Tightening your stomach muscles and ensuring it shows involves 2 things: diet and exercise.
You have to learn how to make good nutritional choices. Exercise will help you strengthen your core and engage your stomach muscles.
To tighten your stomach muscles fast in 2 weeks, the following are what you should do.
How to Tighten Stomach Muscles Fast in 2 Weeks
1. Work on Your Diet
Losing fat majorly depends on your diet. While you cannot spot reduce fat on your belly, overall fat loss will lead to a better-looking stomach.
This doesn’t mean you should starve yourself. Starving will only prep your body to regain the fat eventually.
Instead, cut off or reduce food high in carbohydrates and unhealthy fat while adding foods low in carbohydrates and high in fiber content to your diet.
2. Reduce Sugar Intake
While sugars are sweet, they contribute to fat increase fast. Carbonated drinks and refined carbs are packed with lots of sugars. Calorie-free soda contributes too.
Reduce how much sugar you take and substitute with better fluid intake and diet for quick results.
3. Reduce the Amount of Alcohol You Drink
A gram of alcohol has 7 calories. What this means is that alcohol can be fattening. It contains as much as a carbonated soft drink.
Red wine contains twice that. Drinking heavily can increase your midsection by giving you a beer belly.
Reduce your alcohol intake so that you can effectively lose fat.
4. Fast Intermittently
If you’re not the type to count calories and watch your diet very strictly, try intermittent fasting. In intermittent fasting, you switch between fasting and eating periodically.
You can fast for 24 hours straight, thrice-weekly, or use the 16/8 method. Eight represents an 8-hour window where you can eat.
People find intermittent fasting easier than dieting, and there has been a lot of reported success on massive weight loss using this method.
5. Drink Lots of Water
Water might not contain any nutrients but it is quite beneficial to the body. It aids metabolic rate and increases energy usage by up to 100 calories. It also makes you feel fuller.
Water can be used as a substitute for carbonated drinks and alcohol too.
6. Eat Vegetables and Whole Grains
Vegetables are healthy. They are low-carb foods that contain various vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The fiber in vegetables make you feel fuller, and aid in digestion and quick removal of waste.
You can replace most of the refined carbs you eat, like white bread, white rice, and pasta with vegetables to help you consume fewer calories while eating the same quantity of food every day. Also incorporate food like nuts and fruits for a balanced, more satisfactory diet.
7. Increase Your Protein Intake
Protein is a muscle-building nutrient. Once you start exercising, you’ll need to take more of it to repair tissues and build muscles.
Eat lean protein like egg white, white meat (chicken, turkey, etc.), fish, lean cuts of red meat, and low-fat dairy. Low-fat dairy, like yogurt and skimmed milk, reduces the hormone that encourages fat storage in the body.
Proteins like eggs are very nutritious. They make you feel full and satisfied. This, in turn, reduces your calorie intake after eating.
8. Exercise Your Body
Fat in your stomach responds to exercise. When you change your daily physical activities and incorporate cardio and resistance training, you’ll easily tighten your abs and shed fat in the tummy region in 2 weeks.
Here are a few exercises to start immediately.
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Start With Cardio
Cardio or aerobic exercise reduces visceral fat drastically. Remember that your muscle tightening goal has a timeline of 2 weeks. This will require high-intensity workouts like running, road cycling, swimming, brisk walking, and rowing.
On the other hand, you can do HIIT (high-intensity interval training). This involves switching between slow-paced and fast-paced cardio sessions. You sprint for 30 seconds then walk for 1 minute. HIIT is known to be very effective for quick weight loss.
If you can’t do HIIT, concentrate on brisk walking. Walking reduces overall body fat, including the fat in your midsection. It improves health and increases metabolism so that you keep burning fat throughout the day.
Do cardio for at least 30 minutes to get the best results.
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Add Resistance Training
Dieting reduces muscle mass. Resistance training counters that effect and can help you build, strengthen, and tighten your stomach muscle, making them look better than they did before. Resistance training also improves metabolic rate.
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Engage in Workouts for Your Core
Core exercises strengthen your upper torso and work on the abdominal muscles and stabilizers. They improve posture too, making you appear taller.
Abdominal exercises include pilates, crunches, sit-ups, planks. Here are two core strengthening exercises you can do anywhere:
1. Flutter kicks
- Lie flat on your back with your legs extended.
- Place your hands under your butt to protect your back from injury and pain.
- Tighten your core and abdominal muscles.
- Lift your left leg a few inches above the ground. Your leg should remain straight during the movement.
- As you bring your left foot down to about an inch above the floor, lift the right leg.
- Continue moving your legs up and down without their touching the floor until you’ve completed the desired number of reps.
2. Plank
- Lie face-down on the floor, in a pushup position.
- Your elbow should be bent at a 90-degree angle and your biceps should be perpendicular to the floor.
- Your legs should be extended behind you with your toes touching the floor.
- Keep your body in a straight line. Do not sag your hips. Instead, tighten your glutes, abs, and leg to maintain the correct form.
- Hold the position for a few seconds.
- You can increase the number of seconds you hold the plank daily to increase core strength.
Conclusion:
Strengthening stomach muscles in 2 weeks might look impossible but it’s achievable. With the right diet, determination, and an intensive cardio and resistance training routine, your stomach will be flat in no time.
Read Also:
- 10 Easy Butts and Guts Workouts for Flat Abs and a Bubble Butt
- 9 Easy Exercises for Smaller Waist, Bigger Hips, and Flat Stomach
- 11 Superb HIIT Workouts to Burn Fat and Build Muscle at Home
- 11 Best Abs Workouts to Burn Belly Fat Fast At Home