How to Get Rid of Belly Fat

How to Lose Belly Fat by Touring Budapest

After a gluttonous week of travel through Prague and Budapest last week I accidentally lost 5 to 10 pounds of belly fat. Now I don’t usually carry that much extra fat on me, so that should tell you how accidental it was. And upon reflection I realized that lifestyle is an essential piece of the belly fat puzzle. Playing the tourist for a week caused me to lose weight, while playing the office worker, more often than not, is a prescription for belly fat. Why?

A huge number of people are concerned with how to lose belly fat. My guess is that most of these people are sitting behind a desk all day and snacking sporadically on high carb, high trans fat goodies. For most, a work day is designed for belly fat augmentation. Sitting down for extended periods of time removes the greatest fat burner you have, the large muscles in your legs, from doing anything metabolically constructive. It also prevents your chore muscles from performing their sole function, to stabilize the body. Meanwhile the boredom of office work pushes you toward sugar cravings for a quick pick-me-up.

But this is nothing new. We know that inactivity is conducive to belly fat. But we may not realize just how much. Over the last week I did no exercise, or at least, notable exercise. I didn’t lift a weight. I didn’t run. I drank a lot of beer and ate heavy East European food several times a day. And I saw Prague and Budapest on foot. Oh, and I lost at least 5 pounds of fat (I say at least because I may have burned off a little muscle too, tough to say). This certainly had nothing to do with my gluttonous diet. It had everything to do with the simple and unfortunately temporary lifestyle change.

The simple act of being on your feet for most of the day is enough to call into play the largest metabolic boosters the body has, the muscles of the upper legs. Using these all too often ignored muscles raises your metabolism considerably, and it leaves your body in a nice calorie deficit. Your body needs constant energy throughout the day, and it takes that energy from belly fat. Despite the fact that my diet looked nothing like a diet, I still lost weight. There is almost nothing you can eat that if you’re on your feet for a good portion of the day, your body won’t make use of or flush out.

So what’s my new belly fat solution? Travel!!! Stop asking how to lose belly fat and instead use those precious vacation days to travel to a place that offers sights and culture that are accessible by foot. Spend your days walking through old cities with cobblestone walkways, brilliant architecture, and when you’re tired, dine on exotic cuisine and good booze. It’s a lifestyle change that if realized two or three times a year will not only enrich your life and shake off that pent up stress, but will also help you shed that belly fat you’ve acquired from countless hours at the office.

Mini Workouts for Belly Fat Reduction

Belly fat reduction is the natural consequence of living day to day in a calorie deficit as we’ve discussed several times already. The two paths to this are exercise and dieting. Exercise is the ideal choice to create a calorie deficit because you won’t run the risk of hurting your metabolism, which is your strongest advocate on the path to getting rid of belly fat. Dieting can be very effective, but if you’re not the type who likes to eat basic and natural foods all the time, it’s smarter to work with your natural inclinations and just suffer through a little but of physical training.

A barrier to belly fat reduction is the time and energy it takes to make it to the gym and push through a grueling training session. And fortunately for those who are busy or occasionally lazy, there is another more efficient training method that is just as effective for getting rid of belly fat. Mini workouts can last anywhere from 2 minutes to 10 minutes, and done once or twice a day can rival other training methods for effectiveness. And I know it may sound crazy, but it is quite possible to reduce belly fat with as little as 2 to 10 minutes of training a day if done properly.

As we’ve discussed elsewhere, the key to growth and gains in strength or endurance training is applying the principle of progressive overload, or methodically pushing your body past previous limits. One of the key components of this is the notion of intensity, which pushes our body to that limit in the shortest amount of time possible. This is how mini workouts can reap great rewards. When most people head to the gym they pay little attention to rest times and overall workout length. They just go in and do the work. But there is a very big difference in strength and endurance between a person who does a full body lift in one hour versus a person who can do that same lift in half the time.

This principle can be carried further to the point of short, intense, and compact workouts. These sessions in my opinion are most effective when done with bodyweight exercises, as most of us can do higher repetitions with bodyweight that with free weights. If you cannot do 15 pushups, sit-ups, or bodyweight squats, then you may need to supplement exercises with a bit of weight training. And here is the objective. To reduce belly fat, we want to exert as much energy as possible in the shortest amount of time. And this means using big compound movements in a fast paced circuit with no rest in between. Each exercise should be done to failure, that is until you cannot perform another rep, and then move immediately on to the next exercise.

