If you ask dieters the most stubborn area of their body where they want to lose fat, most of the time their answer will be the belly. The difficult thing for many people is understanding how the body and the metabolism works, and knowing the steps that need to be taken in order to lose belly fat. For example, belly fat exercises can be effective, but only when combined with a cardiovascular fitness plan and healthy eating. If you focus solely on abdominal exercises, you will tone up the muscle that is under the fat but the fat will not be burned away.

Cardiovascular exercise gets the heart pumping and makes you sweat. It is intense exercise that you should ideally participate in for 20 to 50 minutes, three to five times weekly. If you are a beginner to cardio, try walking. Walking for an extended duration can be a milder form of cardio fitness but can still be effective. As you build stamina, you can increase the length of your walks and even the intensity. Interval walking can be a good strategy, which involves walking at regular pace, switching to intense pace, then moderate pace, back to regular pace, then intense pace — basically just changing up your pace every few minutes. There are lots of interval training guides out there.

Cardio is not limited to just walking. A few examples include jogging, cycling and swimming. As your fitness level improves, you can add abdominal exercises as part of your routine. There are traditional sit-ups and crunches, which are good but may not target all the abdominal muscles. Stability balls are used for ab exercises and you can find all kinds of DVDs that focus on this strategy such as Blast the Belly Fat with Jeanette Jenkins. There are many other DVD programs as well, even belly dancing for fat loss and abdominal strengthening.

When you embark on a weight loss plan and start belly fat exercises, you want to be consistent with your workouts but give your body at least one day of rest. As you burn fat and build muscle, your metabolism will work even harder to burn away the fat and your workout will be even more effective. When making food choices, aim for high nutrient, low-calorie choices. If you have certain cravings, try to substitute them with healthy choices. Rather than ice cream, try frozen yogurt or even Greek yogurt. If you like salty snacks, grab a handful of roasted almond. The key is making wise food choices to supplement the work you’re doing with your exercise plan.