Your diet and inactive lifestyle can lead to the accumulation of abdomen fat. So, get moving and learn how to have a flat stomach in 10 days.
If you are overweight, you must have noticed extra fat around your midsection. It is true that your quest for a toned tummy will involve eating healthy. But giving up junk food and eating healthy foods are not the only ways to lose unwanted bulge. You also need to start moving and performing exercises that particularly target your tummy. Your lifestyle habits can also have an effect on your stomach. Whether you want to slip into a figure-hugging dress or just want to be fitter and healthier, there are some easy yet effective ways to get a flat tummy. Know how to have a flat stomach in 10 days.
Causes of belly fat in women
Before diving into how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, know the reasons why women often gain weight, particularly the abdomen area. Menopause, the time when periods permanently stop, is one of them. It is associated with increased abdominal obesity, according to research published in Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology journal in 2023.
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Belly fat in women may have to do with hormonal changes. Adobe Stock
Women may also gain weight, particularly the midsection, in winter due to the following reasons:
Increased calorie consumption: “Cold weather often leads to cravings for comfort foods that are high in calories, sugar, and fat,” says fitness expert Yash Agarwal.
Reduced physical activity: People tend to be less active in winter due to shorter days, cold temperatures, and a tendency to stay indoors.
Hormonal changes: “Reduced exposure to sunlight can lower serotonin levels, increasing appetite and cravings,” says Agarwal.
Thermogenesis: The body may store fat, especially in the abdomen, to maintain warmth during colder months.
Metabolic slowing: A decrease in physical activity can slow metabolism, contributing to weight gain.
How to have a flat stomach in 10 days: Is it possible?
Want to know how to have a flat stomach in 10 days? Start by trying to burn 500 to 700 calories every day. However, you may get rid of extra kilos with strict dietary restrictions and exercise but do not expect it to happen overnight. “Combining cardio exercises and intense training with a low-calorie healthy diet may give you results within a few days. But at least 6 to 8 weeks are required to achieve an ideal weight and physique and see major changes,” says fitness and nutrition expert Aman Puri.
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How to have a flat stomach in 10 days?
You can learn how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, but make sure to follow these tips religiously:
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1. Plan your meals
Skipping meals to have a flat tummy is not the solution. Eat small and frequent meals throughout the day, a tip you should remember while learning how to have a flat stomach in 10 days. “Planning small and frequent meals helps manage appetite and keeps energy levels balanced,” says Puri. While planning meals, make sure to avoid fad diets.
2. Practice strict portion control
Strict portion control while eating is necessary for warding of excess calorie intake. Yes, this is one of the answers to your “how to have a flat stomach in 10 days” question. Using smaller plates and measuring cups for eating, checking labels for nutrient content, eating slowly, and avoiding binge eating can contribute towards stricter portion control.
3. Swap sugary drinks with healthy liquids
Drink more water instead of having sugary drinks while feeling thirsty. “Not only does it have zero calories, it’s also essential for flushing out toxins and maintaining hydration,” says Puri. Drinking more liquids like water can increase satiety, reduce hunger pangs, and help lose weight, including the abdomen area. Replace sodas, cold drinks, and processed drinks with water, green tea, lemon water and coconut water to reduce unhealthy calorie intake. A 2014 study published in The Journal Of Nutrition found that participants who regularly drank sugar-sweetened beverages, rather than diet soda, experienced more abnormal fat accumulation.
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4. Have adequate amount of protein
A protein-rich diet can help reduce levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin. Protein-rich foods also provide satiety, leading to a reduced appetite. “Incorporate lean proteins (chicken, fish, and legumes) to boost metabolism,” says Agarwal. You should consume 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
5. Incorporate more fibre
Adding more fibres to the diet can help curb cravings without adding extra calories to your meals. Fibre increases satiety and plays a key role in appetite regulation, according to research published in the Foods journal in 2019. “Opt for high-fibre foods such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains to curb cravings,” says Agarwal. As you learn how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, eat foods with high fibre as well as water content, and low calories to increase feeling of fullness along with managing weight.
6. Practice mindful eating
Being mindful while picking up a combination of the right nutrients with minimum calorie content can help you manage excess calorie consumption. “Mindful eating promotes weight loss by sensibly choosing foods with controlled portions, preventing overeating,” says Puri. That’s why while learning how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, make sure to practice mindful eating.
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7. Maintain a food diary
Keeping a diary is not just to reduce stress. While learning how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, monitor your diet by maintaining a food diary. Such diaries can give you insight into how much you are eating, portion sizes, and patterns, and nutrition intake.
8. Have metabolism-boosting drinks
“Go for drinks like green tea, cinnamon-infused water, and cumin seeds water to help boost metabolism, supporting the weight loss journey,” says Puri. Green tea, which contains catechins, and caffeine, may help to increase energy metabolism, as per research published by Cochrane Library in 2012. Remember to drink metabolism-boosting drinks while learning how to have a flat stomach in 10 days.
