We all know that one component of our dream physique are toned 6 pack abs that look like they’ve been dialed in with a fine laser. A wash board stomach that even the Greek gods would be envious of! We work damn hard to get them too! Endless variations of crunches – on our backs, sideways, upside down – surely these will pay off soon and I’ll be losing stomach fat to reveal a toned midsection, right?
Wrong!
Sorry to cut the dream off right there but don’t worry – I’ll redeem myself, because I’m going to tell you that you don’t need to be doing one thousand sit ups a day! The most common reason that people train the abs so hard is due to the belief that you can specifically reduce fat from your stomach by targeting that area more often. I’m going to be blunt again…
In simple terms, if you’re eating McDonald’s all day long and/or doing very little cardio exercise within your workouts, then you can do all the sit ups in the world but you won’t see the slightest bit of difference in your mid section. Actually, I lie, you will see a change but I doubt it’ll be one that you like!
So lets take a look at what we have to do to burn fat from stomach. We’ll need to incorporate three things
- A Good Diet
- A Decent Cardio Program
- A Weight Lifting Workout
A diet, that is well looked after is going to serve you well in your quest for those 6 pack abs.
Your food should give you the fuel for your workouts and to carry out your daily functions. When combined with a good workout program, the right balance of protein, carbs and fat will also help you to maintain your lean muscle tissue whilst reducing your body fat percentage.
A decent cardio program will be crucial to burn fat from stomach and is a more important exercise than endless ab curls. This is the exercise that will truly make your washboard stomach visible and give you those 6 pack abs.
However, remember that you can’t spot reduce from ONLY the stomach. Fat loss is a general process and will be gradually lost all over your body. Often the stomach fat will be the last to go if it is a particularly stubborn area on your body but it WILL go so don’t lose focus or motivation if your body fat levels are decreasing in general. Keep your eyes on the prize!
(For the best cardio program for fat loss I recommend using a HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training) protocol
Finally, make sure that you have a resistance (weights) program – You might be wondering why this is so important and you may even be tempted to skip the weights but if you don’t use them you’re likely to lose fat AND muscle.
This is counter productive because you’re slowing down your metabolism. So although you may have managed to burn fat from stomach, you’ll put it right back on due to the loss of lean muscle tissue. All that hard work for nothing!
What if you don’t want to build muscle? Don’t worry, you won’t bulk up because you won’t be consuming enough calories for this to happen if your aim is fat loss. Still not convinced? Ok, would you change your mind about weights if I told you that you’re working on your abs with almost every free weight exercise?
Your core works hard to stabilize you throughout your weight exercises so when you lift weights, you’re constantly working your core! You’re burning fat and strengthening the stomach muscles!
Bottom line, whether you’re a man or woman – Lift weights!
So now you see that there is absolutely no need to suffer with hundreds of punishing sit ups for 6 pack abs. There are far more effective steps you could be taking to burn fat from stomach and I’ve given you 3 important ones above.
Lose the idea that you can target fat loss to the stomach – Add the 3 tools in this article into your arsenal of knowledge and attain the stomach that you desire!