Pretty much everyone besides maybe sumo wrestlers want a six-pack or at least a flat stomach, but very few people actually know how to get it done.
Here are 5 tips that’ll help you strip away belly fat.
1. Make muscles.
The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn; however, if you’re not after gaining muscle, you still need resistance training to strip away the fat around the mid section.
Some things to focus on:
- big muscle groups – forget the arms and smaller muscle groups. Working bigger muscle groups burns more calories, in turn burning more fat.
- intensity – interval training is best for fat loss, apply this to your weight workouts as well. Go really intense, rest, intense, rest. This spike in heart rate, and then consequential recovery is where you’re going to burn the most fat.
- keep your workouts short and intense – bouts of exercise that go for too long result in your body releasing cortisol due to the level of stress it is under. This results in muscle loss and the storing of fat.
Some exercises that’ll help:
- squats, lunges
- burpees
- mountain climbers
- pull-downs or chin-ups
- bicycle
- crunches – any abs exercise that attacks the mid-section.
2. Running will burn calories but not necessarily fat.
If you’re sprinting, great, you’re going to burn fat and keep your muscle in tact. But if you’re going for long runs, odds are you’re going to be burning muscle and storing fat. The exercise isn’t intense enough for your body to say, “hey, I need more fuel so I’m going to tap into my extra fat that I have stored.”
Have you ever seen a skinny fat man before? Will Ferrell runs marathons….
Running is great for your lungs, I’m not saying don’t run. But combine it with weight training and add in some intervals and you’ll do great.
3. Eat often.
‘Diets‘ are useless. Anything that says for you to eat fewer times during the day is helping your body store fat rather than burn in. If your body isn’t fed something clean every2-3 hours, it doesn’t know when it’s going to be refueled again, so, it stores fats in case of an emergency.
If you’re eating regularly, your body doesn’t feel the need to store anything because it’s being given ample amounts of fuel as it is. Eating regularly also gets your digestive system working, which burns calories for fuel so it can keep functioning.
4. Eat clean.
Eating often is the first goal, the second is to eat clean.
Good:
- whole grains – brown rice, whole grain pastas.
- veggies
- lean proteins – fish, chicken, lean beef.
- green tea
- oatmeal
Bad:
- anything with white flour
- sugars – sweets, candies etc…
- anything fried – chips, onion rings, french fries
- useless fat – non-lean meats, ice-cream…
5. Have fun.
Studies have shown that stress can halter fat loss. Just something to think about.
Laughing also decreases cortisol levels, allowing your body to burn more fat.
One thing to think about. Exercise is a great stress reliever, a lot of the time people who are stress don’t have a release for their pent up energy or problems. Exercise can put you in a better mood, release stress and results in fat loss. I guess you can call it a win, win, win. 🙂