9. Stay away from stress
Improper sleep patterns and poor sleep quality can lead to changes in hormones and metabolism. They may hamper behaviour and cause mood changes, leading to overeating or increased food cravings. “Stress can also cause high cortisol levels which can slow down the metabolism, leading to a risk of obesity,” says Puri.
10. Eat less salt
While making dietary changes, make sure to reduce salt intake as it can contribute to water retention, which can leave your stomach looking bloated. Over 70 percent of dietary sodium comes from eating packaged and prepared foods like deli meats, burgers, pizza, and chips, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Limit sodium consumption to about 1 teaspoon per day.
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11. Restrict alcohol consumption and smoking
Consumption of alcohol can lead to visceral fat gain because it is high in calories. “Regular smoking can increase chances of insulin resistance associated with stomach fat accumulation,” says Puri. As part of learning how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, quit smoking and drink less.
12. Circuit training
This type of training involves short bursts of intense training within a short time interval with repetitions. “It burns fat and calories, boosts metabolism, aiding towards weight loss in a short span of time,” says Puri. Performing burpees, jumping jacks, leg lifts, and lunges during circuit training can help you shed stubborn belly fat.
Do crunches to have a flat stomach. Image courtesy: Adobe Stock
13. Include core exercises
The core muscles are present around the abdominal area. While learning how to get a flat stomach in 10 days, remember that exercising the core muscles helps trim belly fat. “Core-focused exercises like planks and crunches strengthen abdominal muscles, improving tone and structure,” says Agarwal.
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14. Perform cardio exercise
Running, cycling, swimming, and brisk walking are all examples of cardio workout. “These exercises cam raise heart rate, improve circulation and metabolism, which supports calorie burning and causes overall fat reduction, toning the body. Cardio workouts cause the body to use stored fat as its primary fuel, reducing the waistline,” says Puri.
15. Stand while exercising
Sitting exercises may be more comfortable, but doing them while standing up may be more beneficial. Substituting sitting with standing while exercising may prevent weight gain in the long term, according to an analysis published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in 2018. When you stand up and workout, you activate more muscles to maintain balance. This way, you spend more energy while exercising.
A toned tummy takes time and patience. But if you are wondering how to have a flat stomach in 10 days, you can start by making dietary changes and performing multiple exercises. Also, remember that you may lose some weight in 10 days from the tummy but don’t expect something magical to happen. Have realistic expectations and aim for what can be achieved.
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Get latest updates on health and wellness along with How To
How to stay active and motivated during quarantine
When your daily routines are disrupted, finding the motivation to exercise can be a challenge. The key is to build a new structure that works for you. Schedule your workouts as you would any important appointment to create commitment and turn intention into action.
Focus on consistency rather than intensity, especially when adapting to a new environment. Setting small, achievable goals—like a 20-minute walk or a short bodyweight circuit—can build momentum. Remember that any movement is better than none, and establishing a regular habit is the most important first step.
At-home and outdoor exercise ideas
You don’t need a fully equipped gym to maintain your fitness. Many effective workouts can be done with minimal or no equipment, either in your home or safely outdoors.
Bodyweight training: Exercises like squats, push-ups, lunges, and planks are foundational movements that build strength using your own body as resistance.
Yoga and mobility: Focusing on flexibility and movement quality can reduce stress and improve recovery. Many free resources are available for guided yoga flows and mobility routines.
Outdoor cardio: If you can do so safely, activities like walking, running, or cycling are excellent for cardiovascular health and provide a much-needed change of scenery.
The most popular quarantine exercises, according to WHOOP data
A recent study examined data from 50,000 WHOOP members between January 1 and May 15, including over 4.9 million workouts. This comparison captured exercise behaviors before and during social distancing, using March 9 as the cutoff—the week the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic and the US declared a national state of emergency.
The study tracked the six most popular exercises: running, functional fitness, weightlifting, cycling, swimming, and walking. It measured the relative frequency of each activity on a daily basis. As you can see in the graphic below, there was a significant uptick in running, cycling, and walking once social distancing began.
QUARANTINE EXERCISE MODALITIES WITH BIGGEST INCREASE
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Walking took the biggest jump, followed by running and cycling. The spikes on the graph show increased participation in all three activities on weekends, which continued during quarantine. However, with running in particular, the frequency of weekday and weekend participation became more similar—a lack of commuting gave runners more opportunity to get outside during the week.
The quarantine workouts that decreased
The three activities people started doing more of are all individual forms of exercise that happen outdoors—a needed break from being stuck inside. Functional fitness, which for many members was already a solo at-home workout, saw little change. Weightlifting and swimming saw significant decreases, coinciding with the closures of gyms and athletic facilities.
Other trends in quarantine exercise: Increased frequency and intensity
The sample of 50,000 WHOOP members exercised 1.1% more often once quarantine began. With many social activities unavailable, people turned to working out to pass the time. Exercise modalities like running and cycling require a high cardiovascular load, and members spent 1.8% more time working out in their three highest heart rate zones during quarantine.
