Do abdominal exercises make you lose belly fat?
Can you burn abdominal fat with exercise?
Obviously yes.
Now, can you lose belly fat with just one sit-up marathon?
No.
There is no loss of localized abdominal fat.
What exists is fat loss in general, in which exercise is a great help.
Still, exercise alone may not be enough.
To lose fat, and thus lose belly fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume.
You need to be in a calorie deficit.
Two ways to lose belly fat
There are two main ways to lose fat.
- Exercise. Increasing your daily activity level leads to an increase in calories burned.
- Diet. Reduce your calorie intake, thus remaining in a calorie deficit.
Which of the two methods is the most effective?
The two combined.
Exercising while consuming 10,000 kcal per day is unlikely to bring results. Unless you spend hours and hours doing cardio.
Dieting without exercise is more viable than the solution above, however, to lose fat effectively, you would have to be very hungry.
The combination of the two methods brings better results.
The diet is adapted to a certain number of calories, depending on your lifestyle, body weight, etc.
Exercise helps burn extra calories by speeding up the fat burning process in combination with diet.
Cardio exercise and fat burning
Exercising is not just going to the gym and doing the treadmill.
All the activity you do daily increases your calorie consumption. Your everyday life.
Walk, run, jump.
Movement.
If your daily life is sedentary, sitting in a chair for hours, try making some changes.
A good way to get faster results on your weight loss journey is to move as much as possible daily.
Walk instead of using the car or transport when possible.
Take the stairs instead of using the elevator.
Moving more during the day ends up being an extra to your cardio training.
These are calories that disappear without much effort.
Now, in addition to the small changes you make in your daily life to make you more active, you should also include cardio.
Walking, running, elliptical, bike.
Whatever you prefer.
Include cardio training in your routine, several times a week.
This will guarantee you a significant calorie burn, and therefore, faster results.
You will lose belly fat, and fat in the rest of your body too.
No, there really is no localized fat loss.
Diet and fat loss
Losing fat just through exercise is very difficult, however, it is possible to achieve it just through a good diet.
If you follow a low-calorie diet, consuming fewer calories than you use, you will lose weight, fat and belly.
Is it the ideal method to do this?
Not really.
You would have to follow a very restrictive diet, possibly reduce your current diet a lot and it would be difficult to maintain in the short/medium term.
But yes, it is possible.
Now, by using cardio 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes, you not only have the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, but also greater freedom in your diet.
And when you follow a diet to lose fat, you avoid excessive cardio sessions.
How to lose belly fat, the essential steps
It is not possible to lose localized fat, in this case, the belly, but creating a routine to lose fat is not difficult.
Calculate how many calories you should eat to maintain your current weight.
You find here how to do it in a simple way.
Then, with that number, remove between 200 and 300 kcal from your diet.
This will create a slight calorie deficit that will lead to weight and fat loss.
However, as we mentioned above, cardio exercise is an excellent method to make the weight loss process more effective.
If you haven't already, start.
You don't need to spend an hour on the treadmill every day, adapt the cardio to your physical condition.
In the initial phase, just do moderate sessions, which won't leave you in a mess for the rest of the day.
It goes up gradually.
Progress and results
As you lose weight, you will have to adjust your diet.
The weight you lose means you have lower calorie needs, so you should adapt accordingly.
Cardio should also progress, both in time and intensity.
You can be famous HIIT high intensity cardio, if you are willing and physically fit to do so.
But it's not mandatory.
You can stay at moderate intensity cardio, adjusting the difficulty as you improve your physical condition.
Weight training and losing belly fat
Do you need weight training when your goal is an envy-inducing six pack?
It is not mandatory, but it is a great advantage.
Why?
Weight training gives you several benefits, but one of them is particularly interesting.
The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn daily.
Furthermore, although 1000 sit-ups will not give you localized fat loss, you also need to train your abdominals.
In other words, training with weights makes your six pack plan more effective by increasing calorie consumption, and trains your abdominals directly, among other benefits.
Therefore, including a complete bodybuilding training plan is a good idea.
Mission to lose belly fat, the summary
The summary.
Increase your calorie expenditure throughout the day with small changes to your routine.
Calculate how many calories you need to maintain your weight and reduce that number by 200 to 300kcal.
Plan a diet that you know you will be able to follow, with a calorie deficit of 200 to 300kcal.
Don't try radical diets, don't try “perfect” diets.
The best diet is the one you can follow, not the super restricted one that you abandon after 1 week.
Make a cardio plan, at least 2 to 3 times a week and at least 20 minutes.
Choose the type of cardio you like best and try to progress. Both in time and intensity.
Weights.
Yes, you can achieve your goal of losing belly fat without weight training, but the results won't be the best.
Create a weight training plan for at least three times a week.
Don't use the famous method of increasing exercise repetitions because you want to lose weight.
Create a plan with effective exercises, challenging weights and a maximum of 10 repetitions, and 2-3 sets per movement.
It also introduces exercises for the desired abdominal muscles.
The goal here is to maintain muscle mass.
So when you have a low percentage of fat, you will not only have a defined belly, but also your entire body.
Without weight training you simply end up looking thin, and little else.
If you have any questions, just use the comments area.
If you want a more detailed article on fat loss, a complete guide on how to build your plan, visit the link below.