To give you an example from my own mini workouts. I can generally do between 50 and 80 pushups, 50 and 80 bodyweight squats, and 20 to 40 v-sits. I do these as quickly as possible while maintain proper form and getting close to full range of motion (though speed reduces this a bit and maybe you don’t fully extend the arms and legs on the push up and squat motion). Start with as many pushups as you can do, then immediately move on to as many bodyweight squats, and then on to v-sits or crunches. This can be done in less than two minutes. This can be done for two sets after a 2 to 3 minute rest for a total workout time of less than 8 minutes, or can be done once in the morning and once in the evening. This simple compact mini workout is guaranteed to reduce belly fat if done daily or 5 to 6 days per week. Belly fat reduction has just become easy!

Get Rid of Stubborn Belly Fat with the Proper Fat Loss Mind Set

Getting rid of belly fat is not simply a physical challenge. Everyone who has every set fitness goals knows all too well that the largest hindrance to progress is laziness and procrastination. We like the idea of being fit, but we don’t like the idea of working out. If we wanted to work out in the first place we wouldn’t be in our current belly fat predicament.

Nonetheless, you are not alone in your aversion toward training. But there are several psychological factors that contribute to success, and several that don’t. The most pernicious habit for those looking to get rid of belly fat is procrastination, also known as the art of making excuses. When time comes to train we start to notice little things; my ankle hurts, I’m too tired, I think I’m coming down with a cold, etc. These issues are intense enough and present just long enough to keep us from training without the guilt of choosing to avoid a workout.

But we all know when we’re making excuses and once they creep in, so too is that voice of guilt and the path toward defeat set. It’s incredibly important that when we lay out our belly fat reduction plans that we don’t forget our dislike of training, and that we plan our sessions assuming they are going to be uncomfortable and difficult to adhere to. Don’t deceive yourself. Your personality will not change over night. You are going to be fighting the person you’ve conditioned yourself to be over a long period of time. So it’s important to make your belly fat reduction plans with all of this in mind.

There are a few techniques that successful dieters and weight losers employ in order to succeed, and you’d do well to adhere to them as well. After a few weeks of training you are not going to want to train. You will have seen no results by then, because it takes time for your body to get conditioned to burn fat regularly. And you will get discouraged. At this time, it’s essential that your workout times are not discretionary, but are in fact a priority in your daily schedule. The best weight losers get their workout first thing in the morning before excuses or self doubt creeps in.

This doesn’t need to be a hard workout; it just needs to be regular. Whether you get up 20 minutes early and go for a 15 minute jog, or your do a mini bodyweight circuit of pushups, sit-ups, and squats, getting something done before the day starts removes all pressure and all guilt surrounding your fitness plans. If you can make a harder training session in the evening, great, and if you can’t, no worries, you’ve already met your daily commitment. This simple tactic, while it will not produce quick weight loss or rapid belly fat reduction, will set the stage for long term weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

The second tactic one should adhere to is the utter commitment to show up to sessions. This doesn’t mean you train and give 100% each session; it just means you show up. On those days where you feel tired or sick or your tooth hurts or whatever, you will not want to train. And not training opens the door for every excuse under the sun once the habit is established. If you are committed to showing up at the gym, or getting on your running gear every morning, then the workout will happen more often than not. If you have a legitimate issue, don’t stay at home and watch TV. Go to the gym and simply sit there and watch others or do something very minimal with a part of your body that feels fine. This will reinforce the importance of training sessions.

Another great belly fat reduction tactic is to find friends with similar goals and train together a couple of days a week, rain or shine. Support groups are not necessary but are incredibly helpful in pushing past the wall. And another tactic is to treat training like you love it, whether you do or not. And what I mean by that is that when we love to do something, we do it first, we do it now. Sometimes it makes us late for work or keeps us up at night. Treat training like you love it. When the thought or weight loss or training creeps in, force yourself to do something positive with it. Perhaps do 20 pushups or bodyweight squats. This will condition you not only to burn belly fat regularly, but also to get past the stigma of exercise as a burden to your lifestyle.

A proper belly fat reduction mindset will not be focused on the burden of fitness; it will be focused on the lifestyle commitment to fitness. You have set your long term goals, and then break them down into many mini goals that will be your week to week inspiration. These goals should not, in my opinion, be attached to weight loss in terms of poundage. Watching a scale forces you to care about the wrong things.

If you’re focused on improving your strength and endurance, and you’re eating properly, then the poundage will come off. But you also may build muscle you didn’t previously have, and this could leave you at a heavier lean bodyweight, but with serious progress in terms of belly fat reduction and size. Confidence doesn’t come from your weight in terms of pounds, but from your body feel and appearance. Who cares if you weigh 10 pounds more than you did that last time you were thin if your belly fat is gone and you’re lean in all the right places? And yes, it is possible to be 10 pounds heavier and look thinner if those ten pounds are muscle.

