Do you want your six-pack abs to have a little bit more oomph?
Perhaps you just want to have abs?
Whatever your goal is, this is how to tone belly fat.
How to tone belly fat
I’m going to teach you how to tone your belly fat so you can go to the beach without wearing anything and flaunt your sexy abs to drop-dead-gorgeous men and women.
The first thing, step 0, you need to know that you already have abs, it’s just hiding underneath that flab in your midsection.
You need to get rid of that flab. Once your fat flab is gone, you will see your abs.
Got it? Cool. Here’s step 1, get rid of the belly fat.
How to tone belly fat – Burn the fat
You need to be in a caloric deficit to lose fat. To do that, follow the instructions below.
- Cardio
- Diet
- Count calories
Cardio to tone belly fat
Doing cardiovascular activities such as running, jogging, or walking will target your fat-burning zone.
What is a fat-burning zone?
The fat-burning zone is the heart rate in which you are oxidizing, burning fat.
To find out your zone, find your safe maximum heart rate by using our calculator here.
Once you find your maximum heart rate (MHR), go to our fat-burning zone calculator. You’d be surprised that at low-intensity exercise, you are still burning fat.
How much fat you lose is dependant on the enthusiasm of your workout. Although, you have to remember that when it comes to losing belly fat, don’t be too hasty.
Losing belly fat takes a lot of work, grit, and patience.
“It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.”
I’ve done all sorts of things to try and burn the fat. I’ve tried fasting, intermittent fasting, keto, you name it, I tried them all.
What I found is that cardio is the best method in reducing fat without changing much in your lifestyle.
The key to losing fat with only cardio is that calories matter.
I recommend doing cardio for at least 30 minutes, 4 times a week. For maximum effect, do cardio daily or 6x a week.
Tone belly fat with diet
When you think of diet, what comes to mind?
Starving.
No energy.
Weak.
Unsatisfied.
I’ll let you in on a little secret.
Fat is dense in calories compared to protein or carbs.
I’m not saying avoid fat altogether, just limit your fat intake.
When you eat lean meats such as chicken breast, sirloin steak, and pork chops, you will reduce your calories by a significant amount.
Diet, to me, is about eating healthy, not restricting your portions. When you start restricting your portions, you will starve, won’t have energy, and you’ll feel weak.
Before you start moaning and whining, there are lots of healthy recipes out on the internet that is full of yum with fewer calories.
Take my adobo recipe, for example, I use healthy ingredients such as low sodium soy sauce, I don’t add sugar, and vinegar has proven to be effective against obesity.
Most of all, I use lean cuts, or I trim some fats off the meat. Choosing the right ingredients and modifying them will reduce lots of calories.
Count calories to shape stomach
Counting calories can be a tad annoying, but you need to do it if you are serious about losing weight.
Counting calories will tell you how much you should eat next, or you’ve had enough for the day.
Make sure to take into account your activities for the day.
There are useful apps that can monitor your calories. All you have to do is input the food you ate.
I have been using My Fitness Pal for 6 months now, and it’s doing a great job keeping a record and track of my calories. Amazing thing is that it’s free.
For more healthy tips on how to lose belly fat naturally, click on the following links:
How to tone belly fat with crunches
This the third and final step on how to tone belly fat.
When it comes to getting that chiseled abs, crunches come into play.
Crunches can’t burn your belly fat, but it can make it look better.
What crunches do to your stomach is making it more defined, which I am sure you want.
The following are exercises specifically for core muscles:
- Reverse crunch
- Crunches (of course)
- Side crunch
Reverse crunch
Reverse crunch involves your legs to target the lower abs.
- Lay on your back with your arms beside your waist.
- Using your core muscles, lift your legs while bending your knees at a 45-degree angle until it’s vertical to the ceiling.
- Stop the momentum and slowly lower your feet back to the floor as close as you can without touching the floor.
- Repeat.
Crunches
Normal crunch targets the upper abs.
- Lay on your back with your hands behind your head or cupping your ears.
- Your legs should be at a 90-degree angle, forming a triangle.
- Using your core muscles, lift your upper back off the floor, keeping your lower back on the floor.
- Lower your upper body back down slowly to the floor.
- Repeat.
Side crunch
Side crunch targets you obliques, a.k.a., the side belly, the love handles.
- Lay on your left side with your right hand behind your head. Your left arm should be straight on the floor.
- Your legs at a 90-degree angle, let both legs fall to the left side until it’s perpendicular to your right waist.
- Keep your body and head straight.
- Engaging your core muscles, lift your upper body off the floor.
- Lower your upper body to the floor slowly.
- Repeat for the right side.
For more exercises to lose belly fat click on the following link:
Why not sit-ups?
The military is phasing out the traditional sit-ups due to lower-back related injuries.
Low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability in the US military. Traditional bent-knee sit-ups, which are widely used in military physical fitness training, have been proposed to be a potential risk factor for developing LBP due to increased lumbar spine loading.
Recent evidence suggests that performing core stabilization exercise instead of traditional bent-knee sit-ups during training actually results in small improvements in passing rates on the sit-up component of the US Army’s physical fitness test.
What new information does this study offer?
Overall, musculoskeletal injury incidence during training was similar between soldiers performing core stabilization and traditional sit-up training programs, suggesting that at least in the short term, core stabilization exercise did not result in increased injuries compared with traditional training.
There was some evidence that soldiers who performed core stabilization exercises experienced fewer days of work restrictions due to low back injuries.
[source: Effects of Traditional Sit-up Training Versus Core Stabilization Exercises on Short-Term Musculoskeletal Injuries in US Army Soldiers: A Cluster Randomized Trial]
How to tone belly fat – The short version
How to tone belly fat?
Well, first of all, you need to know that you already have abs and your belly fat hides it.
The second thing you need to know is how to burn your belly fat. Cardio, proper diet, and making sure you are at a calorie deficit at the end of the day will melt the fat in your stomach.
The third thing you need to know to make your abs stand out from the crowd is that you need to do some crunches.
Crunches help chisel your abs even further, giving you a more attractive definition.
Lastly, forget sit-ups. It may increase your risk of developing lower back problems.
There you have it.
That is how to tone belly fat.