The stomach is one of the problem places on your body where weight gain tends to end up and once the fat settles there is can seem nearly impossible to remove; however hard you exercise or try to eat healthily.

Not only is stomach fat unsightly it also increases your risk of poor health. This is because fatty tissue that is stored around the stomach and abdomen (sometimes called intra-abdominal, or visceral fat) carries a greater health risk than fat located in the lower body around the bottom and thighs. Some health studies show that abdominal fat leads to raised blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, high blood sugar, insulin resistance syndrome (metabolic syndrome X) and heart disease. Because of this, some experts believe that the ratio of your waist to hip is more important than your actual weight in predicting future health risks.

Fortunately, stomach fat isn’t as impossible to shift as you may think it is. You just need to know how. Follow these fifteen steps and you will see major improvements not just in your waistline but also in your health and wellbeing.

1. Get walking: You know walking is great for your heart, legs, bottom and energy level but here’s a little-known fact: It’s also a great way to flatten your belly. Women who walked briskly for 30 minutes to an hour a day for 14 weeks shrunk their belly fat by 20% – without changing their eating habits, reports a Canadian study.
2. Eat more often: Here’s another little known fact: eating more often than usual can help give you a flatter stomach. By eating little and often – and keeping your digestion and blood sugar levels steady – your body only takes in what it can process and little is stored as fat, so the risk of stomach bulge or bloating is minimised. So make sure you don’t leave more than three hours between meals and snacks.
3. Watch your posture: Poor posture and slumping as you walk can make even a flat stomach look saggy because when your body is aligned correctly, core muscles will work harder leading to a firmer stomach. Good posture has nothing to do with the old school rigidity of pulling in your stomach and puffing your chest out. Good posture is about keeping your body upright and stomach firm by using the muscles that run along your back and spine and legs to lift you up.
4. B vitamins: Make sure you get sufficient B vitamins, especially vitamin B6 – found in banana, fish, nuts, seed and whole grains – which is a good remedy for bloating. Other foods that can naturally decrease bloating include potassium rich foods such as bananas and green leafy vegetables.
5. Do your sit ups correctly: Sits ups performed correctly can help you give you a firm stomach and stronger back and if you perform them correctly you don’t have to do hundreds a day. To do a sit up correctly make sure you do it slowly and carefully. Lie down on the floor and bend your knees at a 45 degree angle. Tilt the pelvis up and release so your spine is in contact with the floor except at your lower back, where it will naturally come off the floor. Curl your chin towards your chest, leaving an apple-sized gap between your neck and chest. Keeping your hands on the floor, gently and smoothly lift your shoulders off the floor. You should take around two seconds to come up on an out breath and then breathe in as you release. Aim to do 15 reps, and build up to two to three sets at a time. Try to make this part of your daily getting up routine.
6. Ditch the gum: Chewing gum can cause bloating because your stomach starts producing digestive juices for food that doesn’t arrive and because when you chew gum you tend to swallow more air so best to avoid. If you want to freshen your mouth after a meal, brush your teeth or drink a cup of peppermint tea instead. Peppermint tea is known to help reduce bloating.
7. Cut out salt, sugar, junk food, and refined and processed foods: These can all lead to bloating, weight gain and digestive problems. Cut out caffeine too. Caffeine is a diuretic but it won’t cut out bloating because it hinders the secretion of excess salt and toxins from the body.
8. Increase your fluid intake: You need to drink more not less if you have water retention and bloating, to help your body dilute the salt in your tissues and allow you to excrete more salt and fluid. Aim for 6 to 8 glasses of filtered water a day.
9. Avoid alcohol: Any alcoholic drink can add to the size of your stomach because it causes bloating and is dense in calories. Every gram of alcohol contains the same amount of calories as a gram of butter. Like other calorie-packed foods it promotes weight gain. If you can’t give it up completely bear in mind that beer drinkers tend to have the highest waist-to-hip-ratios.
10. Eat slowly: If you eat too quickly this can overload your stomach, which can cause gas and bloating. Also you tend to gulp more air when you eat quickly so remember to eat slowly and really chew your food.
11. Work out your core muscles: Your core muscles lie behind your abdominals and keep your spine upright and control your balance and posture. A firmer core means a stronger back and a flatter stomach. To strengthen your core muscles, sit back in a chair with your head up, knees bent and feet on the floor. Rotate your shoulders up and back, and rest your arms by your sides. Pull your stomach in and breathe; imagine you are doing up an imaginary zip on the front your trousers. Keeping your stomach in raise and lower one leg at a time 10 times.
12. No starchy carbohydrates after 7 pm: Make sure you eat breakfast, then have a mid morning snack followed by a healthy lunch, a mid afternoon snack and a light supper. Try to eat most of your starchy carbohydrates before 7 pm. This is because carbohydrates are your energy boosters and you need to eat them during the day when you have an opportunity to burn off calories as energy not at nighttime when you need to be resting. If you do this you’ll notice a difference immediately the next morning when you wake up.
13. Massage your abdomen: If you suffer from bloating or digestive upsets abdominal massage can help ease symptoms. Use the flat of your hand to apply light pressure in anti-clockwise circular movements because this can help blood flow, relax muscles and encourage digestion.
14. Stress and stomach fat: Some health studies show that abdominal fat can develop as a result of stress. This is because the hormone cortisol is released during stress, and a high level of cortisol in the body appears to stimulate the storage of fat around the belly and abdomen. Researchers at Yale University studied 60 women and found that the more stress they were under, the more fat they stored around their stomachs. So if your life is constantly stressful make stress management a priority. An aromatherapy bath is a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day and can also be helpful for bloating. Add fennel or chamomile to a warm bath and soak for 20 minutes.
15. Whatever you do, don’t go on a diet: Irregular eating habits can increase bloating. If you leave your stomach empty for long periods of time the secretion of digestive enzymes slows down. If you’ve got weight to lose, avoid fad diets and bouts of starvation, deprivation and desperation and eat a fresh, healthy diet rich in organic whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and oily fish. This will keep your metabolism (fat burning) up and your digestion steady and leave you with a smaller stomach.

