How to Shape an Apple Figure

People carry excess weight in different ways, which results in different body shapes. People who carry their weight in the midsection are apple-shaped. To sculpt an apple-shaped body, a two-pronged weight loss system, the combination of diet and exercise, can trim weight in the belly and smooth out the figure.

Instructions

Diet

• 1

  Increase your fiber intake. Fiber slows the digestion of sugars, lowers cholesterol and insulin levels and can reduce the risk of diabetes.

• 2

  Eat complex carbohydrates, like fruits and vegetables. Skip the potatoes.

• 3

  Cook with olive oil.

• 4

  Cut fried foods, carbonated drinks and white flour products.

• 5

  Eat high-quality protein, found in beans, whole wheat, eggs, salmon, lean chicken and beef.

Exercise

• 6

  Burn fat with cardiovascular exercise. Thirty minutes of cardio daily burns fat throughout the body. Walking, cycling and swimming are options for cardio exercises.

• 7

  Maximize calorie burning with exercises that work more than one joint or muscle set at a time. Exercises should be in sets of 12 to 15, with three repetitions of each set. Include exercises like lunges, squats, back extensions and oblique curls.

• 8

  Avoid focusing on abdominal exercises. Sit-ups, crunches or other abdominal exercises will tone muscle but they won't trim belly fat.