose those exercises that target the abs.Many sets of 15 to 20 sit-ups throughout the day will work far faster than one or two sets of 100 per day.Above all else, stay active during the day, and get lots of sleep.You'll be amazed at how fast this will work!Good Luck.
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A
female
reader, Sincerely Yours +, writes (11 March 2011):
 If you haven't done situps before, then I would advice starting off with 20 every morning when you wake up. As you're going about your day, you may find time to do another 20 or so. Try to keep it consistent. If you have times every day for three sets of 20, then keep it at that.
SIDE NOTE: starting in the morning when you wake up is a good idea because doing so will release endorphins and enegergize you, giving you a great start to your day.
In a week or so, the 20 will be no problem for you, and you'll be able to increase to three sets of 30. Then 40, then 45, then 50... etc.
If you do them all at once every day, you may end up wearing out one of the muscles or damaging it, so that the work you put in that day, will have no affect. Treat yourself well.
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