What does your highschool teacher, next door neighbor, and your doctor have in common?
They all want flat abs.
Who can blame them? Flat abs are sexy. This is the reason why there are so many products that are claimed to to help you get flat abs. It’s a common desire and people are willing to pay for it.
But while the infomercial you watched last night for the Ab Destructor (bogus name), or some other contraption, looked promising, it’s time to get back to reality. In this article I want to talk about 3 things that DON’T burn belly fat (although many think they do) and 2 things that actually do work.
Doesn’t Work #1 – Electric Ab Belts
This is a type of product that is very popular despite being controversial. In the past, the FTC even charged a number of manufacturers of such devices with making false advertising claims. But still these products thrive.
Let’s make something clear: ab belts DO NOT burn belly fat. They can’t. The best that they can do is to temporarily tone and strengthen your abs. Yes, temporarily. This is according to the FDA. Even those devices which were cleared for sale by the FDA have never been recognized as being able to burn off fat. They simply don’t work that way.
Doesn’t Work #2 – Ab Machines
Some ab machines are useless while some do have some value. What is shared by both kinds of machines is their inability to induce abdominal fat loss. This is because these machines work the abs alone and usually don’t offer an intense workout routine.
The fact of the matter is that you can’t burn off belly fat by working on the abs alone. Our body doesn’t burn fat from the body part which we train. It burns fat from all over based on our genetics, among other factors.
Most ab machines are merely overpriced contraptions that offer very little value for their price. You can check out this article on cheap abdominal exercise equipmentthat is useful. However, even those pieces of equipment are useful for toning and strengthening, not for abdominal fat loss.
Doesn’t Work #3 – Sit ups
You can call your gym teacher and tell him that you’re very angry for being told to do all those sit-ups ’cause guess what? They Don’t work.
Sit-ups are a low intensity exercise that isn’t calorie expensive and simply doesn’t lead to abdominal fat loss.
First of all, we already talked about how you can’t burn off belly fat specifically by doing abs exercises. Second, many people can easily do 50 sit-ups and more and it’s quite easy to get up to 100. You can be unfit but still be able to do lots of sit-ups.
Why? Because they’re easy.
Being as easy as they are is what makes sit-ups far from useful when it comes to burning belly fat. The sit-up is a beginners’ exercise at best.
By the way, sit-ups are not alone at this. Other ab exercises are similarly powerless, although some are good for toning and strengthening..
What works #1 – Proper Nutrition
Your nutrition is the single most important thing that determines whether you will lose belly fat or gain it. Nothing else even comes close.
If you want to lose belly fat you need to eat right. Start by eliminating high sugar foods from your diet, reduce consumption of alcohol, sodas, and refined flour dishes. Limit the amount of processed food that you eat and choose fresh food instead. Include more fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds in your diet and get your protein from healthy sources such as fish, eggs, lentils, and beans.
What Works #2 – Intensive Full Body Workouts
Because your body burns fat from all over you simply need to train all of it to produce the fastest calorie burn rate possible. You need to do intense workouts that really challenge you.
Whether you workout at the gym or do exercises at home without weights you need to make each workout count. You have to make it a habit to “push” yourself harder.
With the right combination of resistance training and high intensity cardio interval training you can boost your metabolism and burn body fat quickly. This is the way to get rid of belly fat quickly.
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