Finding exercises to lose belly fat can be hard as excess stomach weight is one of the toughest areas to lose weight. We looked at cardio exercises to lose belly fat and this article is going to focus on ways you can tone and strengthen your site to turn excess fat into muscle.
Before we start it’s worth acknowledging that in order to get the best weight loss gains, you have to mix cardio exercises with toning. Toning exercises by themselves in most situations won’t be enough to help you to lose belly fat. A lot of people get frustrated after doing hundreds of crunches for weeks on end that they haven’t got a firmer stomach. This is because crunches actually burn a tiny amount of calories – approximately 1 calorie per set of 20, so crunches won’t help you to lose weight. You need to burn off with cardio, and then strengthen and tone your body with resistance training.
So let’s look at a few exercises to lose belly fat, which will strengthen and tone your stomach.
Crunches
Although crunches are fairly ineffective at losing belly fat, they are still one of the easiest and best toning exercises to lose belly fat. The great thing about crunches is that they do not require any specialized equipment, which means they can be done anywhere anytime. Just make sure that you’re not pulling your head forwards with your upper body, and don’t worry about going the whole way up, you only need to go about half way up in order to get the full gain. Make sure though that as you lie back down you don’t take the tension out of your abs, you should feel them engaged throughout the whole set.
Leg Lifts
This exercise works better if you have a bench, however it can be done on the floor as well. This is one of my favourite and most overlooked toning exercises to lose belly fat. You start by lying on your back with your legs straight out in front of you parallel to your body. You then keep your legs straight as you lift them vertically, making sure you’re using your stomach muscles to pull them up. What a vertical, holds the position for a few seconds before lowering them back down. Make sure you don’t let your legs touch the ground between reps, and if you have a bench you can go slightly over horizontal in order to work more of your muscle group.
Hanging Leg Raises
One of the great toning exercises to lose belly fat, hanging leg raises are similar to let less though because of the starting position they are more intensive. To want this exercise you’ll need a bar or a beam that you can hang on to. Start by grabbing a bar with an underhand grip and hanging from it. Then whilst keeping your back straight slowly raise your knees towards your chest. The trick here is to keep your body still whilst you perform these exercises, and you’ll have to go slowly in order to stop your body swinging like a pendulum. Hold at the top of the raise for a couple of seconds and then return to your starting position.
When combined with a cardio regime, these exercises to lose belly fat will give you a firmer, flatter stomach. Any effective exercises to lose belly fat will be a combination of cardio and toning exercises, however the way and order in which they’re together can seriously increase their effectiveness.