|
|
|
|
Highly intensive interval training is rumored to be one of the most effective exercises to lose belly fat. With everyone trying to get ahead in the race to attain the ideal physique, it’s only natural that we want to try anything that promises success. However, considering how everyone is so enthusiastically trying out everything that claims to help lose belly fat, we need to tread carefully.
Table of Contents
Right off the bat, while there are many exercises to burn belly fat, there’s no overnight solution to the problem. You’ll have to understand some important facts about how our body works. Since our aim is to lose belly fat, let’s take a look at this in detail:
Why Should You Exercise to Lose Belly Fat?
Belly, abdominal, or stomach fat all refer to the same visceral fat that is inside your body keeping your organs from touching each other. While there are other types of fats in our bodies, this is the one you need to be worried about.
Visceral fat is required by the body in just the perfect amount in order to maintain the cushion in between the abdominal cavity and organs such as the pancreas, liver, and intestines. That is why we can’t lose too much of it. Being too skinny will result in a weaker immune system. However, you still need to lose belly fat before it’s stored in excess.
There are quite a few problems with having visceral fat in more amounts than are required by the body. For example, if there is too much visceral fat, we can face serious problems such as cardiac arrests and other cardiovascular problems.
Ranging from obesity to strokes and certain deaths, having too much fat can cause more than just appearance-related problems. Therefore, it’s necessary for all of us to attain ideal weights respective to our BMIs and WHtR’s.
Now that we recognize the importance of working out, let’s take a look at the best exercise to lose belly fat.
What is HIIT?
Highly intensive interval training refers to the process of engaging in highly intense workouts followed by rests of double the duration of the workout. HIIT means sprinting for 3 minutes and resting for 6 minutes instead of jogging for 10 minutes.
Research by Dr. Izumi Tabata in the ’90s discovered the effects of HIIT on the human body while experimenting with elite athletes of the time. These athletes were engaging in anaerobic exercises of extreme intensity, almost 170% with respect to the average VO2 max, for 30 minutes.
On the other hand, another group of elite athletes was working out at an average intensity for the same time period.
After weeks of analysis, Dr. Tabata concluded that HIIT resulted in more calorie burnout, making HIIT an effective belly fat burner.
Even now, studies are being performed in various institutes around the world. Incoming evidence suggests that HIIT might be a good stomach fat burner.
However, before we finalize everything and start engaging in what we think of as HIIT, let’s take a look at how to lose belly fat.
How to Lose Belly Fat?
Before we get to how you lose belly fat, we need to take a look at how you gain belly fat. By identifying the sources of visceral fat, you can start working on reducing your intake. Get ready though, you might not like what’s coming.
Ask any expert dietician, physician, fitness trainer, or any other form of body expert. Two things are required to lose belly fat:
-
Exercise
-
Diet
Your body works like a machine and if there’s too much input and no output, the body will be in excess. Similarly, if there is bad input and no output, your health will deteriorate slowly. Meaning, you need to engage in exercises to reduce belly fat. However, exercise is always coupled with dieting because you can’t lose belly fat without the right nutrition.
So, let’s take a look at the perfect diet that goes with HIIT to become the best exercise for belly fat.
Diet to Lose Belly Fat
Right off the bat, everyone has a different BMI, WHR, and WHtR. These are essentially standards that can help you see if you’re overweight or obese.
All physical fitness experts agree that diet is as important as, if not more than, exercise. You will need to make sure that most of your attention is directed towards improving your diet as it’s vital to reduce abdominal fat.
A diet comprises not just a list of things you can eat, but also a list of things you can’t and shouldn’t eat. Moreover, it will also need to be scheduled carefully keeping in view the exercises you’ll engage in. For example, here’s a list of foods that you should eat in a week.
