Fat in the middle of your stomach. It’s the most disturbing thing to look at. It’s the toughest weight to lose. So how do you do it? How do you lose abdominal fat?

First, it’s important to understand that crunches and sit-ups are not going to get the job done. Why? Because generally those two exercises are not fat burners, they’re designed to sculpt and shape abdominal muscles. You need to lose fat.

Second, you cannot spot reduce fat, which means that even if you did a whole bunch of those two movements, it’s still very unlikely that you’d lose much abdominal fat. You might get those muscles tighter, which might make you believe you’re actually losing weight. But that’s fool’s gold. You’ve simply tightened the muscle under the abdominal fat.

Now that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it may be all you’re truly looking for, a little firmer tummy. However, if you’re looking for more, say a stomach that is tight and shapely, a mid-section that makes other people green with envy, then you need to engage in the following three activities.

Activity 1: Begin walking 30-45 minutes a day “after dinner,” and lose weight quicker. Dinner is your last big meal of the day and you want to get a jump start on working it through without having some of what you ate begin stored as fat. You can start out with less time, and then add as you become accustom to walking. But make sure to begin.

Activity 2: Drink more water. There is significant evidence that shows weight loss is a dehydration process. You need water to dehydrate your fat cells. Without enough water your body cannot efficiently lose weight. The pudginess on your stomach is not all abdominal fat; you’re holding a lot of water, too. Extra water eliminates the bloated look.

Activity 3: Get brutally honest with yourself. Many people claim they got serious about their weight loss efforts after they saw a picture that someone else had taken. We think that we look a certain way, which is to say “Maybe a little overweight, but certainly not fat.” Usually our perception of how we look is one thing, and reality is another.

Take a good long look in the mirror at yourself naked 3-4 times a week. Do this to soak in the reality of your situation. Don’t get angry at yourself, just accept that you need to lose weight. Accept that life will be a whole lot more exciting when you do lose the weight. Use the reflection to create an urgency to get your body how you’d like it to be. Lose weight, lose abdominal fat, lose lower back fat, and get your body in its absolute best shape ever!