The words "Fat Loss Plan" do not generate a lot of enthusiasm most of the time. You may have an image of having to get up at 5 in the morning and go and do some exercise, eat birdseed-like food with no taste and be weighed in front of frowned faces every week.

However, these images aside, what would you be prepared to put up with even just to lose an inch or two off your belly? Have you tried various fashionable diets before and yet ended up back where you started, with fat still on your belly?

This article will hopefully spare you the worry and anxiety of choosing another one of these diet and exercise programs. In addition it will be encouraging to know that you may already have a sense of what is good to eat and how you should exercise and that these are perhaps your greatest fat loss tools.

Yet, every day you may be faced with a seemingly uphill challenge to stop your gut spilling out over your jeans, even though you do try to eat healthily and work out.

If you are a guy reading this article and you go to the gym a lot, eat healthily enough and generally consider yourself to be fit, but still have some belly fat, the following paragraphs may surprise you. I know when I first learned and tried this method it surprised me.

What, then, is this particular 3-Step plan to lose your belly fat?

I can tell you what it is not for starters. It is not:

• A get-ripped-quick extreme system

• A starve-yourself system

• A system that means a radical change to lifestyle and diet

The last bullet point is of particular significance. You do not need to change much of what you are currently doing to start to lose belly fat. It is more about the quality of what you do rather than the quantity.

Here, now is the 3-step fat loss plan I would recommend. It worked for me. I lost 12 pounds of fat in just under 90 days and now have a belly that is not disproportionate to my build. I am quite slim in build naturally (around 11 stone) and so I had the added frustration of being quite well-toned in other places but had the fat, the lines and the creases on my waist.

The step are as follows:

1. Starting today, make a journal of the following things: what you eat and when you eat

2. Eat an extra meal at 3.30 pm or 4 pm. To do this first take a look at what you eat, and remove only 10 % of your optimal calorie intake (use an online tool to calculate this). Rearrange how much you eat in other meals to accommodate for the 4th meal.

3. Replace some gym time for at least 1 High Intensity Interval Training workout per week.

These 3 steps are the basis for getting that belly fat burning and losing that stubborn inch or more of fat.

A point to note is that I do not advocate stopping eating white bread or pasta or even stopping drinking wine or beer immediately, if ever. The key is to reduce eating and drinking these types of foods gradually and learn to fit more healthy options into your diet.

It is more important to get into the habit of eating more fruits, vegetables and nuts (if you can eat these) rather than junk food without going to extremes. In essence, it is about rearranging and improving the quality of what you eat and how you move in pieces, one week or two weeks at a time.