Day 1:
Breakfast: Greek muffin omelet with orange and green tea
Lunch: Ham, whole wheat veggie wrap, or cheese sandwich
Snacks: A cup of raspberries, chia seeds, and a cup of kefir
Dinner: Chile-lime peanuts with baked vegetable soup or grilled chicken Caesar salad
Day 2:
Breakfast: Broccoli rabe, asparagus and 4 omelets
Lunch: Kale, grilled chicken breast, or tuna salad
Snacks: Apples, bananas, cherries
Dinner: Grilled beef, chicken, or turkey with lemon juice and lentil salad
Day 3:
Breakfast: Berry smoothie, oats, flaxseed oil, and Chia seeds
Lunch: Cheesy peas
Snacks: Apples, cherries, or shrimp salad
Dinner: Grilled chicken
Day 4:
Breakfast: Porridge made with half milk and half water with a banana smoothie
Lunch: Spinach and artichoke salad
Snacks: Air-popped popcorn with Italian seasoning
Dinner: Chickpea Pasta, tuna or fish
Day 5:
Breakfast: Coffee, cheese, protein shake, or broccoli with green tea
Lunch: Turkey wrap with lettuce
Snacks: Low-fat yogurt and fruits
Dinner: Chicken breast or grilled beef
Day 6:
Breakfast: Porridge with raisin and cinnamon
Lunch: Tomato soup, spinach, or artichoke
Snacks: Rice cakes with red pepper hummus
Dinner: Turkey, tuna steak, baked potato, cottage cheese
Day 7:
Breakfast: Overnight berry or wholegrain cereal
Lunch: Jacket potato with chili, or pitta bread with hummus and roasted veggies
Snacks: Raw veg sticks and mixed fruit salad
Dinner: Peaches, baked salmon with fennel and pork chops
Just like the one above, there are many types of diet plans to lose belly fat that will need to be customized according to your goals and preferences. You will need to be consistent with your diet and make sure that there are no cheat days that are hindering your progress.
Furthermore, your diet will need to incorporate all the elements that are required by the body to function properly. Even if it means eating things that you normally wouldn’t and engaging in tough belly and side fat exercises at home or at the gym.
Exercise
Diet is one-half of the process of losing belly fat. Once you have a handle on your calorie and carbohydrate intake, you can start focusing on the output. Keep in mind that your old dietary habits, as well as new ones, will require a lot of energy expenditure.
This means that you’ll need to work out to burn more calories than you’re taking in. Since your body is currently filled with excessive visceral fat, you will have to make extra effort with diet and exercise to lose belly fat fast.
When it comes to exercise, HIIT becomes the best exercise to lose belly fat that everybody readily engages in. While it’s a very effective way that has proved itself as one of the best ways to lose belly fat, there are peculiarities that need to be sorted out.
You can’t just blindly engage in exercises randomly and hope for fortnightly results. The nuances surrounding physical workout include more than just the weights you’ll lift and the areas of the body you’ll target. (Also, you can’t specifically target belly fat without working on your overall body, so don’t even try).
For example, HIIT is a full-body workout and is not recommended on a daily basis. This is because, unlike a marathon runner, your body won’t be able to sustain excessive force regularly. You can cause your muscles’ healing mechanism to become compromised by engaging in HIIT too often. Instead, try exercises that help to get rid of love handles at a moderate pace combined with sessions of HIIT.
It's understandable that you would want a specific way to target lower belly fat but you can’t rely on any exercise to be this precise. You’ll have to work your way all over your body and measure progress with your overall weight. To help you get started, here’s a list of effective exercises to lose belly fat:
These exercises for belly fat are for males and females who want to reduce belly fat, love handles, and more.
More Possible Solutions
Although diet and exercise are the only viable ways to lose belly fat, you can resort to cosmetic procedures like liposuction, CoolSculpting, Vanquish, etc. While these procedures are mostly non-invasive, you can expect the process to be quick and painless. However, even these procedures require the utmost care and precision. Moreover, there are limitations and not to mention, countless side effects to plastic surgeries and cosmetic procedures.
A Final Word
Diet and exercise are the most effective belly fat burner weapons you have at your disposal. You will need to follow both of these strictly to ensure that your body loses weight in a healthy manner. Without compromising on your decided schedule, prioritize your needs over your desires, e.g., eating foods that burn belly fat instead of sweet candies.
Invest in equipment only if you’re actually going to continue working on your goals. You can’t change your goals along the way or give up because it’s difficult. Consistency is the fastest way to lose belly fat.