Do Ab Exercises Help You Burn Belly Fat?Discover
Most of us want to lose belly fat and build sexy abs, but sadly, most people go about it the wrong way. By that I mean, most people crank out thousands of crunches, sit-ups and other ab exercises that do little to burn belly fat while placing increased stress on the lower back.
You can think of your abs as a beautiful window and the layer of fat covering your abs (and you have one) as a set of curtains. You can't see the window until you get rid of that curtain. The reason crunches can't do that for you is because they're simply too small a movement to burn many calories, and you need to burn calories to finally shed that belly fat.
If you're going to work your abs, you might as well work them in a way that will accomplish that for you, instead of doing one thing (like cardio) to burn calories and another (like crunches) to work your abs.
So you’ve probably been working out a lot and regularly doing ab workouts, and each of your other muscle groups has grown, but those motherf**king abs are just not showing up. Basically, abs are something which you can’t see unless you lower your body fat percentage to an appropriate level.
That’s right, you do have abs, the real problem lies with your subcutaneous fat. You may have the best abs in the world, but if your body fat percentage is too high, you just can’t see them.
The Best Exercises For Fat Loss
One reason why targeted fat loss does not work is because muscle cells cannot use the fat contained in fat cells directly.
Fat mass needs to be broken down before it can enter the bloodstream. This fat can come from anywhere in the body, and not just from the body part being exercised.
Additionally, doing sit-ups and crunches isn’t particularly effective for burning calories.
Regular, whole-body exercises will speed up your metabolism and burn calories and fat. Aerobic exercise (cardio) may also be effective at targeting visceral belly fat (21).
Intensity plays a role as well. Moderate or high-intensity exercise can reduce belly fat mass, compared to low-intensity aerobic exercise or strength training (22, 23).
Additionally, you need to exercise often if you want to achieve significant results (24).
For example, do moderate-intensity cardio for 30 minutes, five days a week, or high-intensity cardio for 20 minutes, three days a week (25).
The muscle changes that take place in response to exercise also promote fat loss. In other words, the more muscle mass you build, the more fat you will burn (22).
Combining Multiple Types of Exercise May Be Effective
High-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) is another approach that has been shown to reduce body fat more efficiently than standard aerobic exercise (22, 26, 27, 28).
HIIE is a type of interval training that combines short bouts of high-intensity exercise followed by slightly longer but less intense recovery periods (26).
Aspects of HIIE that make it effective include appetite suppression and greater fat burning during and after exercise (27).
Furthermore, combining resistance training and aerobic exercise been shown to be more effective than aerobic exercise alone (29, 30).
Even if you don’t want to do HIIE or resistance training, studies have shown that just regular brisk walks can also effectively reduce belly fat and total body fat (31, 32).
You can think of your abs as a beautiful window and the layer of fat covering your abs (and you have one) as a set of curtains. You can't see the window until you get rid of that curtain. The reason crunches can't do that for you is because they're simply too small a movement to burn many calories, and you need to burn calories to finally shed that belly fat.
If you're going to work your abs, you might as well work them in a way that will accomplish that for you, instead of doing one thing (like cardio) to burn calories and another (like crunches) to work your abs.
So you’ve probably been working out a lot and regularly doing ab workouts, and each of your other muscle groups has grown, but those motherf**king abs are just not showing up. Basically, abs are something which you can’t see unless you lower your body fat percentage to an appropriate level.
That’s right, you do have abs, the real problem lies with your subcutaneous fat. You may have the best abs in the world, but if your body fat percentage is too high, you just can’t see them.
The Best Exercises For Fat Loss
One reason why targeted fat loss does not work is because muscle cells cannot use the fat contained in fat cells directly.
Fat mass needs to be broken down before it can enter the bloodstream. This fat can come from anywhere in the body, and not just from the body part being exercised.
Additionally, doing sit-ups and crunches isn’t particularly effective for burning calories.
Regular, whole-body exercises will speed up your metabolism and burn calories and fat. Aerobic exercise (cardio) may also be effective at targeting visceral belly fat (21).
Intensity plays a role as well. Moderate or high-intensity exercise can reduce belly fat mass, compared to low-intensity aerobic exercise or strength training (22, 23).
Additionally, you need to exercise often if you want to achieve significant results (24).
For example, do moderate-intensity cardio for 30 minutes, five days a week, or high-intensity cardio for 20 minutes, three days a week (25).
The muscle changes that take place in response to exercise also promote fat loss. In other words, the more muscle mass you build, the more fat you will burn (22).
Combining Multiple Types of Exercise May Be Effective
High-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) is another approach that has been shown to reduce body fat more efficiently than standard aerobic exercise (22, 26, 27, 28).
HIIE is a type of interval training that combines short bouts of high-intensity exercise followed by slightly longer but less intense recovery periods (26).
Aspects of HIIE that make it effective include appetite suppression and greater fat burning during and after exercise (27).
Furthermore, combining resistance training and aerobic exercise been shown to be more effective than aerobic exercise alone (29, 30).
Even if you don’t want to do HIIE or resistance training, studies have shown that just regular brisk walks can also effectively reduce belly fat and total body fat (31, 32).
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