(For more detailed information on getting rid of that fat around the middle see my book ‘Fat around the Middle’ and if you think stress could be causing the problem it is possible to test for this by doing an Adrenal Stress Test using saliva to measure levels of cortisol and this can be organised by post, phone 01892 507598 or go to www.naturalhealthpractice.com)

Food scientists in Taiwan report capsaicin – the natural compound that gives red pepper its spicy kick – can reduce the growth of fat cells. Toss it in stir fries, add to your pasta and sauce or enjoy it raw and crunchy in salads.

Good nutrition isn’t brain surgery so it’s time to ditch the diet books for good. In fact the world’s largest study of weight loss at the University of California showed in January that diets only lead to weight gain and increase your risk of heart disease.

Fortunately, healthy eating – the kind of eating that keeps you slim for life – doesn’t leave you starving. The message is simple – forget diets and go back to basics with honest, healthy eating. My healthy eating rules are the only rules you need to know to feel good, stay healthy and lose weight at the same time. And eating better means eating more too!

1. Buy fresh and natural, read labels and learn to cook:

Ditch junk food and buy fresh, natural food instead. Most junk food is heavy in calories and light on nutrition. By junk, I mean burgers, crisps, ready meals, anything in ‘a delicious crispy coating’ or formed in unnatural shapes, anything containing hydrogenated vegetable oils, additives and preservatives.

If you look on a label and an ingredient sounds unnatural the chances are it is. You probably know you should avoid transfats and E numbers, but high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, colourings, additives and preservatives should be avoided too. As a rule of thumb if the list of ingredients looks like a chemistry experiment you don’t understand put it back on the shelf.

2. Know your fats

Fatty foods are more than twice as calorific as other foods for the same sized meals, so it makes sense to limit your fat intake but not to completely avoid it as some fats are good for you. If you are confused here’s what you need to know: transfats found in processed foods, fried foods, commercially baked items, cheap margarines, red meats and hydrogenated vegetable oils clog up arteries, making heart attacks more likely in later life. Try to steer clear of transfats and keep saturated fats to a minimum. Instead, go for ‘healthy’ fats, such as the kind found in fish, nuts and olive oil. These kinds are actually good for your heart, brain, skin and even weight loss, if taken regularly in small doses.

3. Drink lots of water

There are many reasons for drinking water – you’d be dead without it being number one on the list – but it is also vital for maintaining a healthy weight. If you don’t drink enough water your kidneys don’t function properly, and they pass some of their waste-filtration responsibilities on to the liver, which is then required to give up some of its fat-metabolising duties. The result is that you hang on to more stored fat than you would if you drank enough water on a regular basis.

