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What are the Most Effective Belly Fat Exercises?

Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

The best belly fat exercises have little to do with sit-ups, crunches, or various abdominal machines or abs workout tapes. This is because these exercises are designed to help tone muscle, but they do nothing to address belly fat. If fat exists on the stomach, it won’t go away without the types of exercise that help lose weight and burn fat, and even then, there still may be some residual fat deposits on the stomach, especially in women, because this is a common fat storage area.

These statements aren’t meant to be discouraging, but it is important to realistically address fat on the stomach with the right kinds of belly fat exercises. The benefit of these exercises is that they help reduce overall fat, although where the body decides to remove the fat may vary with each individual person. Some will note greater fat loss on legs, thighs, hips, or the upper body prior to noting it on the belly.

A person with a small amount of belly fat.
A person with a small amount of belly fat.

Many people are left wondering what is the most effective belly fat exercises? The answer is cardiovascular or aerobic exercise. Fat burning requires increasing the heart rate for a sustained period of time. This is best done with a number of aerobic exercise choices. These can include brisk walking, running, jogging, bicycling, and rowing. Those who prefer indoor exercises can use many of the cross-training machines available in gyms or for the home, and treadmills, stationary bikes, or cross-country ski machines, to name just a few. Another option is aerobic dancing at gyms or with tapes or DVDs at home.

A woman with a toned belly.
A woman with a toned belly.

The goal of these belly fat exercises is to raise the heart rate to a target heart rate. This rate is calculated in a number of different ways, and people who have medical conditions or who are just starting an exercise program after a long break should consult their physicians to help determine safe starting target heart rate. Once people reach their target, they need to maintain it for approximately 15-20 minutes. This again may need to be an ultimate goal, and people might have to build up to it.

Jogging can reduce belly fat.
Jogging can reduce belly fat.

When people are able to exercise at their target heart rate for the desired time, three to four times a week, this will help with fat loss, provided the diet is also reasonable. There is no getting away from the fact that any type of fat loss usually results from exercise and diet.

As for the exercises that may be dubbed “belly fat exercises” but are really for toning, these shouldn’t be ignored either. Adding muscle tone and building muscle can actually help accelerate fat loss, especially when combined with regular aerobic exercise. One way to help keep toned is to finish any exercise session with some abdominal exercises. These can include crunches or the lying down bicycle, which is considered one of the best.

Abdominal exercises can build muscle, but do not have much affect on fat content.
Abdominal exercises can build muscle, but do not have much affect on fat content.

In bicycle, people lie on their backs and alternate bringing each knee up, as if riding a bike, while touching that knee with the opposite elbow. If people are too tired from their cardiovascular workouts they might try doing a few toning exercises on alternate days. There are plenty of tapes that have short belly buster workouts that can give inspiration for how to tone the stomach muscles.

Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.

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Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen

Tricia has a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and has been a frequent WiseGEEK contributor for many years. She is especially passionate about reading and writing, although her other interests include medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion. Tricia lives in Northern California and is currently working on her first novel.

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Discussion Comments

ajalevis

I am agree with GlassAxe. Your fat loss will increase more if you will diet with your cardiovascular exercise.

In fact, for belly fat reduction you should go for aerobic exercise. This is good and effective. It helps to lose fat much faster then any other exercise.

Cardio exercise is also a good way to lose fat. If you want to lose only belly fat, then I recommend this exercise. And of course, diet is as important as your exercise. Follow some good diet tips while you are in process of losing belly fat.

Fiorite

@ GlassAxe- While it is important to mix aerobic and anaerobic exercises to burn fat, how you do your aerobic exercises are important. Interval training is important to burning fat. You need to really make your body work during a cardiovascular workout, otherwise you will only burn carbohydrate calories, and not fat. You need to alternate between high intensity and medium intensity during your cardio workout.

For this same reason, things like playing basketball, playing soccer, strenuous hiking, and swimming are all great fat burning exercises. Your intensity is not constant during these activities, constantly making your body change gear and keeping your metabolism up.

GlassAxe

I would like to add that doing abdominal or core exercises will increase the rate of fat loss, but you must combine these exercises with good diet and cardiovascular exercises to be effective at weight loss.

Having a strong core makes doing aerobic and cardiovascular exercises easier. The more muscle in an area, the more calories will be burned when the body is at rest.

Once the body has burned all it can through aerobic exercises, building core muscles may be the best non-surgical solution to burning the fat in those pesky areas. Areas that have stored fat often have undeveloped muscles beneath the fat. If there is no muscle, then there is nothing in that area that needs to use the fat as an energy source.

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    • A person with a small amount of belly fat.
      By: Sandor Kacso
      A person with a small amount of belly fat.
    • A woman with a toned belly.
      By: Paylessimages
      A woman with a toned belly.
    • Jogging can reduce belly fat.
      By: Martinan
      Jogging can reduce belly fat.
    • Abdominal exercises can build muscle, but do not have much affect on fat content.
      By: Halfpoint
      Abdominal exercises can build muscle, but do not have much affect on fat content.
    • Brisk walking may help reduce belly fat.
      By: Syda Productions
      Brisk walking may help reduce belly fat.
    • Riding a bike is a great way to burn belly fat.
      By: Diego Barbieri
      Riding a bike is a great way to burn belly fat.
    • A healthy diet is important for people trying to lose weight.
      By: Николай Григорьев
      A healthy diet is important for people trying to lose weight.