The trick to a flat belly isn’t just doing the almighty ab workout, but also eating healthy. Here’s how

To get the number on the scale to go down, you have to chow down. Between 10 and 30 percent of the calories you use each day get burned by the simple act of digesting your food. Now that’s pretty cool — satisfying your food cravings actually fries calories! But not all foods are created equal. Your body uses more calories to digest protein (about 25 burned for every 100 consumed) than it does to digest fats and carbohydrates (10 to 15 burned for every 100 consumed).

That’s why concentrating on adding lean, healthy proteins is essential. Eat more of them, in a sensible way, and you’ll burn more calories. Protein is also the nutrient that builds muscle — and the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you’ll burn throughout the day. When you lift and lower weights, you create microscopic tears in your muscles. To mend the tears, your body parachutes in new protein to assess the damage and repair the muscle. Proteins fortify the original cell structure by building new muscle fibers.

This wonder child of the nutrition world also makes you feel fuller faster. But the good news doesn’t stop there. Following an eating plan that emphasizes lean proteins will accelerate weight loss from your midsection first!!