The one thing many women crave is a flat stom­ach and the one thing many men crave is a woman with a flat stom­ach. So there we have it, there are no two ways about it...you must set out to achieve a flat stom­ach! But how ex­act­ly do you do that with work, school (for some), chil­dren, the hus­band, the chores and all that de­li­cious­ly fat­ten­ing food? Ex­er­cise is one op­tion but as Fit­ness In­struc­tor He­mant Pooran says "When it comes to get­ting a flat­ter tum­my, there's a say­ing – 'Abs be­gin in the kitchen'." The young fit­ness in­struc­tor in­sist­ed that "Core in­ten­sive work­outs are im­por­tant but di­et is just as (ar­guably more) im­por­tant." He added, "You can't have a flat­ter tum­my with­out re­duc­ing bel­ly fat (and con­se­quent­ly body fat). It's im­por­tant to note that you can­not 'spot re­duce' and on­ly lose fat on your tum­my. Your ge­net­ics de­ter­mine which ar­eas of your body are more pre­dis­posed to fat burn­ing. You will lose fat around your core, as well as oth­er ar­eas." So to get to the point, what ex­act­ly do you eat to get that much de­sired flat stom­ach? Pooran ex­plains, "You want to aim to cre­ate a neg­a­tive caloric deficit, that is, calo­ries con­sumed must be less than calo­ries ex­pend­ed. As far as your di­et goes this means re­duc­ing the amount you eat. Grad­u­al­ly cut back on the car­bo­hy­drates (rice, flour and pas­ta) and try lit­tle tricks like drink­ing a tall glass of wa­ter be­fore your meal. You'll trick your brain in­to think­ing you're full so you'll eat less."

What? No rice, no dou­bles and no roti? How do I live? As Pooran point­ed out "Cut­ting back on carbs can make you feel hun­gry more of­ten. There­fore, you should try snack­ing on ze­ro calo­rie (or neg­a­tive calo­rie) foods like cu­cum­bers, cel­ery, mush­rooms, cit­rus and ap­ples. These re­quire more calo­ries (as en­er­gy) to break them down than they ac­tu­al­ly con­tain. In ad­di­tion, if you are hav­ing carbs, try switch­ing from sim­ple to com­plex carb sources. Com­plex carbs con­tain more fi­bre, make you feel fuller for longer and doesn't spike your blood glu­cose and in­sulin lev­els, which can oth­er­wise cause fat stor­age." "Make the switch" he en­cour­aged "by hav­ing whole grain bread in­stead of white bread, sweet pota­to in­stead of white pota­to and oat­meal, nuts and beans which are al­so good sources." What else should you re­duce in your di­et? As Pooran, the fit­ness fan, ex­plains: "Def­i­nite­ly re­duce your sug­ar con­sump­tion. Most of the 'sweet stuff' con­tains sim­ple sug­ars that get bro­ken down quick­ly, flood­ing your body with glu­cose. The body will end up stor­ing most of this as fat. This means less soft drinks, en­er­gy drinks and pas­tries. In­dulge less of­ten, maybe once a week. The dis­ci­pline will pay off."

He then warned: "Don't ne­glect your Cal­ci­um and Vi­t­a­min D". Vi­t­a­min D im­proves the ab­sorp­tion of Cal­ci­um which re­search has shown to re­duce pro­duc­tion of the stress hor­mone, cor­ti­sol, which caus­es you to store bel­ly fat. Milk is a good source of both these nu­tri­ents. Opt for the low fat one. A Vi­t­a­min D de­fi­cien­cy can low­er lev­els of the hor­mone lep­tin in the brain" "and lep­tin is re­spon­si­ble for curb­ing ap­petite and pro­mot­ing fat burn­ing." While many of you may think it is nec­es­sary to stay away from fat, Pooran stressed that you must "get your fats but in mod­er­a­tion". "Get the good ones" he stat­ed "Omega 3 (found in things like salmon and flaxseed) makes you feel fuller and im­proves your mood, re­duc­ing the chances of 'emo­tion­al eat­ing'. Mo­noun­sat­u­rat­ed Fat­ty Acids (MU­FAs) have al­so been shown to help re­duce bel­ly fat. These can be found in olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed and av­o­ca­do. Stay away from sat­u­rat­ed fats (an­i­mal fats) and trans fat (hy­dro­genat­ed veg­etable oils)." "How­ev­er, Pooran con­tin­ued, "don't ne­glect your pro­tein. Pro­tein helps main­tain lean mus­cle tis­sue (es­pe­cial­ly if you work­out). Lean mus­cle tis­sue im­proves your rest­ing me­tab­o­lism and fat burn­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ties. You have many choic­es here – turkey breast, chick­en breast, eggs, peas, beans and even pro­tein shakes."

While we were taught to eat three meals a day – break­fast, lunch and din­ner – the fit­ness in­struc­tor in­sist­ed that one must "eat small­er meals more of­ten. In­stead of three large meals, try hav­ing five to six small­er meals. This will help in­crease your me­tab­o­lism and give your body a more steady sup­ply of nu­tri­ents through­out the day so there is no spike in blood glu­cose lev­els and in­sulin lev­els." When it comes to flat­ten­ing one's tum­my there are two main things that you need to do. Ac­cord­ing to Pooran you should "eat smart and shop smart." He ex­plained "when it comes to eat­ing smart, use my 'three-hour rule' at meal­time. Ask your­self what you will be do­ing over the next three hours. If you are go­ing to be ac­tive, say hit­ting the weights then go ahead and have a full serv­ing of carbs. Your body needs the fu­el for your work­out. If you will be go­ing to bed in the next three to four hours then cut back on the carbs, since you don't need all that fu­el."

"You should al­so shop smart," he stat­ed, "pay at­ten­tion to nu­tri­tion la­bels. Be aware of foods that claim 'low fat'. More of­ten than not they would in­crease the sug­ar con­tent to com­pen­sate for the taste". While it is im­por­tant for every in­di­vid­ual to ex­er­cise, eat­ing the right stuff is just as im­por­tant. Put Pooran's tips to the test and eat your way to a flat­ter stom­ach. For more fit­ness ad­vice con­tact He­mant Pooran at hsp­fit­ness@gmail.com