Crunches, Sit Ups? How To Reduce Abdominal Fat?

Abdominal fat or Belly fat is perhaps the biggest fitness related issue around the world today. No one wants a rounded belly but surprisingly not everyone is ready to do the needful and those who are already into getting rid of it are deluded and misled by some opportunist. This post is not about how to lose fat and become fit within weeks but after reading this you will definitely be better informed on what all it takes to get fit from fat.

Before inaugurating the discussion I would urge my readers to not get   persuaded by something like this. None of the following will make you shed the fat which has been accumulated and deposited over a course     of  time.

• Slimming tea
• Slimming capsule
• Slimming oils
• Slimming sauna belts
• Slimming massager 

       

The Fat Loss Rationale

A very simple logic behind any kind of Loss in general is Earning< Expenditure or Expenditure> Earning. This is no different in case of fat loss. This simply means that the net caloric (Calorie is an unit of Energy) intake should be less than the net caloric expenditure round the day. That said, this is clearly feasible in two ways:

• Consuming Less Calories
• Burning More Calories

Although any one of the above will result in weight loss, it is highly advisable to stick to both of them equally well just because you do not want to face health issues as consequences of going extreme on either cutting calories or burning calories. 

Consuming Lesser Calories

Talking relatively, first of all you need to calculate or better say estimate your maintenance calories. Hefty term? Not at all, maintenance calories estimate is just the estimate of total energy you intake from food in a day which helps you maintain your current weight. This will relatively vary from person to person depending on dietary habits and body weight. This estimation can be made in 2 ways again :

• Consider the nutrition labels on the food you eat daily 
• Use some calorie calculator available online ( Low efficacy) 

Once you figure out your maintenance calories, you need to set a caloric deficit of 10-15 % to it. This should work pretty well if you are a beginner. Also you should not attempt to drastically drop calories as it may take a toll on your body. This is a game of patience and you will surely get rewarded if you stay patient enough.

Burning More Calories

If you are serious on molding yourself from flab to fab, you must couple a healthy caloric deficit with a moderate level of physical activity. This is again relative. You need to determine the current level of activity you are involved in on a daily basis. Supposedly, a person who walks a maximum of 1 km a day needs to start jogging 2 kms a day. There is no predefined level of physical work you should be doing for shedding fat but you should definitely start with increasing your current level and thereby making progress on say weekly basis.

Some advisable ways of burning more calories are :

• High Intensity Interval Training/ Cardio
• Weight Training

The Belly Fat And Crunches Fairy Tale

If you have been struggling with abdominal fat, there are high chances you must be trying Sit ups, Crunches and other abdominal exercises either on yourself or after getting advised by your trainer. Generally people think that if an exercise involves a particular part of their body, it makes them burn fat off that area. This makes no sense . Why? Let me decode the mystery for you.

When you exercise you stretch and flex your muscles. For no different reason when you do Sit ups you flex your abs(abdominal muscles) and stretch them. This helps you tone and build strength in your abdominal muscles. Yes, it also burns fat but not necessarily from the same area which you are exercising. Try answering this to gain understanding. Can you decide which area of your body will store fat first when you eat fried and cheesy food? Obviously No!  It depends on your genetics. Some people store fat in facial region, some in thighs, and most of us in the abdominal region. You must know that "SPOT FAT REDUCTION" is not possible. You cannot determine from where your body burns fat. Fat stores are recruited by body to produce energy when you exercise heavy. Which area is hit first again varies from person to person and is mostly determined by genetics.

Doing crunches and Sit ups will no doubt help you lose fat. The problem here is that these exercises involve only the abdominal muscles and they are a very small group of muscles. If you devote the same time exercising bigger muscles like pectorals(chest), back, legs etc. you will end up burning more calories.

The reason I took this topic for discussion is that I see a lot of people wasting their time on Crunches and Abdominal machines just because they think they are burning fat off their bellies. Please do never mistake on this. If you lose fat you will lose it evenly and not from a particular body part. This is plain and simple science.

Advice:

• You must set a caloric deficit to lose fat
• Spot Fat Reduction is not possible and this is a fact
• Increasing your physical activity coupled with a caloric deficit is effective for weight loss