Summer Abs - Nutrition Tips

Summer is almost here!!!!! It's time to get outside, go to the beach, and show off your flat stomach?!?!?.....YES! The classic saying "abs are made in the kitchen" is, for the most part, very true, as your nutrition habits affect your body composition more than anything else. So, I have a few tips to help you get those abs a little faster:
1. Protein!!! If you are going to over-eat anything, over-eat protein! As far as food goes, protein is the key to getting more lean! Protein has the highest thermic value of all types of food, which means that your body will burn more calories digesting protein rather than starchy or fibrous carbs. Also, unlike most carbohydrates, which will get stored as fat if your body doesn't use them for energy, protein is only used by the body to help muscles recover and build.
2. Limit fruit to the AM! Although very healthy, fruit also contains very high amounts of sugar, so after your body has taken all the energy it needs from the fruit it will store the excess sugar as fat in your body. After eating fruit in the morning your body has the whole day to burn off any excess from the sugar, as opposed to later in the day when it will just get stored as fat.
3. Cut down starchy carbs! Starchy carbs are your main energy source, so you do need to make sure that you get enough of them, but you can do things like limiting them to the morning or cutting them out completely for 1 or 2 days a week. When doing this however, you want to make sure that you're not cutting back the number of calories you eat, just replacing them with calories from protein and vegetables.
On top of these tips, be sure that you are continuing to eat every 3-3.5 hours religiously! This will increase your resting metabolic rate and keep you burning fat even when you are sitting at your desk all day!