10 Short Cuts To Strong Sexy Abs

6. LIFT WEIGHTS ONE ARM AT A TIME.
Your core muscles get a workout when you exercise on an unstable base--like when you're standing on one leg or on top of a wobbly rubber disk-- because your weight is off-center, causing your core to kick in a little harder. Similarly, when you do upperbody moves one arm at a time, the off-centeredness gives ab and back muscles an extra challenge.

7. INVEST IN CARDIO.
To show off the abs of steel you've been building, 30 minutes of cardio gets you further than 30 minutes of crunches. To burn off the layer of fat that's hiding your muscles, ab-specific contractions just don't do the trick, says Len Kravitz, Ph.D., professor of exercise physiology at the University of New Mexico. Ab moves burn about two to six calories per minute, while cardio blasts 10 or 12.

8. TRY CHINESE FOOD.
A standard turkey sandwich on whole wheat has a measly four grams of fiber. The problem? Studies show that people who eat more fiber tend to be leaner and have smaller waistlines than people who don't eat as much of it. Better: A serving of chow mein with extra broccoli and brown rice has about 10 grams of fiber. Worried about the sodium in Chinese food? It's a myth that sodium noticeably changes your abs, says Liz Applegate, Ph.D., director of sports nutrition at University of California, Davis.

9. CHOOSE THE COOKIE WITH SUGAR.
Many sugar-free cookies are sweetened with sugar alcohols, which can cause gas and bloating, says Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. To skip these sweeteners, avoid ingredients ending in "-ol," including sorbitol, lactitol, and maltitol. Many sugarfree versions, by the way, have almost as many calories as the originals. Other artificial sweet eners, such as sucralose (Splenda) and aspartame (NutraSweet), don't appear to have the same bloating effect.

10. HAVE THREE SELTZERS THIS WEEK.
Swapping Alcohol for seltzer or another beverage can slim your waist. That's because calories metabolized from alcohol are more prone to be stored as fat around the belly, says Applegate. Of course, going low-cal is even more slimming: Skipping three pomegranate martinis a week trims about 2300 calories a month. That's eight pounds of fat per year.