It is a known fact that excess fat around the midsection is a harbinger for diabetes, heart disease and a general all-around health risk I know that's why most of you are reading this How To Get Good Abs column, right? Wrong. The truth is, most people want to have a flat stomach for purely cosmetic reasons, not because of the health benefits associated with exercising your tummy. Regardless of your reasoning, the health benefits associated with buffing up your belly complement the physical gains , ultimately leading to a better way of life.

Flat Abs Mythology

One of the biggest myths surrounding the idea of getting a flat stomach is the thinking that you must perform seven thousand abdominal exercises and, Poof!, you'll achieve a flat stomach in a heartbeat. Yes, exercising your abdomen and strengthening your midsection will help but overdoing it with sit-ups and crunches isn't the best way to go about it. Practicing a quality, balanced exercise regimen will give you results faster than any quick-fix, obsessive muscle assault.

Tips for a flatter stomach

Acquiring a perfect set of 6-pack abs may seem impossible, but with some simple procedures you can achieve this goal.

Keep in mind that target-burning abdominal muscles won't get the job done, no matter what every 'Flat abs in 7 days!' instructional videos tell you. To burn away the fat on your abdomen, fat must be burned from everywhere on your body, which translates to: CARDIO, CARDIO, CARDIO. Performing cardiovascular or aerobic exercises will get your heart rate beating at a moderate to intensive rate, subsequently melting fat from all areas of the body. This type of aerobic activity performed five days a week for 30 minutes each session will teach your body to use the extra fat reserves for much needed fuel. Your fat stomach will turn into a rock-hard muscular wall in no time and reduce your overall body fat percentage as well.

It's not a good idea to work out the abdominal muscles on a daily basis. Body fat will start disappearing as your cardiovascular regimen gets moving and will help tone and trim your stomach. Abs need to be exercised in the same way as any other muscle group, meaning you must give them a day or two of rest to recover from being worked out. Don't work them out every day. Include three or four sets of your favorite two ab exercises and perform 15-20 repetitions for each set. This will be more than sufficient. Popular ab exercises are the abdominal crunch, working the obliques (meeting your opposite elbow to your opposite knee), the reverse crunch) and toe stretches (lying on the back with the legs straight up in the air and reaching to touch the toes).

Having a balanced, nutritional and reduced-calorie diet to augment your exercise program will be the key to success if you want to have enviable abs. It's more than likely you have fallen into a negative pattern of junk food and lack of exercise. If this sloppy diet continues, it won't be so easy to get the abs you dream of. A balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables is very important for your overall health. Avoiding white pasta, white bread and white rice and substitute whole wheat and brown rice to complex and healthy carbohydrates. If you eat meat, choose the low-fat or lean cuts. Eating throughout the day, five or six times, with moderate portions is ideal.

Discipline Discipline Discipline

Nothing worth doing is easy to do. This will take hard work, determination and discipline. But hard work breeds results and once you start to see results, it will be easier to maintain your good diet and exercise plan. Stay fit, think fit and be fit!