Abdominal Exercises Will not Burn Belly Fat, but They Will Bring the Sexy

Not to beat a dead horse, but I can’t help reiterating the fact that abdominal exercises will not burn belly fat. Despite the fact that the rationale behind this is relatively straight forward, I still find people that believe in isolation exercises for getting rid of belly fat. But they don’t. They waste time and on occasion make you feel a bit sore. But the lactic acid buildup that causes soreness is no indication of muscle stimulation or of the calorie expenditure that causes fat loss.

I suppose this concept is somewhat difficult to embrace because it isn’t a big leap to say, “Well, if I want to reduce belly fat, than I ought to do belly fat exercises, namely abdominal exercises and crunches which make me feel sore in the same area.” I still find clients that come to me for weight loss and question why I have them do relatively little abdominal work in our workouts. I just try to reinforce the fact that abdominal workouts don’t reduce belly fat. Burning calories and building muscle does.

But we have dedicated several posts to this already on the best ways to lose belly fat with resistance training and interval training. In this post I’d like to breach the topic of abs workouts for those that are relatively close to their belly fat goals. Unless you are within 10 to 15 pounds of your lean and sexy frame, abdominal exercises will not improve definition. They will only improve core strength. Core strength is very important for all around strength, but the core is indirectly worked from virtually every full body compound movement, whether you are lifting weights (squat, shoulder press, etc.) or jogging.

So until you’ve made great gains in belly fat reduction, I highly recommend not wasting your gym time with abdominal exercises. 10 minutes a week is more than sufficient to strengthen the abs through 2 to 4 sets of static contraction training via a plank, or sets of crunches to failure. You should reduce rest times between sets to 30 seconds to 1:30 at most. This allows you to finish one session in 5 minutes or less. 1 to 2 sessions a week will strengthen your core sufficiently to carry you through your primary exercises to lose belly fat mentioned in the posts linked to from above.

Let’s look more closely at abdominal exercises for those who are near their goals and are ready to build the abs for greater tone and definition. Abdominal training should keep to the same principles we applied to our resistance training. Sessions should be short, intense, and focus on the abs as a unit, rather than messing around with lower, middle, and upper abs exercises. Your abs workout should consist of only one or two exercises per session, and they should provide maximum resistance in the shortest amount of time. Naturally, this will be contingent on your level of abdominal strength. And just as importantly the abs need days of rest to recover and grow stronger.

Let’s look at a few of the best abdominal exercises for people at various levels of strength. You can use these exercises and principles to construct your own abs workout in conjunction with your resistance and interval training. Just keep in mind these exercises do not burn belly fat, they build the abs so you’ve got something to show off after your belly fat reduction phase. My favorite exercise for those with weak abdominals is the plank. A plank, as the name suggests, is holding the body straight like a plank, while the forearms are on the ground supporting you and your body is help up in a pushup type position. That’s all you do. You don’t crunch or move, you just hold yourself up. This mimics the natural function of the abs as stabilizing muscles. You should aim for 3 sets of one minute. If you can do this, you’re ready for intermediate exercises.

The next level can either include v-sits, where the body is out stretched on the floor, and keeping your arms and legs straight, curl your body into a V and touch your feet with your hands, or it can include mountain climbers, which begin with a pushup position with arms extended, and brings in one knee to your elbow at a time. Don’t put weight down on the ground with your foot as you draw in your knee. Perform these slowly, with a straight plank like body, and controlled. If you can do three sets of 15 v-sits, or three to four sets of 20 to 30 mountain climbers, you’ve developed a great deal of abdominal strength and control. Moving on is only for the hardcore at this point, as you’ve done more than enough work for a nice six pack. You just need to focus on your belly fat diet for the definition.

The next level of resistance comes in the form of knee or leg raises. These can be done more easily by holding yourself up with your forearms supported. The hardest version is performing these from a hanging position on a pull-up bar. From here you slowly bring your knees to your chest or more advanced, straight legs up past a 90 degree point. Control the downward movement as well. If you can perform three to four sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of this your abs are rock hard. If you can do this and still lack definition and tone, diet is the only factor responsible.

I personally prefer not to work my abdominals into my full body resistance or circuit training sessions because I believe they waste time and lack the intensity of other full body compound movements. If I do them on the same day, I do them at the end of the workout. I prefer to do my abs training on my interval training and cardio days. I either perform them quickly before I do interval training, or I incorporate them into the interval session itself. So I’ll run hard for a few minutes, stop and do a set of abs, and repeat. This works the abs immensely and pulls the whole midsection in. It’s a great way to burn belly fat while strengthening the core.

And even though abdominal exercises will not burn belly fat, once you’ve made great gains in belly fat reduction, they will indeed bring the sexy.