How to Get Rid of Belly Fat

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.

The Advanced Belly Fat Diet; Calorie Shifting to Reduce Belly Fat

This post is meant to compliment “How to Get Rid of Belly Fat Through Proper Dieting“. For those just entering the conversation, I highly recommend you start with that article first. It aims to present belly fat diet principles that we all can apply in order to trim down. This post on the other hand will be for those that have less than 15 pounds of extra fat to lose, or have successfully applied the changes to diet recommended in the other post.

Getting rid of that last bit of stubborn belly fat is quite a challenge. It’s even quite a challenge for me, and I’m in the gym five or six days a week. The reason it is tougher to lose that last 10 to 15 pounds than the first 30 to 100 is because, just our bodies have no reason to carry so much weight, they have to reason to carry so little. Fat is, as we’ve discussed previously, stored energy. And naturally, having energy stored for unforeseen physical challenges is a not a bad thing necessarily.

But that doesn’t stop those of us looking for beach ready bodies from wanting to shed those last few pounds of stubborn belly fat and tone the midsection. So let’s assume that you’re relatively close to your goals or that you’ve successfully applied the belly fat diet principles from the previous post in your daily lives and have reached that dreaded diet plateau. You’re in need of a few more belly fat blasting weapons to kill the blob. Fortunately for you, I’m going to recommend a few things that will seem both unbelievable, and very very refreshing.

One of the reasons our bodies cease to shed belly fat even when we’re dieting properly is because our metabolic rate will eventually adjust to account for the quality and quantity of food you’re consuming. In the beginning weight comes off easy because the transfer from high glycemic carbs to natural low glycemic carbohydrates found in grains and vegetables both lowers our insulin levels and is a sharp reduction in calorie consumption, despite the fact that we feel just as full or satisfied after each meal. And moving away from saturated and trans fats allows our bodies to consider our own body fat as energy rather than stuffing it full of garbage.

At this point of dietary equilibrium, the average dieter comes to the conclusion that they’re eating too much, and so they further reduce their caloric intake. This will at first elicit fat burning, but will result in another plateau which leaves you with no other option but to starve yourself to continue making progress. Excuse my directness, but this is a very stupid thing to do. And very unnecessary. It’s also a great way to damage your metabolism long term making it near impossible to metabolize food properly without putting on fat.

And now we come to the ‘what can I do’ part of the story. We have two options. The first is obvious and one of the best choices not only for burning belly fat, but also for our general health. That option is of course exercise, and I’ve laid out in detail all the changes one needs to make in that arena in other related posts. The second option is perhaps best for those that suffer from an injury or simply lack the spare time to train regularly. And this is where I try not to lose you. Calorie shifting is, in essence, the exact opposite of dieting, at least as it is commonly understood.

Calorie shifting is exactly what it sounds like. Eat varying amounts of food from day to day. It’s simple. It’s natural. And it feels really good to eat things that make us feel guilty. You see, our metabolic rate will downregulate to meet our caloric intake. We can prevent this downregulation by keeping our caloric intake exceedingly high for one or two days a week. That’s right, eating ice cream, hamburgers, cake, fudge, and anything else that makes you salivate at the thought of it, will actually help you reduce belly fat. We can’t have them every day, but we can have them. And when we have them…HAVE THEM.

So let’s say I’m within 15 pounds of my dream body and I’m eating healthy and well balanced meals of lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. I’m also doing one or two interval training sessions a week when I have time. Now its time to have a little fun with my previously disciplined belly fat diet. Select one day a week (two if you have a decent metabolism and are trying to sustain muscle while losing fat) to binge. And when I say binge, I don’t mean eat a snickers bar. I mean eat 5. And have ice cream and bratwurst and Guinness and cheese and everything else that makes eating worth while. Eat and enjoy because this debauchery is your secret weapon in the fight against stubborn belly fat!

Calorie shifting and over consumption will guarantee your metabolism will not permanently adjust downward. But as much as this ‘day off’ helps our bodies, it does even more for our minds. Dieters know that one of the toughest things to do is to control cravings. And the harder you try to put those desires in a box, the larger and more powerful they become. When they break free they often send would be successful dieters on a one way path to obesity. So stop denying yourself. Just regulate your indulgences. It will keep your mind from sabotaging your efforts.

