Being a personal fitness trainer and in the business of in home personal training services we still hear many of those old exercise myths. And one of the most popular or maybe even the number one is: I JUST NEED TO DO MORE CRUNCHES TO GET RID OF MY BELLY! It’s important to understand that performing all the abdominal exercises in the world won’t guarantee that you will lose belly fat. There’s only one SECRET to losing belly fat…and that is to decrease your overall body fat levels by creating a calorie deficit! So, the best way to lose belly fat is to follow a proper diet plan and exercise! If you are serious about losing belly fat then don’t overlook the importance of proper nutrition. You can’t out train or overcome a lousy diet!
Once you have your diet (and more importantly, your caloric intake) in check, the answer is simple: any intense, calorie burning exercise will help you blast away your abdominal fat as quickly as possible! If you’re currently performing thousands of crunches a day in hopes to see your abs again then try cutting back on those exercises and include more intense cardio training sessions along with weight training.
Researchers from the department of kinesiology and health education at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, had one goal in their study to see if it took more than abdominal exercises to get rid of abdominal fat. They recruited 24 sedentary men and women, aged 18-40, and separated them into a non-exercise control group and an abdominal exercise group. Various pre- and post-intervention measures, such as body composition and abdominal endurance were taken. The exercise group performed 2 sets of 10 repetitions of seven abdominal exercises, five times per week, for 6 weeks. At the end of the study, the exercise group showed no change in body weight, body composition or abdominal circumference. However, they were able to perform more curl-up repetitions. “Six weeks of abdominal training alone was not sufficient to reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat and other measures of body composition,” the study authors reported. “Nevertheless, abdominal exercise training significantly improved muscular endurance to a greater extent than in the non-exercise control group.” The study was published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2011; 25 [9], 2559-64.
If you want to really melt away your belly fat then you will have to do more than just an ab workout. You will want to perform intense cardio and resistance training for maximum fat loss! Three cardio sessions per week is typical for health and weight maintenance, but to really burn off that belly fat fast you will want to up the cardio and lower your caloric intake. For best results, and to ensure you stick with your cardio program, choose an exercise that you enjoy doing – treadmill, stair climbing, elliptical machine, aerobic classes are all good calorie burning workouts! For an extra boost and change of scenery take your workout outdoors if that’s what you prefer. And before you try to tell me I am too busy, I don’t have the time! Try performing high intensity interval training and you’ll achieve great results in about half the time. Even as little as 15-20 minutes per cardio session will create results if your intensity level is high enough.
Just remember in the end, losing belly fat is about losing body fat! Losing body fat is about creating a calorie deficit. And the calorie deficit is created by burning calories through intense cardio and weight training and or decreasing the amount of calories consumed. For more information on this subject or to schedule a no cost fitness evaluation click here. Also ask about our NEW Virtual Training.
Eric J. Collier
Cronus Health & Fitness
