The truth on burning belly fat

Sometimes the truth hurts but yet hearing the truth can also be extremely helpful.  If you’ve got belly fat that won’t budge, you need to understand a few things about the human body. First, you’re not alone.  Many people carry excess weight in the abdominal area.  It’s the number one area of the body people will say they most want to lose weight from.  Unfortunately, the stubborn nature of this fat makes it particularly tough to get rid of.

Secondly, a basic understanding of the type of fat in the abdominal area is key to knowing how to trim it down. 

There are two types of fat that can accumulate in the tummy – subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.  Subcutaneous fat is stored directly under the skin (sub means “beneath” and cutaneous refers to skin).  Visceral fat is stored within the abdominal cavity around your organs.  All of us have subcutaneous fat which is relatively harmless but visceral fat has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and some types of cancer.  People who are overweight to obese are not the only ones who have visceral or belly fat as even normal weight people can carry this type of fat. 

What doesn’t work to get rid of belly fat

Mobilizing belly fat is not easy but is possible.  The one type of exercises not to rely on for making belly fat disappear are spot-training exercises – think of crunches. If you believe you can crunch away belly fat into a six-pack, think again. Spot-training can best be defined as attempting to either train or exercise only one part of your body at a time. 

If you were to do 500 sit-ups or be planking all day long, neither will do anything magical to melt away belly fat.  They will tone the muscles in that area of the body which is still important but are not very effective for shrinking down the gut.

What needs to happen to get rid of belly fat is to reduce the amount of fat stored deep inside. You have to burn the fat off the top of the muscle or you’ve never going to see it, no matter how conditioned it is. That is fat that has been accumulating for years steadily building up to the point of a noticeable pot belly.  It’s the same fat that doggedly doesn’t want to go away putting your health at risk. 

What does work?

The trick to getting back the belly you’ve always wanted is a combination of combining cardio with strength training.  Together this combo can be your answer to reducing belly fat and getting your belly in better shape. This duo gets results because it leads to an overall reduction in body fat and increase in lean muscle mass since combined together, these moves help target multiple muscle groups achieving the goal of fat loss from the abdominal area. 

Work up a sweat

Cardiovascular workouts are perfect for getting visceral fat to respond really well when a person does this fitness routine regularly.  The very best type of cardio workout to do for losing belly fat is high-intensity interval training (HIIT).  HIIT is an intense workout in which a person goes all-out in performing one hundred percent effort through quick, powerful bursts of exercise of up to 1 minute long, followed by a short recovery period of about 2 minutes in length.  For example, a good starter HIIT workout is running as fast as you can for up to 1 minute and then walking at a brisk pace for 2 minutes.  Repeat this 3-minute interval five times for a 15-minutes workout. 

HIIT has been shown to be effective in reducing overall abdominal fat and to help mitigate the symptoms of metabolic syndrome.  Keep in mind to burn off really stubborn belly fat HIIT training for some people may require up to 30 to 45 minutes to see results.  It’s a matter of elevating the heart rate up and keeping it elevated for a sustained length of time cranking up your metabolism to a higher level of using up excess fat. 

For anyone who is new to HIIT training or exercise in general, there is beginning moves you can do to slowly but simply to ease into gradually progressing to a more complex routine over time. 

Strengthen your muscles

Strength training is the second half of the solution for reducing belly fat.  A study by Harvard School of Public Health found that men who completed 20 minutes of weight training a day saw a smaller increase in belly fat than men who spent the same amount of time only sweating it out in a cardio workout.  But when cardio and weight or strength training are combined, that’s when you can start saying “bye-bye belly fat.”

Anyone starting out as a beginner to exercising should first consult with their physician. 

Skip unhealthy foods

One other critical aspect of reducing belly fat is what you are feeding your body.  Exercise is important but only part of the equation and success at losing abdominal fat.  If you find yourself feasting on chips, donuts, cookies, sugary beverages and other highly processed foods, the results you expect to see won’t happen.   This is why you can be working out diligently but without proper food choices and portion sizes, not much will change. 

An essential part of any weight loss regimen and for losing belly fat is proper nutrition.  Consult with a registered dietitian who can guide you in following an individualized eating plan helping you reach a healthier body weight.  Without it, you will be wasting your time.