Exercises and Strategies To Try. By Dr. Mercola. If you're looking to shrink and tone your belly, there's a better way to do it than trying to do crunches. In fact, research has shown that doing abdominal exercises alone—even when performed five days a week for six weeks—has no effect at all on subcutaneous fat stores and abdominal circumference. In an op- ed piece for Forbes Magazine, Jennifer Cohen suggests using strategies that burn up cortisol instead. ![]() Cortisol is a hormone in your body that depletes lean muscle and holds on to fat in the abdominal region. One of the most important ways to help this process is to reduce stress in your life, because stress causes cortisol levels to spike. Cohen also delves into a number of other strategies that help reduce your cortisol levels, such as the following. To learn more, please see the featured Forbes article: . Getting sufficient amounts of sleep, for example, not only helps normalize cortisol levels, it's also important in order to optimize your circadian clock, which can have a profound impact on your metabolism and weight. ![]() As an example, a couple of years ago researchers at the University of Chicago found that dieters who slept for 8. But the master key really lies with your diet, followed closely by the type of exercise you engage in. About 8. 0 percent of your ability to reduce excess body fat is determined by what you eat, with the other 2. What this means is that if your diet is based on sugar/fructose and processed junk food, your chances of getting flat, ripped abs, even if you work out religiously, are quite slim.. You simply will not see defined abs unless you reduce your overall body fat, and a poor diet cause your body to hold on to excess fat, despite all your exercise efforts. Cohen mentions two of the most important dietary factors in her article, namely: Reducing or eliminating sugar from your diet. ![]() This includes ALL forms of sugar and fructose, whether refined or . By avoiding processed foods in general, and focusing instead on whole, preferably locally grown organic foods, cooked at home, you can circumvent one of the greatest dietary obstacles there is today. For more details, I suggest you review my Optimized Nutrition Plan, which is a comprehensive and step- by- step guide to help you make health- promoting food- and lifestyle choices. This includes. The top offenders in this category include. But while considered . The trick to achieve flat abs is to incorporate the correct types of exercises. High- intensity interval exercises are at the core of my Peak Fitness routine. This short intense training protocol improves muscle energy utilization and expenditure due to its positive effects on increasing muscle mass and improving muscle fiber quality. ![]() ![]() Muscle tissue burns three to five times more energy than fat tissues, so as you gain muscle, your metabolic rate increases, which allows you to burn more calories, even when you're sleeping. Further, several studies have confirmed that exercising in shorter bursts with rest periods in between burns more fat than exercising continuously for an entire session. In fact, you can actually lose more weight by reducing the amount of time you spend on exercise, because when doing high- intensity interval training you only need 2. Any more and you'll overdo it! You can get the details on how to properly perform these exercises in the video below. Next: Exercises that Target Your Abs. While ab workouts specifically may not help you reduce body fat, they still provide important benefits and should not be overlooked. Your abdominals are part of your body's 2. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. When you build your ab muscles, it's like developing an internal corset that holds your gut in. By doing so, you help stabilize your spine, vertebrae and discs, which in turn can significantly reduce back pain and make it easier for you to lift heavy items, twist and turn and perform the movements required for a full life. Having a strong abdominal wall is very important for optimal body movement and gets increasingly more important with advancing age. A strong abdominal wall is also what will produce that six- pack look once you've lost sufficient amounts of subcutaneous fat. However, conventional crunches and sit- ups are not the most effective when it comes to creating flat, well- defined abs. In order to effectively train your core muscles, you must incorporate a variety of stabilization, functional and traditional exercises. A study by Petrofsky (2. The simple, traditional abdominal floor crunch was found to produce and recruit the least amount of muscle activity when subjects were attached to an electromyography (EMG) machine! That's not to say that you should never perform a traditional abdominal crunch; but this particular exercise should be done as part of a varied core- strengthening routine. This may include: Traditional exercises, such as a standard crunch with rotation or a standing rotation with a light hand weight. Functional exercises, including work on a stability ball. ![]() Stabilizing exercises, such as lying on the floor and pulling your belly back toward your spine and holding that position while breathing deeply Extension exercises, such as lying on your stomach with arms extended above your head. Then raising both arms and both legs, at the same time, off the floor. But there's yet another exercise you might not have thought of: push- ups! Push- ups don't just give you a stronger upper body, they also train your abdominals—as long as you're doing them correctly. I recommend watching Darin Steen's demonstration of the proper form below, but I've also included a summary of key points to remember: Keep your body stiff and straight as a plank Elbows at a 4. Breathe in on the way down Lower your body all the way down. Breathe out on the way up If you're looking to get rock- hard abs, remember that proper dietary choices is your first step, but from there a comprehensive fitness program and targeted ab exercises will help you achieve your goal. ![]() Belly fat is a common problem that most of us face. Here are a few fat burning foods that will add to your fitness regime and make it easier for you to lose weight.Lean It UP I was searching for a program to genuinely help me lose body fat and get a six pack. I came across your website and the money back guarantee you offered. ![]() Losing belly fat is really a big task. Including exercises to reduce belly fat for women helps the best. Here is how to lose stomach fat with these simple exercises. How do you burn belly fat? The best way is to get rid of sugar in your diet and do high intensity interval exercises. Some people believe that ab exercises like crunches and sit-ups can help you burn belly fat. But do they actually work? ![]() ![]()
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