The great summer weather is the perfect time for long cycling trips alone or with friends. Although for many people, the bike is simply a means of communication in the city, it is worth seeing more of its
Activity zone 4F
In this zone, your heart rate rises at the mere thought of the next workout. You'll find the best ways to exercise effectively, discover new disciplines, and choose an outfit that suits your needs. We'll also guide you through the clothing care process and advise what to buy for enthusiasts of various sports. Our blog is a guide for everyone who wants to feel motivation 4 times more!
Published: 8/21/2024💡 Tips|🏋 Fitness
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Burning abdominal fat - everything you need to know
We train for a variety of reasons, but a slim stomach with visible muscle definition seems to be one of the main training goals for both men and women. It's not just about looking great — a strong core is essential in preventing injuries, performing daily activities more efficiently and enjoying a beautiful posture. How to burn abdominal fat? Is exercise enough? Read on, and you'll learn key tips backed by plenty of research to help you fight the so-called spare tyre once and for all.
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How to burn belly fat fast — 10 steps to health and a perfect figure
In this article:
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Abdominal fat is not burned locally, but systemically. AB exercises can strengthen the muscles, but won't help you lose belly fat.
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A calorie deficit is what you need to burn it. This means consuming fewer calories than you burn.
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Diet is crucial in the fat burning process. It is important to ensure an adequate supply of protein and healthy fats.
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Regular exercise, such as aerobic and strength training, will also help you burn abdominal fat.
Short summary:
Burning abdominal fat — why is it so important?
There are many reasons why fat accumulates in our abdominal area. First of all, however, it is due to poor diet, lack of exercise and excess stress. Adipose tissue accumulates in the abdominal area due to an excessively high supply of calories that are not used efficiently, so our body converts them into fat cells instead.
Here are the most common causes of fat accumulating in the abdominal area:
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genetics,
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inadequate diet — excess calorie supply, a diet that slows metabolism and reduces the ability to burn fat,
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lack of sleep and its poor quality,
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excess stress,
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lack of physical activity and a passive lifestyle,
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excess alcohol and tobacco consumption.
Abdominal fat is divided into two types:
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visceral fat — builds up around the human organs,
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subcutaneous fat — found under the skin.
Visceral fat is far more dangerous, as it can lead to heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, dementia and type 2 diabetes. In most of us, ca. 90% of the fat is located subcutaneously — just touch the stomach to feel the soft tissue. The remaining 10% is visceral fat, which cannot be felt. Why is it so dangerous? It used to be perceived as an energy storage, but studies have shown that fat cells, especially visceral fat cells, are biologically active. This means that they act as endocrine organs secreting hormones and other molecules that affect other tissues. Visceral fat produces more cytokines that cause low-level inflammation — one of the factors that increase the risk of heart disease and chronic illness.
Will fat-burning ABS exercises suffice? Unfortunately, physical activity concentrated on one area may strengthen muscles, but will not help with fat loss. At least not directly. You need to focus on recomposing your body from head to toe. In addition, the researchers found that the ‘belly bulge’ goes into what is known as an 'energy-saving mode': this means that with time, it just becomes more difficult to burn it off. So what can you do to burn belly fat as quickly as possible?
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How to burn belly fat fast — 10 steps to health and a perfect figure
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Pay attention to your diet — A balanced diet is fundamental to reducing the amount of body fat. Avoid sugar, refined carbohydrates and low-nutrient products. Eat more fruit, vegetables, protein and complex carbohydrates. Eating foods rich in refined carbohydrates and sugars can increase insulin levels, a hormone that promotes fat storage. Increase your fibre intake as well. Research shows that, for example, an additional 14 g of fibre per day leads to a 10% reduction in calorie intake and weight loss, and that consuming 10 g of soluble fibre reduces 3.7% of abdominal fat.
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Cut down your alcohol intake — Alcohol often contains sugar and is a source of so-called empty calories. When you consume it, the liver stops burning fat, which can lead to fat accumulation in the long term. Alcohol also increases appetite, leading to increased calorie intake.
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Get the sun — Exposure to sunlight can lead to reduced weight gain and limit metabolic dysfunction.
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Control your stress levels — Cortisol, one of the stress hormones, can increase your appetite, making you eat more than you really need. According to research, high levels of stress can lead to the accumulation of fat precisely in the abdominal area. Techniques to reduce cortisol levels include meditation, yoga and breathing exercises (learn also about stress-reducing exercises presented on the 4F blog).
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Take care of the right quality of sleep — Sleep not only allows you to recover after a hard day, but also affects your weight and therefore your body fat percentage. When you suffer from sleep deprivation, hormonal imbalance occurs; one that affects the feeling of hunger the next day. Ghrelin and leptin play the biggest roles. The first hormone makes you feel hungry, and the second is responsible for satiety. As you can easily guess, when you don't get enough sleep, leptin will start to increase and ghrelin levels will decrease.
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Get into a calorie deficit — If you are not sure how to burn abdominal fat, reduce your calorie intake slightly. Most nutrition experts state that you need to burn 7,000 calories to lose around 1 kg of body fat. However, a calorie deficit should not be drastic or maintained for too long, as it can lead to a lower metabolic rate — a maximum of 300-500 kcal of calorie supply should be reduced per day.
