When it comes to burning belly fat fast, there is no room for error. The more time you spend trying to make ineffective strategies pay off, the more time it will take you to get the stomach of your dreams. Here are five things that you definitely do not want to do if your goal is to burn excess fat from your stomach:

1. Don't try to spot reduce your stomach.
2. Don't focus on crunches and other stomach isolation exercises alone.
3. Don't try to eliminate all fat from your diet.
4. Don't put all your favorite foods on the "forbidden" list.
5. Don't restrict calories to the point you feel hungry much of the time.

So, if you shouldn't do those things, what should you do to lose belly fat as fast as possible?

1weight management. Focus on boosting metabolism and burning excess calories, rather than spot reducing.

You cannot do crunches and other stomach-specific moves and expect it to directly reduce belly fat. These exercises build up the muscles in your stomach and the more muscle you have the more fat you will burn, but there is no way to force your body to burn fat from the stomach rather than from other areas of the body.

So, you have to focus your workouts on burning as many calories as possible from your body as a whole. This means boosting your metabolism through strength training on all parts of the body and burning a lot of calories through cardio.

2. Mix up your workouts.

Crunches alone are not enough to lose belly fat quickly. You have to mix up your workouts and give your entire body a workout. Focus on high intensity workouts three or four days a week, so you actually burn more fat during and between workouts.

3. Choose healthy fats, rather than eliminating them all.

Eating dietary fat is not what makes you fat. It is eating excess calories of any type, healthy or not, that increases the size of your fat cells. Therefore, try to choose healthy fats such as olive and canola oil and nuts instead of fats that clog your arteries. The bad fats that are horrible for your heart include saturated fats, partially hydrogenated oils, and trans fats. Those are the ones to avoid.

4. Find substitutions for your favorite foods.

If you tell yourself you can never again have the macadamia nut cookies or eat the pumpkin pie on holidays, your mind will automatically focus on those things until you cave and eat them. Instead of depriving yourself completely, find healthier ways to prepare these foods or find healthy foods that have similar tastes to them. For instance, try fresh berries instead of sweet cakes and candies. You can always make a healthy pumpkin pie and use fat and calorie free whipped cream.

5. Eat small portions consistently throughout the day.

If you restrict calories too much, you will actually start gaining weight and losing muscle mass, rather than building muscle and losing the weight. Rather than focusing on super low calorie limits, try to eat small meals five or six times throughout the day. You should be eating at least every four hours to keep your metabolism high.