How to Lose Stomach Fat Fast While Preserving Muscle

To rapidly lose stomach fat without losing any muscle tissue, you will have to reduce your caloric intake, eat a healthful diet and incorporate a regular exercise regimen. Quick fat loss doesn't mean that you should go on a fad diet that drastically reduces your caloric intake. Fad diets may reduce your weight rapidly, but the weight will not be from fat, but from water weight and lean muscle tissue. 

Tips For You

1. Eat up to six small meals a day to avoid your metabolism from slowing. Eat a healthful meal every three hours to keep your blood sugar levels stable and to avoid cravings.
2. Choose healthful foods over unhealthy foods. Get your protein from lean sources such as turkey, tuna and chicken. Get carbohydrates from complex, fiber-rich sources such as vegetables, fruits, whole-grain bread and brown rice. Look for products with unsaturated "healthy" fats such as avocados and olive oil.
3. Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages because they contain many empty calories and drain your energy. Make water your main beverage. According to the Iowa State University website, you need to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day to keep the body functioning properly.
4. Take up a cardiovascular exercise routine to burn fat from your entire body, including your stomach. Run, walk, swim or ride a bike for 45 minutes per day, three days a week. Add intervals to your cardiovascular exercise where you increase to high-intensity spurts for several minutes. According to the Mayo Clinic website, interval training burns more calories than regular one-level cardio does, and it keeps you from getting bored.
5. Preserve muscle tissue by strength training. Use your own body weight, machines or free weights for resistance. Work the entire body so you burn fat from all over the body while maintaining muscle tone. Perform biceps curls and triceps extensions for the front and back of your upper arms. Squat and lunge your way to maintain leg muscles. Include push-ups and dumbbell presses for your upper body and shoulders and dead lifts for your back.
6. Tone the stomach muscles by targeting your abdominal muscles from all angles so that once your stomach fat has been reduced, toned muscles will appear. Perform crunches for your upper abdominal muscles. Do twist-crunches, where you bring your elbow to the opposite knee, for your obliques and include reverse crunches for your lower abdominal muscles. Focus on your form over the quantity when working your abs.
7. Suck in your stomach whenever you can to work the transverse abdominal muscles, which hold your entire core together. While standing up straight, pull in your stomach and hold the tension as you breathe normally. Hold the tension for 20 seconds and work your way up to 60 seconds.