The other psychological benefit that occurs from this, and we all know this feeling well, is that when we eat like pigs, we feel like pigs. When we really eat to the point of sickness, we don’t want to do it again. We don’t even want to see a piece of chocolate for days. This is great for our dieting because we don’t feel the temptation to cheat for several days if not the entire weak leading up to our next binge session. So ironically, embracing our enemy is the key to victory. Just don’t embrace him too often.

Combine this powerful belly fat diet tool with my recommended interval and resistance training sessions and that last bit of stubborn belly fat will have no choice but to burn.

Circuit Training Tips for Getting Rid of Belly Fat

In previous posts I discussed how to get rid of belly fat with resistance training and with interval training by applying one of the most fundamental fitness principles for muscle building and fat loss, intensity. Increasing intensity from one workout to the next is the principle of progressive overload, where our bodies are pushed past previous levels of strength and endurance in order to elicit an adaptive hormonal response to training. This keeps our bodies from plateauing, and allows us to make consistent progress in the quest to get rid of belly fat.

For beginners and beginner-intermediate trainees, resistance training and interval training should be the core of your belly fat battle plan. But once you progress past the basics to where your strength has increased (remember that as you become stronger, you should weight train less frequently if you’re lifting to failure) and your endurance can carry you through three to five intervals, it’s time to introduce a new method of training. The two methods above are more than sufficient for getting rid of belly fat, but even the most determined trainees could use some variety and new challenges to keep things interesting. And that’s where circuit training comes in.

Circuit training combines weight training and interval training into one action packed intensity filled workout guaranteed to burn the belly fat. But this type of training should not be undertaken by those without sufficient strength and lung capacity to make it through a resistance training and interval training session that I’ve described previously. Circuit training, as the name implies, sets up a series of different exercises into a circuit. Each exercise is to be performed with little or no break in between until the circuit is finished. And depending on ones level, rest times between circuits can be kept to a minute and a half to three minutes, or can be disregarded if the circuit is very demanding.

Circuit training for getting rid of belly fat is and should be full body training, selecting exercises that require a great deal of energy in a short amount of time, and that call into play many muscle groups through compound movements, much the same as in our resistance training exercises. The main difference is that weight lifted should be reduced in order to sustain continuous flow throughout the circuit, which ought to be a minimum of three exercises and can be as many as ten to fifteen. My personal preference is to keep the circuit under six exercises and to spend my energy on large compound movements to ensure the highest intensity in the shortest amount of time.

Some of the most preferable exercises for belly fat reduction are bodyweight movements and plyometrics, as the process of transitioning from exercise to exercise and going through a full range of body motion is great for calorie expenditure. Some of these exercises are pushups, squats, jump squats, burpees, mountain climbers, running in place or sprinting, jumping jacks, rows, upward rows, shoulder presses or side raises, and carrying weight while walking. And there are two ways to stack these. You can predetermine a number of reps per exercise, say 10 repetitions of each, after which you move on to the next, or, as I prefer, allow 30 seconds of an exercise before you change. Six exercises done back to back then will take you 3 to 4 minutes with transition time. And a circuit can be performed 2 to 5 times depending on intensity and your endurance level.

Here are a few sample circuits guaranteed to get rid of belly fat:

Beginner:
Pushups (if you’re not strong enough, can perform from knees. If can’t do knees, you can hold a pushup position)
Squats (bodyweight)
Crunches
Do each exercise for 30 seconds. Rest for 2 minutes after the circuit, and perform again. Do three sets three days per week, or as a replacement for your resistance or interval training session.

Intermediate:
Bent Over Rows (with barbell or rubber bands)
Pushups
Shoulder Press (with barbell or rubber bands)
Lunges (holding dumbbells)
Mountain Climbers (a pushup position where you bring one knee in toward your elbow and then set it back, and alternate. Great abdominal work.)
Perform each exercise for 30 seconds. Rest for 2 to 3 minutes after each circuit. Repeat for 3 to 4 sets. Perform 3 to 4 days per week, maximum; or can be used one day per week to supplement resistance and interval training.