4. Beat food cravings

Most of us have been brought up on the concept of three square meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, this throws your metabolism into disarray because you stuff yourself with food, creating an energy overload, followed by starving yourself until the next meal. Your insulin levels bounce up and down as your body tries to stabilise your blood sugar, and the result is that you store more fat than you actually need to.

A better method is to eat small meals and snacks five or six throughout the day so that you never go for more than three hours without food. That way you get a constant drip-feed of energy and, your blood sugar levels remain stable, so you’re less tempted to reach for comfort foods that are low in nutrients. Have a hearty breakfast, followed by a mid morning snack, a healthy lunch, a mid afternoon snack and a light dinner with perhaps a light snack before you go to bed.

Another great way to beat food cravings is to get to know your carbohydrates. By eating the right carbohydrates you can keep your metabolism burning calories for longer and kick start your digestive system with added fibre. The key is to avoid processed, refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, white flour, white pasta and white rice and choose wholemeal or complex carbohydrate varieties, such as whole grains, wholemeal bread, rice, pasta, oats, rye, barley, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit instead.

5. Breakfast like a Queen

One of the unhealthiest and most fattening things you can do is to skip breakfast. Studies have shown that people with weight problems tend to skip breakfast but this is all wrong if you want to eat healthily and lose weight.

In the morning you need energy to get you through the day, so then is the time to eat metabolism and energy boosting meals. As the day goes on try to eat less with each meal so that your last meal is a small one, mainly protein-based with little or no starchy carbohydrates (save those for breakfast and lunch.) There’s no point having a large bowl of cereal before bed, because all that energy won’t have anywhere to go except on your stomach.

6. Eat quality protein

Protein helps balance your blood sugar because it stays in your stomach longer and suppresses food cravings so try to eat a little protein with each meal and snack. Avoid red meats as these are high in fat and salt and go for fish, eggs, tofu, soya, nuts, seeds, small amounts of organic dairy, legumes, grains and vegetables instead.

7. Eat 30g of fibre every day

Fibre doesn’t just get things moving down there it helps to lower insulin levels in your body, which decreases fat absorption. It also absorbs water and swells up in your stomach, making you feel fuller and less tempted to overeat. Good sources of fibre are oat-based cereals, beans and pulses and, of course, your healthy eating essentials; vegetables and fruit.

8 Get your five a day

Vegetables are the one food you can eat as much of as you like all the time as they provide stacks of vitamins with minimum calories. Vegetables make great snack foods eaten raw – carrots, celery, etc – and can provide the mainstay of bigger meals when steamed, grilled or fried. To get the most out of vegetables, pay as much attention to them as you do to the rest of your meal. Cook them quickly and eat them crunchy before they lose their nutrients.

Five portions a day is a minimum – nine would be better. Start by adding more vegetables into foods, such as soups, curries and casseroles then get adventurous and try cooking whole dishes with vegetables and treating the fish or carbohydrates as side dishes. Using fresh herbs is a great way to spice up your vegetables. Rosemary, for example is great with carrots and new potatoes. Try basil with roasted vegetables, fresh ginger with stir fries and soups and garlic with anything. Lime juice is delicious with steamed vegetables and lemon juice with salads.

9. Take a multi vitamin and mineral

If your diet is good enough, in an ideal world you shouldn’t need to take a multi vitamin and mineral supplement but your body needs a huge array of nutrients. Unfortunately, these days however hard you try to eat healthily modern farming and processing methods depletes food of vital nutrients so a quality multi-vitamin and mineral on a daily basis is advised as your insurance policy. Choose the multi-vitamin and mineral depending on your age so if you over the age of 45 go for one that is designed for the menopause whereas choose a different multi if you are aiming to conceive.

10. Follow the 80/20 rule

If you love chocolate, have a small organic bar as an occasional treat. Just don’t eat it every day. If you always deny yourself the stuff you like, you’re unlikely to be able to keep up a healthy eating plan, and you’re more likely to fall off the wagon and have a binge.

The secret is to have occasional treats to keep you happy, while eating healthily the rest of the time. If you’re eating healthily at least 80 per cent of the time in my book that is about as good as it gets. That way you’ll find it easier to make good nutrition part of your life, rather than something you do reluctantly for short periods of time.