How can I get a flat stomach?

I know 'spot training' doesn't work and I've been doing cardio and weight training for a long time now. My diet is pretty good, sometimes I think I overdo it but nothing enough to stop fat loss. What exactly can I do?

How much do you weigh/how tall are you?

5'4, 110

You're a lot like me! I'm 5'3.5" and I weigh about 106. At our size, losing weight is not going to do much to achieve a flat stomach. Trust me, I've tried it, I went down to 100 or so and I was all bones...except for the pudge on my stomach! And I got frustrated seeing people who weighed 10-20 lbs more than me with smoother stomachs. The key is to do regular muscle-strengthening routines like Pilates and Yoga. Take some core fitness classes! There are some good videos on Youtube that you can do on your own at home as well.

hey guys we all have the same stats! hah im 5'4 and normally weigh 107-108 but for some odd reason i just bumped up to 110? :-? anyways, flat stomachs are very hard to get...at least for me, but i do have one now! except i have that little pouch most girls have of skin at the bottom of the stomach but the top i have some abs, bottom abs could use some work though...but id suggest a mix of cardio and ab workouts...and anything that works your core! pilates is a favorite :)

Thanks for the advice on pilates!I've heard of it before but never really paid attention to it. How much time of those pilates excercises would I have to do to see some real toning results in my belly?

The only way you are going to acheive a flat stomach is complete fat loss which is acheived through weight training. Not crunches, not yoga, not freakin pilates. Weight lifting. Cardio aint gonna cut it either. I bet you will not get a flat stomach if all you do is pilates and yoga. Take a gander at the fitness forum or bodybuilding.com and they will tell you yoga and pilates is a bunch of crap for losing fat.

Everyone here is "sort of" right. Pilates (and yoga, to an extent) work the ab muscles great and will give you a flat stomach...however, to be able to even begin to see the flat stomach, you need to be under, I believe, 14% body fat. A new study was done that shows that adding interval excersizes (a period of extremely hard cardio followed by a rest period) is key for losing belly fat (and all over fat!).

So, you definitely need everything everyone has mentioned - you need to do cardio to lose the body fat to even have the abs show through, you need weight training to gain and tone the necessary muscle, and you can do pilates and yoga for stretching and working the ab muscles (there's a reason pilates is called the core workout).

However, as Mercy_bobcat pointed out, pilates alone will not give you flat abs, unless you are under the necessary body fat (again, about 14%). While the muscle will develop from pilates, you won't be able to see it, and you'll still just have a "pudge."

Hopefully this helped!

Original Post by mercy_bobcat:

The only way you are going to acheive a flat stomach is complete fat loss which is acheived through weight training. Not crunches, not yoga, not freakin pilates. Weight lifting. Cardio aint gonna cut it either. I bet you will not get a flat stomach if all you do is pilates and yoga. Take a gander at the fitness forum or bodybuilding.com and they will tell you yoga and pilates is a bunch of crap for losing fat.

Well, I just suggested Pilates because the original poster is already pretty thin (hence, probably does not have THAT much extra body fat) and she said she does weight training and cardio already.

Yeah. I do weight training, tons of it. And I also do interval training and they have done crap for me . And I know pilates isn't exactly going to eliminate fat.

My stomach isn't completely flat, but I'm getting the outer ab muscle lines(?)

I was wondering how people get the vertical line down their abs! That's what I really want T_T I just get the outer lines!

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1786/akiho shino3np4.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8456/leahd izon24nk1.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/9141/yukie kawamura2ke9.jpg

I have the vertical line...I don't think it has to do with how thin or fat you are because while I am thin, I am also very very untoned. I actually think the line makes me look fatter. I've always wanted it to go away haha. Now I might change my mind.

So since it's not due to exercise, wouldn't it be there because you are very thin?

I heard for your 6 pack to show (I don't want a 6 pack, this is just what I heard) you need to have around 14% body fat... I think I'm around 17-19?

I don't know if I'm from 16% body fat to 19%

you really shouldn't even try to lose weight. At 5'4'' 110 lbs is the lowest you can go and remain healthy. IF you really want to lose the belly, just do weight training. You might even gain soem weight but its all purely muscle...so dont worry about that. I mean think about it...even if you weight 5 pounds more, but still look the same weight BUT even tighter and fit, wouldnt you love it and not care for the number on the scale?

So do a combination of strength training and cardio...eat properly though because if not you'll end up looking boney which is NOT appealing plus very unhealthy.

focus on abdominal work....though remember some women are not geneticaly built to have abs...some may try forever and not get the full on 6 pack...a tight stomach is even hard to get so just focus on getting it a bit flat and feel happy with yourself...at 110 lbs I dont think you have much of a belly anyway ;) and I should know cos I weigh exactly what you do and Im also 5'4 so we have the exact same stats...and I dont even exercise so I have more fat than you do for sure.

good luck

I'll say it before anyone else does.  Don't post if you aren't eating at least 1200 calories a day, 1500 if you're a teen.

At eating 600-800 calories a day you are bringing your metabolism to a crawl and dooming yourself to weight gain the second you eat ANYTHING out of the ordinary. While your 1200-1500 cal/day friends will burn every bit of their thanksgiving dinner, your body will store the ENTIRE thing as fat. You will also burn more muscle than fat, making you "weigh less," but be less toned, flabby.  Read up, it's a good lesson to learn while you're still young.  The more you eat (of good, right foods) the more you'll lose!

FYI, due to posts which were against posting guidelines, some posts from this thread were removed, so as a result the thread may not make 100% complete sense.