Advanced:
Upward Rows (with barbell or rubber band)
Explosive Clapping Pushups/ or Decline Pushups with Elevated Feet
Jumping Lunges (Lunge, then jump and in the air switch legs, landing on the other side)
Burpees (squat, put hands on ground, feet jump back to pushup position, do a pushup, feet jump to hands, and jump straight up off the ground)
Body Bend V-Sits (arms extended over head, curl body to touch hands to feet)
Sprinting or Running in Place
Do each exercise for 30 seconds or 10 to 15 repetitions each. Rest for 3 minutes after each circuit. Do 3 to 5 sets. Do this no more than 3 days per week. If you perform this circuit 3 days per week, do no more than 4 sets of the circuit per session.

As with any program designed to get rid of belly fat or develop overall fitness, these routines can be performed for 2 to 3 weeks, but should then be changed in variety or intensity in order to keep your body from plateauing. Notice here that there is no more attention paid to working the midsection than any other group. This, as we’ve covered previously, is because when it comes to getting rid of belly fat, it’s a game of calorie expenditure, and not localized fat reduction. We cannot remove fat from just one spot on our bodies. It comes off uniformly, and so it’s essential that we focus on things which boost our caloric expenditure and raise our metabolism. These total body circuits are therefore ideal for getting rid of belly fat and toning up all around.

How to Get Rid of Belly Fat with Resistance Training

In order to get rid of belly fat quickly, I believe it is very important to include resistance training into your weight loss program. Resistance training includes things like weight lifting, body weight calisthenics (pushups and pull-ups), using rubber bands, or isometric exercises which cause your muscles to contract while in a static position against a counter force or a stationary object.

All of these things cause our muscles to do the same thing, contract in order to apply force. And it is this contraction that ultimately breaks the muscle down, so your body has cause to build it back stronger. But don’t worry ladies, your bodies lack the testosterone that builds bulky muscles in men. You can lift to your hearts content and you’ll probably fill out a sexy frame, and one that’s not at all muscle bound and oafish.

This process of muscle building is essential for developing strength. And even though strength is not the goal for most women, it is the single most important factor that will allow you to increase the intensity of your cardio sessions, and therefore burn more calories. Notice here I didn’t say lengthen your cardio sessions. I said increase the intensity, which means working harder in the same amount of time.

The reasons for this were discussed in the previous post on interval training. In order to get rid of belly fat, and for general fitness progress, it is more important to increase the intensity of a workout than to lengthen it; though sometimes lengthening and intensifying will be one and the same, especially for beginners. I generally judge intensity by whether or not I’ve completed my workout in a half an hour or less, and when I’m finished I’d have great difficulty doing more of what I’ve done.

The advantage of increasing intensity over increasing duration of a session when you are trying to get rid of belly fat is because our bodies will adapt to our workouts after some time. Once you can jog for 30 minutes, you can jog for 45; it’s just a matter of will power. But the more time you add to these sessions, the less benefit you’ll receive from every minute of added time. Increased intensity of a workout, more weight per rep when weightlifting or faster sprinting during interval training puts greater stress on our nervous systems, and this causes the release of human growth hormone; the incredible hormone which builds muscle, burns fat, and keeps you young and beautiful forever.

Furthermore you aren’t giving your body cause to adapt. Your body will adapt to long cardio sessions, and it will adapt to certain lifting routines, resulting in a fitness plateau. But if you measure your training sessions, writing down your weights, times, rest times, and subjective feelings of fatigue, you’ll be able to quantify the intensity of your sessions, and can therefore increase the intensity marginally and methodically.

