Do Ab Exercises Help to Lose Belly Fat?

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Do Ab Exercises Help to Lose Belly Fat?

Lose Belly Fat

Almost everyone today is obsessed with having abs without flabs. The World Wide Web is abundant in resources giving you misleading information on how to get well-toned abs in as little time as one week. However, there’s no shortcut to achieving a fit body!

Did you know that 80 percent of the factors that contribute to weight loss is determined by your diet, while the other 20 percent is attributed to exercises? Unfortunately, this means that you can’t get a flat stomach unless you maintain a healthy diet in spite of those hard-driving training sessions.

Let me quickly take you through a few points regarding abdominal fats, spot reduction, and effective ways to lose belly fat.

Abdominal Fats – Subcutaneous vs. Visceral Fat

Studies have shown a strong correlation between abdominal fat and health issues such as certain heart diseases, resistance to insulin and type 2 diabetes.

Nevertheless, not all that belly fat is detrimental to health!

Subcutaneous fat is basically the visible flabs that lie right under your skin. These fats do not necessarily pose a threat to your overall health.

On the other hand, visceral fats are not visible externally. This type of fat is hidden around your internal organs and can be quite hazardous to your health. The health problems associated with visceral fats include high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol leading to heart diseases, type 2 diabetes.

According to research, visceral fats possibly result from unhealthy lifestyle habits. Normally, people with visible belly fats also have huge deposits of visceral fats.

The combination of a healthy diet and strength training exercises will help you to get rid of both subcutaneous and visceral fats. Experts have found that you can lose visceral fats twice as fast compared to subcutaneous fats.

Spot Reduction is a Fallacy!

In case you’re not aware, spot reduction means getting rid of subcutaneous fats from a specific part of your body by doing exercises that target that particular area of your body.

You might have come across plenty of articles and fitness challenges on the internet, for example – 30 Day Ab Challenges or a number of exercises to perform every day to lose belly fat. This DOES NOT work! Often, the information in these articles is misleading.

While these exercises and challenges may help in building muscles, you cannot magically lose fat in specific areas of your body.

According to a study, 24 subjects performed ab-centric exercises five days a week for six weeks, and none of them got rid of their belly fat.

What can you do to get Rid of Belly Fat?

  • Diet – As mentioned earlier in the article, 80% of the factors contributing to weight loss is gauged by what you eat and how much you eat. Hence, I would recommend that you use calorie counter apps or websites to track your daily calorie intake, log what you eat and improve your diet accordingly. Try to consume more greens, fruits, and fibrous foods. Avoid fried foods, fizzy drinks, processed foods, and sugar.
  • Resistance Training & Aerobic Exercises – Resistance or strength training in conjunction with aerobics have proven to be extremely effective in losing fats. Resistance exercises work your core and other major muscle groups while helping you to gain muscle mass. You must do strength training exercises at least twice a week.

Aerobic exercises can be a lot of fun as its very versatile, and burns calories rapidly. Alternatively, you could also try performing HIIT (high-intensity interval training) exercises which are even more effective than aerobic exercises since it keeps your heart rate up while burning calories.

Try to get at least an hour of HIIT on a daily basis. For example – Sit ups, Jump Squats, Burpees, Pushups. That is a proven way to lose belly fat.

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