7 Flat-Belly Tricks From Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is known for her tough-hero movie roles, for which she trains like an athlete—not to mention a stunt woman. Jolie, 47, has an enviably toned and strong physique whether she is filming or not—so how does she do it? Trainers who have worked with the star talk about her dedication to whatever she sets her mind to, whether it's martial arts training or a specific muscle-building diet. Here is how she achieves, and maintains, her killer figure.

Jolie is an old hand at occasionally doing her own stunts, and works hard to make it look perfect. "Angie throws herself into everything fully, be it rehearsals or the actual shooting," says stunt instructor Simon Crane. "We rehearse and test everything to the smallest detail with her stunt double, Eunice Huthart, before she ever tries anything. But saying that, as any athlete knows, there is no gain without pain!"

Jolie learned martial arts for Salt. "For her fight training, we got her learning a combination of Muay Thai and Krav Maga very early on," Crane says. "We would then pick the moves she was best at and combine them into a sequence. The training, at the early stages, took up about three to four sessions a week, lasting approximately two hours each. When we started filming, we trained during lunch breaks or on the weekends."df44d9eab23ea271ddde7545ae2c09ec

Jolie's diet was a healthy mix of carbs and protein for her Salt role. "She has to have 70% carbohydrates and 30% protein diet with an anaerobic training regime as opposed to aerobic, so she can put muscle on without losing weight," Crane says. "Sticking to four or five meals a day routine as much as possible. Then when she reaches a good body level that we like, we change it to 60%/40% favoring carbs. No junk food, no empty calories, and alcohol only on weekends."

Jolie snacked on mixed seeds and nuts plus vegetables such as cauliflower while filming The Tourist. "Although nuts are high in fat, it's mainly healthier unsaturated fat," says the British Heart Foundation. "They contain protein, B vitamins, vitamin E and minerals, including iron, potassium, selenium, magnesium, zinc and copper."

Jolie and her family enjoy snacking on high-protein insects. "They're used to eating scorpions, especially Shiloh," Jolie says. "Shiloh loves a tarantula, loves a bug. They can all eat a bag of crickets like a bag of chips, so they're all used to it. But I'm learning to cook them better with a little more flair and seasoning."

Jolie had to transform her diet and fitness for her role in Tomb Raider. "They had me on bungees. I'm dog sledding," Jolie said. "They had me up at seven each morning and handed me a protein shake. Suddenly, a nutritionist was giving me five meals a day. But you had to do these things to maintain your energy. And I liked the intense training because there is only one way to do something and for me it's in extremes."

Jolie embraces what she calls her imperfections, as part of the aging process. "I look in the mirror and I see that I look like my mother, and that warms me," she says. "I also see myself aging, and I love it because it means I'm alive—I'm living and getting older. Don't love having a random dark spot from a pregnancy, for sure. I see my flaws. But what I see that I like isn't about a structure or appearance. It's more that I see my family in my face. I see my age."