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Reduce carbohydrates in favour of healthy fats and proteins — According to some studies, people on a low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight than those following a low-fat diet. Such nutritional habits allow you to lose more body fat while limiting the loss of lean muscle mass. It is also paramount to ensure an adequate protein intake. Protein and fats will keep you satiated for longer, reducing the desire to snack. According to research, a protein-rich diet can suppress appetite by up to 60% and increase daily metabolism by 80–100 calories per day.
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Give up calorie-laden drinks and sugar — If you regularly drink tea with sugar, coffee with milk or sweetened drinks, you may unknowingly slow down or stop your weight loss process. In such a case, it will be nearly impossible to get rid of belly fat. When your diet consists primarily of sugary foods such as chocolate and biscuits, it will be difficult to maintain a slim figure. According to research, 'extra' sugar is particularly harmful to metabolic health. Excess sugar leads to fat accumulation around the stomach and liver — when the liver is overloaded with fructose, for example, it is forced to convert it into fatty tissue.
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Try Intermittent Fasting — Regular breaks in eating help with overall fat loss, so it's worth trying intermittent fasting, which consists in the restriction of meal times. According to research, people who do intermittent fasting have lost between 4 and up to 7% fat in 24 weeks (read more about Intermittent fasting).
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Check your hormones — Hormones play an important role in fat distribution. For example, the reduction of oestrogen levels in women and testosterone levels in men, which occurs with age, may cause fat to be distributed around your stomach. Hormonal imbalance, such as PCOS, increases the risk of insulin resistance, which causes accelerated production of adipocytes. For this reason, it is a good idea to start with having your hormones tested and checking your health, as there may be more causes to fat accumulating in the abdominal area than just a poor diet and lack of exercise.
Burning belly fat: effective exercises
Get moving: exercises to burn belly fat don't have to be focused on this particular body part — aerobic and strength training are the best. It’s important to move more each day, especially if you live a sedentary lifestyle. We recommend walking, running and swimming to significantly reduce abdominal fat.
What are the best exercises for burning belly fat? We recommend high-intensity interval training, such as HIIT, that includes squats, burpees, and sprints. By varying the intensity during the workout, your body will be encouraged to use up stored fat instead of depositing it in the cells. What's more, even after you’re done exercising, the amount of calories burned will be higher.
Try resistance training too — lifting weights helps build lean muscle mass, which increases energy expenditure. According to the study, men who did 20 minutes of resistance training every day had less belly fat over time than those who did cardio. Complex movements, such as squats, deadlifts and barbell overhead presses, are more effective when we’re fighting for better body measurements.
Beware, however, of the thinking trap that many athletes have already learned the hard way — the more exercise, the quicker the results, right? Unfortunately not — exercising without adequate rest will raise levels of cortisol, the steroid hormone, causing fat to be deposited in the abdominal area. Lack of recovery time also increases the risk of injury, so finding a balance is important.
How to burn belly and side fat — a short set of exercises
Here's a short workout to burn belly fat — you can do the exercises e.g. after strength training or separately, starting with a warm-up and finishing with stretching. Remember to wear comfortable sportswear — women's leggings and sports bras will be the best, while workout shorts and a workout T-shirt will work best for men. Don't forget about footwear — without it, you’re in for a quick injury.
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1. Burpees
Get into a standing position, feet hip-width apart, tighten your glutes and abdominal muscles. Bend your knees, leaning your torso parallel to the floor, and bring your palms to the exercise mat, then kick your legs back into a high plank position. Do a push-up (you can skip it in the basic option), then dynamically hop your feet back towards your hands into a squat position, and then jump into the air.
2. Mountain Climbers
Get on your hands and knees and then get into the plank position. Now start dynamically kicking your legs forward alternately, keeping your body in the right position.
3. Russian twist
Sit on a mat and lean your torso back. Bring your legs together, bend them at the knees and lift them up into the V-sit. Stay in the position, twist your torso and bring your arms to one side and then to the other. You can hold a weight to make it more challenging.
4. Renegade Row Push-up
Get into the plank position with each hand gripping a dumbbell, then do a push-up, return to the plank and lift one arm with the dumbbell, keeping your elbow close to your torso. Put your hand down on the mat and repeat the exercise on the other side.
5. Jump lunges
Start in a lunge position with your arms extended in front of the body. Jump, switching the legs in the air.
How to burn belly fat at home? In the kitchen!
Research shows that diet plays a significant role. It determines in as much as 80% whether you’ll enjoy a beautiful stomach with visible muscle definition. Obviously, the remaining 20% comprises regular exercise, which will help tighten the body after fat loss. How to burn abdominal fat? Comprehensive approach is key. Take care not only of diet and training, but also check your health, make sure to get enough sleep of good quality, manage stress levels and all the other mentioned issues. Can satisfactory results be achieved without it? While possible, it will take longer, and you may quickly return to your previous condition.
About to crush a workout to burn belly fat? See the best 4F workout clothes to keep up with you during the workout.
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Sources:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323309#why-is-it-dangerous
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/fulltext/2011/09000/the_effect_of_abdominal_exercise_on_abdominal_fat.27.aspx
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/abdominal-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6371569/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-proven-ways-to-lose-belly-fat#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856431/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17885722/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15044359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3151025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC538279/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24730354/
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