The study also discovered improvements in several key physiological markers that WHOOP tracks, including sleep, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability.
Understand your body’s response to new routines
Adapting your fitness routine is the first step. Understanding how your body responds to those changes is the next. Are your new workouts building fitness without compromising recovery, and are you getting enough sleep to support your efforts?
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WHOOP quantifies the impact of your daily behaviors on your body. By monitoring your Sleep, daily Strain, and Recovery, you get personalized insights to help you train smarter, recover faster, and build healthier habits.
Frequently asked questions
Does exercise help fight a virus?
Regular, moderate exercise can support your immune system. Physical activity helps promote good circulation, which allows the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently. However, it’s important to balance activity with recovery, as overtraining can place stress on the body.
Does exercise speed up COVID-19 recovery?
The relationship between exercise and COVID-19 recovery is complex and depends on the individual. Some research suggests that light physical activity during and after the illness may help with certain symptoms, particularly mental and neurological ones. It is critical to listen to your body, avoid strenuous activity while sick, and consult with a healthcare professional before resuming exercise after an infection.
How does WHOOP measure the intensity of a workout?
WHOOP measures the intensity of your activities by analyzing your heart rate. The Strain score quantifies the total cardiovascular load you experience throughout the day, whether from a specific workout or other daily stressors. By tracking how much time you spend in elevated heart rate zones, WHOOP gives you a clear picture of how hard your body is working.
Lou Mudge is a Health Writer at Future Plc, working across Fit&Well and Coach. She previously worked for Live Science, and regularly writes for Space.com and Pet’s Radar. Based in Bath, UK, she has a passion for food, nutrition and health and is eager to demystify diet culture in order to make health and fitness accessible to everybody.
Multiple diagnoses in her early twenties sparked an interest in the gut-brain axis and the impact that diet and exercise can have on both physical and mental health. She was put on the FODMAP elimination diet during this time and learned to adapt recipes to fit these parameters, while retaining core flavors and textures, and now enjoys cooking for gut health.
Wondering how much weight you should be lifting in the gym to build strength? Dr Stacy Sims says that not going heavy enough could be the biggest mistake women are making in their workouts.
What strength training looks like might differ (for example, some prefer callisthenics over classic weight training) for some, but one thing is clear – it needs to be a challenge.
This is something exercise scientist Dr Stacy Sims was keen to emphasise to journalist Clare Johnston on a recent episode of her podcast, The Honest Channel. The pair discussed why intensity really matters for women when they’re strength training, rather than just doing the same exercise for as many sets or reps as possible.
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Dr Sims says she believes many women don’t push themselves enough when working out, which is why we might not see results as quickly as we want. “There’s an inherent difference between building muscle and building strength. So we know that again, one of the first things that will come is strength, but how are we actually maximising that for women?” she says.
How much weight should I lift?
Dr Sims recommends lifting a weight you can complete for a maximum of six to eight repetitions, leaving just one or two in reserve. As she says in her video on perimenopause and resistance training: if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.
Doing lots of repetitions with lighter dumbbells or other weights won’t have the same effect, she warns. Doing many reps over time improves your muscles’ endurance, but not how fibres within the muscle are working and how tightly they’re contracting, which is what you need to build strength – especially in perimenopause.
“When we start having changes in oestrogen, one of the first things that goes is pure power and strength because oestrogen affects our contractile proteins actin and myosin,” she says. She explains that adding load (lifting heavier) means actin and myosin “hold onto each other a lot harder and to have a very strong and tight contraction – that’s what strength and power are”. This means that if you’re not challenging your muscles to work harder through progressive overload, you won’t see the results you may be aiming for, because the proteins in your muscles are only ever contracting lightly.
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“It’s not just about building lean mass, it’s about how strong that muscle is as we go about building it. How do we go about preserving strength and fast-twitch fibres and all the things women need to conserve as we get older to have a really good health span,” Dr Sims explains.
Fast-twitch muscle fibres are needed for heavy weight lifting, sprinting and reaction ability, but they can fatigue quickly and reduce in size and number as we age. This is because of the fall in oestrogen we experience as we enter perimenopause. Men don’t have this problem because their testosterone levels stay more stable throughout their lives.
Taking supplements like creatine, alongside regular exercise, has been shown to improve this as well.
Dr Sims says lifting heavy weights and doing plyometric exercises – explosive, high-intensity exercises such as jumping or hopping – helps women increase and maintain their fast-twitch muscle fibres. She says if we focus on lifting heavy weights for fewer reps, there’s no need to be in the gym for hours every week – welcome news for all of us.
As for how often you should lift weights, she suggests at least three sessions every week with active recovery days between them. This should include mobility exercises and zone 2 exercise, such as a walking workout.
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If you’re new to strength training, remember to speak to a trained professional first to ensure you avoid injury.
