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How To Lose Belly Fat And Get 6 Pack Abs
Question How can I lose body fat especially around my waist so that I have a "six-pack" abs look?
Answer There are key findings from exercise science that can help you more realistically and productively exercise and lose body fat.
1. It is not possible physiologically to 'spot reduce'. This means that no one can do certain exercises and selectively lose body fat from a specific area such as the abdominals.
2. The purpose of exercising the abdominal and oblique muscles, as is true of any other muscle groups, is to strengthen them and make them more muscular.
3. How and where a person loses body fat and the appearance of the abdominals and oblique muscles are primarily determined by genetics. People lose body fat in their own individual way. The loss results from modestly reducing calories below a level that maintains current weight and not by doing hundreds of repetitions of abdominal and oblique exercises.
4. There is no evidence that the abdominals and oblique muscles need to be exercised in a different way than any other muscle group."Muscle groups respond to a brief, intense stimulus that provides a small 'overload'. This means that the abdominals and oblique muscles can each be trained with one or two exercises in 2 or at most 3 workouts per week involving those muscle groups."
5. There also is very little evidence that performing more than one set of an exercise provides more benefit than performing the one set. A set is a designated number of repetitions.
If each abdominal and oblique exercise was performed for 8 repetitions with each repetition performed with a great deal of control (4 seconds 'up', and 4 seconds 'down'), each set would require about 1 minute. So, at most for each training session working the abdominal and oblique muscles require about 4 minutes of actual training time.
For example, a person could perform one set each of a crunch with resistance, a side bend with a dumbbell for resistance, a reverse crunch, and a rotary torso movement. The total time is about 4 minutes 2 or at most 3 times per week.
In fact, performing just the crunch and side bend in one workout a week and then the reverse crunch and rotary torso movement in another workout in the week would be about as effective as performing all four exercises twice per week. The keys are the quality of exercise, not its quantity, and gradually improving over time.
6. There is little evidence that any specific number of repetitions results in any specific kind of outcome such as increasing definition or 'toning'. Rather, any number of repetitions performed under control, with a set of repetitions lasting between about 30-90 seconds, and with the last repetition representing a very hard effort, produces about the same results.
Notice that these points address effectively training the abdominal and oblique muscles as you would train any muscle group. There is no recommendation to perform many repetitions and sets because that is not an effective way to train. Performing many repetitions of abdominal and oblique exercises will not selectively result in fat loss in these areas. Nor, is it an effective way to strengthen these muscle groups. Countless repetitions are a waste of time and energy.
Here is a good prescription for losing body fat:
Focus on eating nutritiously. There is no "magical" fat loss diet.
Create a small deficit of about 250-300 calories per day from the total calories required to maintain your weight.
Resistance train your entire body, all the muscle groups, in a way that conforms to the points described just above.
Perform brief aerobic training 2-3 times each week to improve fitness.
Be physically active most days such as by walking for 30 minutes.
Over an extended time -- months -- based on individual genetics, body fat will be lost and your abdominal and oblique area will be smaller and more muscular.
Many people are interested in reducing the size of their waist to look better. In addition to looking better, reducing body fat and what is called "central adiposity" helps decrease the risk for diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.
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Disclaimer
The information presented on this website is intended to be used for educational purposes only. Please consult with your own physician or health care practitioner regarding any suggestions and recommendations made.