Summarize the following:
Cardiovascular exercise, or "cardio," is any exercise that raises you heart-rate for an extended period of time. It can be running, swimming, biking, dancing, or playing pick-up soccer with some friends. Aim for 3-4 hours of cardio a week, at minimum, to start seeing your stomach flatten. Interval training is a workout that requires short bursts of vigorous activity followed by longer periods of low activity, like jogging around a track and sprinting every 4th lap. Researchers believe that interval training helps burn fat four times faster than exercising at the same intensity for longer times. Water is essential to build muscle, aid digestion, and fuel workouts. You should be drinking between 24 and 36 ounces of water every day. It may also have the benefit of helping lose weight by limiting over-eating. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and a little protein are all that a good diet requires. Try to eat smaller meals, eating more frequently if you need, as this keeps you from eating too many calories at once and feeling bloated. Substitute baked potatoes for a side salad. Eat yogurt and granola in the morning instead of eggs and cheese. Cut back on red meat and eat chicken or turkey instead. Plan small snacks like fruit and vegetables to keep from hungrily over-eating during a meal. Eat slowly -- it takes 20 minutes for you to feel "full," but if you eat quickly you'll continue eating food until this point. While they may taste good, donuts, cake, and soda will eliminate any gains you've made by working out and prolong your goal of great abs. Some foods to avoid include: Refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, pasta, and rice. Processed Sugars, found in sweetened juices, soda, and candy, are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream but brings your metabolism to a crawl. Saturated Fats, found in fried food, fatty red meat, and most fast-food. The formula for losing weight is easy-- you need to burn more calories than you eat. This is why exercise and limiting fatty foods is so important. Running two miles can eliminate 250 calories, but eating one slice of cake might add 350 more. There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so you can use this number to plan your diet: eliminate 500 extra calories a day and you can lose a pound of fat a week. If you maintain similar diet each day, simply adding 30 minutes of daily exercise will burn away calories and flatten your stomach over time. Similarly, switching from a high-calorie breakfast like bacon and eggs to sometime like yogurt and granola will decrease you "net calorie" use significantly. Use a fitness tracker, like Nike Fit, Fitbit, or MapMyRun to monitor how many calories you burn when you exercise.
Do a cardiovascular workout 4-5 times a week. Drink plenty of water. Eat small, healthy meals. Avoid high-calorie, low nutrition foods like sweets and fats. Balance your exercise and diet to lose more calories than you eat.