In all of the many years I’ve been a personal trainer in South Austin, as well as a gym owner, one of the most persistent questions asked of me is how do I lose belly fat? People ask everything from how can I get a skinnier face, to how can I increase my bench press, all the time, but one of the single most asked questions has got to be how do I lose belly fat?
Before I even attempt to answer this question without any speculation or generalizations, I’ll say now that spot reduction is impossible. You simply can’t lose fat in the one specific area of your choosing. It doesn’t matter which muscles you use, what you eat, what supplements you use, or which drugs you take. It simply isn’t possible to spot reduce, barring liposuction.
How do I lose belly fat? By cleaning up your diet, and doing cardiovascular exercise. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as tight hips coupled with weak abdominal muscles, which will result in a protruding mid section, this is the tried and true formula. This sounds overly simplistic, but it truly isn’t. If there are other factors to consider, such as thyroid issues, enhanced cortisol levels, etc, then the simple formula falls by the wayside. Weight loss isn’t as simple as cleaning up your diet and adding in some cardio in cases when you have medical issues effecting your body’s ability to lose weight.
There are a lot of myths and bad information permeating the health and fitness world, naturally, and people tend to believe most everything they read in magazines, as well as on the internet, which leads to widespread misinformation. One of the greatest myths surrounding the question of how do I lose belly fat, is that you simply need to do crunches, sit ups, etc. Nothing is further from the truth. While doing crunches and other abdominal exercises is a great idea for many reasons such as pelvic alignment, etc it will do virtually nothing to help lose belly fat. Spot reduction is simply impossible, as I’ve written many times. Think of an example wherein our fictitious trainee is quite overweight, but he wants muscular, well defined biceps. Instead of cleaning up the diet and adding in cardio, he simply starts doing biceps curls. The end result will be the same as with the person who is try to lose belly fat with abdominal exercises. They’ll develop a fuller and stronger set of muscles, but all under the fat.
How do I lose belly fat? By making the decision that you will clean up your diet, and start doing some cardiovascular exercise on a consistent basis. Barring issues such as diabetes, high cortisol levels, thyroid abnormalities, etc, you will succeed.
Andy
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