CAN YOU LOSE BELLY FAT BY DOING CRUNCHES?

One of the biggest questions in the billion dollar fitness industry is, “How can you lose belly fat?” Many companies are making millions riding on this question without providing any real answers.

Telemarketing ads are filled with magical products that promise to make you lose belly fat while doing nothing more than sitting on a couch browsing through TV channels.

I saw this ad about a belt that can make you sweat and lose fat. It promises to reduce your waist size by two inches in a week. That too without putting in any effort other than putting on the belt!

I think I don’t need to go into detail explaining whether you should or shouldn’t go for such products. To my Neanderthal brain, they don’t make any sense. They all seem like mythical products. To make gains without putting in any work seems like a ‘too go to be true’ fairytale to me.

Many people complain that they’ve tried various things like doing 200 crunches a day, extreme dieting, excessive cardio and also tried fat burning supplements, but nothing seems to make them lose belly fat.

If you feel that you have been working hard for a while but not seeing the expected results, reanalyzing your fat burning approach can definitely help. After you do your research, you may realize that you were fairly misguided about crucial things that could’ve helped you in your fat loss journey.

One of those things a lot of people believe is that by doing excessive abs exercises they will be able to make their waists narrower. But is it really true? Can you actually lose belly fat by doing crunches?

 

 

SPOT REDUCTION – MYTH OR REALITY?

 

A majority of us wish if we could just target one particular body part, and burn fat from there. For many, it would be the abdominal area, whether the belly or the love handles. For others, it may be their hips or sagginess in the arms.

Spot reduction simply means that by exercising a specific body part, you will also burn fat in the same part.

While this would be really great, but is it possible? It’s not.

Although it may seem like common sense at first to assume that if you do crunches, then you’ll lose belly fat. But in reality, things don’t work like that.

Since we’ve been talking about crunches and abdominal fat, let me tell you what happens when we perform crunches. When you do crunches, you are breaking down the muscle tissue in your abs which then recover into slightly stronger and bigger abs, through nutrition and rest.

Now our bodies burn calories to perform any exercise or movement, irrespective of the body part targeted. If the calories burnt are more than what we consume, that creates a calorie deficit, and we begin to lose fat. We lose fat as a result of the body metabolizing the excess calories stored as fat, to fuel the muscles.

So, of course, crunches will make you lose belly fat if you’re on a lean diet, but no more than any of the other body parts. This simply means that fat is burned from the entire body and it’s not possible to spot reduce fat.

So, what are the things you should look at when you want to get leaner?

While we can’t target and lose fat from specific body parts, a good workout plan coupled with healthy nutrition can make you lose fat effectively from the entire body.

 

 

GET YOUR DIET IN PLACE

 

Your diet is the first thing you should analyze when you’re trying to lose belly fat. Nothing is more important than what you eat when you’re on a mission to burn fat. Hours of toiling at the gym would all go down the drain if your diet is not in place.

I earlier mentioned about creating a calorie deficit for us to burn fat. You can calculate your daily calorie requirement through this calorie calculator. Once you know how many calories you need in order to maintain your weight, you can start by dropping just 100 calories for the first week.

One tip you should remember is not to drop your calories drastically as it can lead to health issues. Also, our bodies are great at adapting to keep us alive. This means that even if we drop calories drastically, we might lose considerable weight at first. But after a while, our bodies adjust to make things work with fewer calories and we stop to lose weight.

Moreover, it becomes very frustrating when you’re starving yourself. You will begin to feel energy deprived and will always be craving to eat something.

A much better approach is to slightly lower your calories for the first couple of weeks. Then, once your body is getting used to the fewer calories, you shock it by lowering it slightly more. Lowering your calories gradually will reduce the chances of you hitting a fat-loss plateau.

Then once you’ve achieved your fat loss target you would want to maintain the same composition. For that to happen, you need not stick to the same low-calorie diet. Instead, you need to climb back up slowly, exactly the way you went down, till you get back to your ideal maintenance requirement.

While making healthier choices and controlling the total calories is a must, it’s also highly recommended that you keep a close watch on your macros.

Macros or macronutrients are chemical compounds that we consume in the largest quantities for our bodies to function and grow. They can be divided into protein, fats, and carbohydrates.

You can start with 30% protein, 40% carbs and 30% fats which are ideal ratios for an average body type. But depending on your body type, you may want to vary those ratios a bit.

If you’re an ectomorph, you will reduce protein and fats, while increasing the carbs further as you have a high tolerance for carbs. But you will reduce carbs and increase fats and protein if you’re more of an endomorph.

It’s also highly recommended that you split up your nutrition into 5-7 smaller meals rather than 3 regular meals. This can help in keeping your metabolism rate high.

If you are able to create a calorie deficit and are managing your macros well, then pat yourself on the back as you’ve already won 70% of the battle.

 

 

WORKOUT APPROACH TO LOSE BELLY FAT

 

Although I mentioned that diet is most important when we talk about burning fat, it can act as a multiplier if we couple it with an effective workout plan.

Ideally, you should be aiming at 3-5 resistance training sessions per week along with 3-5 HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio sessions. You can start with 3 sessions of each per week then work your way up to 5 or 6.

If you’re a woman you may feel that you don’t want muscles so you can skip resistance training and only stick to cardio. Well, think again, read 6 great reasons why women should lift weights.

If you’re new to lifting weights, you may want to read about 8 bodybuilding mistakes you should avoid early on.

Studies have shown that resistance training along with high-intensity cardio sessions is the best way to go if you want to lose belly fat. So, while cardio is essential in fat burning, make sure you don’t ignore the amazing things that lifting weights can do for you.

 

 

TRACK PROGRESS AND ADJUST

 

Once you have figured out a diet plan and a workout routine, your next step would be the obvious, execution. When you are starting out with a new plan, it is essential to see where you’re starting from and have a clear goal of where you want to be.

It’s also a good idea to keep the goal time-bound as it will kick in a sense of urgency. What you don’t want to do, is set unrealistic goals. Don’t set a goal of losing 30 pounds in a month. That way your motivation will only fizzle out sooner.

Take all your measurements when you’re starting out along with a progress picture. Track these every week to see if you’re making progress. If you feel you aren’t, then try and make changes to your diet or workout.

Check out these mobile apps you can use for tracking progress.

Soon enough, you will begin to understand your body much better. You will get a hang of what works for you and what doesn’t. But make sure that you don’t try and switch things up too fast. That way you will not be able to see if the current settings are working for you or not.

 

So, we have established that spot reduction is a myth. You can’t target and lose belly fat, but you can definitely work on your diet and exercising strategy to lose fat from your entire body.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but with consistency and hard work, it is achievable for sure!

 

If you’re lacking motivation, be sure to check out – 10 Tips to Start Working Out, Kick Ass and Stay At It!

 

Thanks a lot for reading!

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