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| Cardio Exercises That Burn Fat and Reduce Your Stomach |
Cardio Exercises That Burn Fat and Reduce Your Stomach : Crunches alone don’t cut it when it comes to slimming your waistline. Cardio exercise helps burn calories and excess fat contributing to a bulging belly. All types of exercise burn calories, but some work better than others when burning body fat. High intensity exercises, such as sprints and interval training, tend to burn a lot of fat, but these exercises aren’t suitable for beginners. If it’s been quite awhile since your last workout, you’re best starting off by targeting the fat-burning zone.
Fat-Burning Zone
The fat-burning zone refers to your heart rate falling between 60 and 80 percent of your maximal heart rate, or MHR. Your MHR is 220 minus your age in years. When you keep your heart rate within this range as you exercise, your body will burn the highest percentage of calories from fat (source 1). It can help melt away the fat around waistline fast. Any type of cardio exercise is suitable for this type of moderate-intensity workout, including walking at a brisk pace, jogging, elliptical training, swimming laps at a light pace or inline skating. Keep a steady, moderate pace for 30 to 60 minutes – the more, the better – to achieve the greatest fat loss. Monitor your heart rate every five minutes or so to ensure you’re still within the zone. In terms of calories used, a 200-lb. person burns about 426 calories per hour walking at 3 mph, 546 calories biking at 12 mph for an hour, and 986 calories each hour jogging at a 5.5-mph pace. (source 2)
Hitting it Hard
Although doing cardio within the fat-burning zone burns the highest percentage of calories from fat compared to carbohydrates, high-intensity exercise burns more total calories from both fat and carbohydrates. High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, burns a substantial number of calories during the workout, but it also burns calories after the workout, known as excess post-oxygen consumption, or EPOC. EPOC is also referred to as the after-burn effect, and it increases with the intensity of the exercise. Best of all, a high percentage of the EPOC calories your body burns comes from stored body fat. An effective HIIT could include sprinting for 15 seconds followed by a 60-second rest and repeating this cycle 10 to 15 times. You can do the same workout using the elliptical machine, bicycle or running in-place, as well. Don’t be concerned with the number of calories burned when using HIIT because it’s difficult to measure. Instead, focus on how your clothes begin fitting looser and how much better you look in the mirror within a first few weeks of starting.
Lift it Off
Circuit training is sort of a hybrid cardio-and-weightlifting strategy that maximizes lean muscle growth and fat loss. The more lean muscle your body has, the more calories your body will burn naturally throughout the day. This translates into a higher metabolism and eventually a slimmer waistline. Focus your efforts on the major muscle groups, such as your chest, legs, shoulders, back, arms and abdominals. An effective full-body circuit training session could include, in this order: leg press, bench press, exercise ball crunches, military press, back extensions, seated rows, bicep curls, calf raises and tricep kickbacks. Rest only about 20 seconds between each exercise to keep your heart rate elevated. Take a two or three minute break between circuits. Do two or three circuits of 10 to 12 repetitions for each exercise. Rest at least one day between workouts.
Tips and Tricks
Crunches are an effective abdominal strengthening exercise, but it’s terrible for burning fat. Don’t overload on abdominal exercises thinking it will help burn away your stomach fat. Also avoid doing the same exercises every day. This will not only make your workouts boring, but your body is highly adaptable to the same workout day in and day out. A redundant exercise routine may slow your weight loss results. Try using different types of cardio exercises each week, and use a blend of both aerobic and resistance training workouts to maximize your results. Or, for your cardio, try changing some of the variables: If using cardio machines, for example, increase the pace, incline, or tension. And of course, talk to your doctor about the best weight loss strategy for you.
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