Belly fat burn myth busted

“How many crunches should I perform to burn off my belly fat?” This has to be one of the oldest myths in the book. The answer is, in fact, none. Volumes have been written about this subject, and at a glance, awareness about correctly tackling our problem areas is indeed on the increase.

Abdominal gadgets and countless crunches will not burn off belly fat- Matthew Muscat Inglott

Countless hours, however, are still being wasted from the lives of very busy people the world over, with the continuing investment of time and effort into solutions that just don’t deliver.

The corresponding sales figures of companies selling bogus abdominal training gizmos are also still just as meaty as the midsections they promise to fix.

The beauty of tackling this myth is that we can by default also simultaneously tackle just about every other myth that has absolutely anything to do with reducing fat off any other specific part of the body.

Hate your inner thighs? Despise your love handles? Can’t stand those flabby upper arms any more? Well, the good news is that all your problem areas can be solved with the same single rationale, and today we shall lay down some toning truths.

If you find these hard to believe, then we will also take a closer look at a study published in the summer to back things up.

Whenever we move our bodies, our muscles burn fuel in order to produce energy. This fuel comes from stored sugars that originate from the foods we eat.

When we exhaust the supply of readily available sugars, the body must turn to alternative sources of energy. The best source of stored energy is the fat that populates the parts of our bodies we generally despise the most.

Now here’s where things get interesting. If we perform a hundred squats, a hundred press-ups, or even a hundred biceps curls, where does the burned fat come from?

If the myths were true, then our hundred squats would be fuelled exclusively by fat situated around the thighs, our hundred press-ups would be fuelled exclusively by fat situated around the chest and upper arms, and the fat used to fuel our biceps curls would be fuelled by fat situated on the biceps themselves.

This is most certainly not the case. If it were, then runners would have fatter upper bodies and boxers would have fatter legs.

When the body requires stored fat to fuel absolutely any activity it is engaged in, and regardless of which muscles are used, it will signal fat to be released from stores all over the body. The specific locations tapped are, unfortunately, outside our control.

These fat cells are transported through the bloodstream to the liver, converted into sugar, and then in turn transported to the particular muscles engaged in your activity that are in need of fuel.

Therefore, the bottom line is: abdominal exercises will not burn fat from your abdominal area. Abdominal gadgets and countless crunches will strengthen and tone your rectus abdominis and core muscles; however, they will not burn off belly fat. So what does burn off belly fat then? Any activity that raises your heart rate for extended periods of time will burn fat from your belly, and just about every other region where your body stores the dreaded stuff.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre in the US recently revealed some fascinating insights in the American Journal of Physiology. Nearly 200 adults aged between 18 and 70 took part in the research project.

The study focused predominantly on visceral fat, which is an even more harmful fat stored internally around the organs, as opposed to the more visible and better known fat stored just beneath the skin. Visceral fat has a higher correlation to obesity-related health problems than any other form of fat.

Participants in the study were split into three groups. The first group exclusively performed cardiovascular exercise, also known as aerobic training. This includes running, cycling, power walking, or any movement performed on a piece of cardiovascular training equipment in the health club context.

The second group performed resistance training only. Resistance training includes any movements performed with free weights or resistance machines, and also movements performed with bodyweight designed to challenge and strengthen specific muscle groups like press-ups or chin-ups.

The third group performed a combination of the two styles of training. The group that experienced the most dramatic results was the first group who underpart exclusively pulse-raising cardio-vascular-related activities.

The most striking feature of the study was that visceral fat in particularly was significantly reduced, lowering the participants’ risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Cardiovascular exercise burned up to 67 per cent more calories than resistance training, and the additional resistance training performed by the third combined group did virtually nothing to improve their results. Resistance training carries other benefits of its own, ones which cardiovascular training alone cannot.

The findings help drive the final nail into the coffin of the old crunch-yourself slim myth.

If fat-burning alone is your target, then it’s time to get that heart rate up. Anything that elevates your breathing to a level whereby you can just about still hold a conversation will burn far more fat off your belly than the same time spent performing abdominal exercises like crunches or any abdominal training exercise performed on devices you’ve seen on TV shopping shows.

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