Your body cannot adapt to increased intensity, that’s the point of intensity. If something becomes easy for you, it is no longer intense. Increasing the stress you put on your body is essential for those looking to get rid of belly fat quickly. What kinds of resistance training offer the best results? Those which cause the highest energy output in the shortest amount of time, and those which work the greatest number of muscles simultaneously. And since getting rid of belly fat is our goal, and not chasing Arnold, three exercises are sufficient to elicit the strongest metabolic response

The Big 3 Exercises for Getting Rid of Belly Fat:
1. A Big Push (pushups or bench press)
2. A Big Pull (pull-ups, lat pull down, bent over row, and other row)
3. Squat (Bodyweight or with weight added)

Try not to think of these as mere exercises, but look at them in terms of the function they perform. Each exercise works multiple muscle groups. We call these compound exercises. They also work the largest muscle groups in the body, requiring the largest amount of energy, as well as putting the greatest amount of stress on the body. Pushups work the pecs, triceps, and shoulders to a certain extent. Pull-ups and rowing works the lats and other muscles of the back. And squatting works the quads and glutes, and if deep enough, the hamstrings.

For those with experience in fitness, you’ll notice these are the same primary exercises for muscle building. Yes, they are they same. When we train effectively, our bodies exert energy. Exerting energy damages our muscles or stresses our nervous system when we train at high intensities. This results in bigger and stronger muscles. Energy exertion also draws from our fat stores to meet energy needs, thus helping us get rid of belly fat. It also ups our metabolism, allowing us to burn belly fat not only while at the gym, but also while we’re chilling on the sofa. Not a bad deal.

For those who are out of shape and consider walking to the fridge for a second beer a bit of a workout, I’d recommend starting with doing these three exercises 2 to 3 days per week. If you are too heavy or too weak to do a standard pushup, pullup, or squat, you can use a bench press or press machine, a lat pull down or row machine, or a leg press at the gym. For those that can perform a few reps of each exercise, I recommend using body weight to start. If you can only perform 3 to 5 reps of a given exercise, than finish those reps, and hold your body in a static position for 30 seconds to a minute. This will allow your muscles to remain contracted in their strongest range of motion, and will help you build strength faster.

So when doing a pushup, just hold yourself in a pushup position with the arms just slightly bent. If doing a pull-up, jump or jerk yourself to the top, and resist as much as possible to stay up there as your body weight pulls you down slowly. And squats are the same as pushups. Go down as far as you can, and if you max out (can’t complete another rep), hold the lowest position as long as you can. Do this until you can perform at least 8 of each exercise. 8 should be your minimum number of reps per set, every set. There is no maximum number you ought to perform per set. I generally work 50 to 80 pushups and squats and 8 pull-ups per set. And then do 2 to 5 sets, depending on your level. Ideally you’ll perform them in a circuit, one after the other, with as little rest time as possible between exercises. You can rest 1 to 3 minutes between sets, again, depending on your level and pace of breathing.

If using your own bodyweight, and if you’re able to complete three sets of 8 or more reps for each exercise, then you can either increase the intensity of each session by adding repetitions, or you can perform this workout more frequently, daily or 5 days a week. I believe our bodies adapt quickly to bodyweight exercises, and I don’t believe they require a tremendous amount of rest to recover. Though if you get to a point where you’re performing 3 sets of 15 of each exercise, 4 or 5 days a week, you can be pretty sure your belly fat is long gone.

Because our own body weight is constant, and we’re only increasing the repetitions, it doesn’t put nearly as much stress on the body as heavy weightlifting, so our bodies can perform these exercises more frequently. If you’re lifting heavy weights however, its more reasonable to increase the amount of weight lifted, rather than increase the reps continuously. But if you’re adding weight, keep this in mind. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT increase the frequency of workouts. Adding weight increases the intensity of your workout and puts great strain on your nervous system. Increased intensity requires a decrease in training frequency if you are increasing weight and looking for gains in strength and size. So that’s an advantage of getting stronger, you ought and need to lift less often, as your body requires more time to recover from workouts.

Either one of these methods will be an effective component will considerably help you get rid of belly fat. The first method, via body weight resistance training will burn more calories per session, but may also result in a faster plateau. The second method, weightlifting will result in greater hypertrophy, or larger muscles. But unless you’re lifting compulsively and taking supplements, you won’t look like Arnold. You’ll most likely fill out a nice and attractive athletic frame. So for those of you again wondering how to get rid of belly fat, I hope this info on resistance training is a help.