Find out how to incorporate the right amount of healthy carbs into your diet for the flat abs you want.

Diet Tips # 2. Opt for a sensible amount of high-quality healthy carbs.

For flatter abs, make carbs 45–65 percent (202–292 grams based on an 1,800-calorie diet) of your total daily calories. Balance is the key here, so don't go below 45 percent (202 grams), or above 65 percent (292 grams), which can lead to water retention, bloating and temporary weight gain that shows up in your middle.

When you eat carbs, they break down into glucose, which is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. When glycogen is stored, it carries with it three times its own weight as water, compared to no water at all for protein and fat, according to Peter Garlick, Ph.D., a professor at Stony Brook University in New York. If you eat an extremely high-carb diet, you may store excess water, experience bloating and gain temporary water weight. (This is why people who go on no- or very low-carb diets can initially lose weight so quickly. They're really just losing water.) To avoid bloating and weight gain caused by consuming too many or the wrong kind of carbs, follow these weight loss tips:

Weight loss tips # 1: Fill up on fruits and vegetables as part of your healthy high fiber diet. These are the least bloat-promoting foods because they contain plenty of water and fewer carbs and calories for their volume.

Weight loss tips # 2: Avoid high-carb/empty-calorie foods like fast food, snack cakes, cookies and candy. These foods are high in simple carbs and sodium, which cause bloating and weight gain, and are low in fiber and nutrients.

Weight loss tips # 3: Focus on eating a balanced healthy diet. For best results, eat at least three to five, 4-ounce servings of veggies (15–25 grams of carbs); two to four, 4-ounce servings of fruit (30–60 grams of carbs) and about 1 cup (8 ounces cooked or 2 ounces dry, or 2 slices of bread) of whole grains per meal (90 grams per day).

Weight loss tips # 4: Make sure you eat enough calories, from complex healthy carbs, lean protein and healthy fats. If you don't get an adequate number of calories (most women require at least 1,800 per day to lose weight, 2,000 to maintain and 2,400 or more if they're very active), you risk temporarily lowering your metabolism, which can also bring on bloating.

A good guideline to follow throughout your flat abs diet:

Don't cut any more than 250-500 calories below what you need to maintain your weight from your balanced healthy diet, advises C. Wayne Callaway, M.D., a metabolic specialist in Washington, D.C.

Read on for diet tips involving water. Are you drinking too much – or too little?