There is no shortage of studies to show that exercises help build muscle, prevent muscle loss, and help with weight loss and can help burn belly fat. We'll get into this in a bit. But first, I wanted to mention a bit about protein in your diet (which I neglected to mention in previous "But I don't want big muscles" - that's one of the most lame excuses for getting yourself out of one of the most effective fat loss methods. For men, you will naturally have more muscles, and will have an easier time than women when it comes to building muscle - I can't imagine any reasons why any guy would not want bigger muscles. For women, because of physiological differences, you will not be able to gain muscles like men, and it is unlikely that you will build over-sized muscles. Case in point, my wife has been weight training with me for years - too long to count - and she is by no means overly muscular or overly built. On the contrary, she is slim and indeed very fit. So ladies, if building large muscles is turning you away from one of the best fat loss methods - weight training - think twice before you decide to forego strength training.
With weight loss from calorie restricted diets, you often lose some lean muscle mass along with body fat, and when this happens, it gets harder and harder to lose weight. Studies have found that just moderate exercise helps reduce the loss of muscle mass that occurs from calorie restricted diets. 29 overweight or obese individuals participated in a 4 month study of diet induced weight loss or diet induced weight loss with exercise. The results of this study found that both groups had similar decrease in body weight and body fat mass. However, body fat free mass decreased significantly more for the diet group without exercise compared to the exercise group. [2] What this shows is that by engaging in regular exercise while following a calorie restricted diet, you can limit the amount of muscle mass lost due to the diet.
>> Click here to learn more about the Fat Loss for Idiots Diet
Burn Belly Fat With Exercise
What's even more significant is that each pound of muscle burns roughly 50 calories each day. So if you were to just lose 2 pounds of muscle, you would be burning 100 calories less. Lose 5 pounds of muscle, that works out to burning 250 less calories each day. This should make it quite obvious why as your weight loss progress, you lose muscle mass along with body fat, and your weight loss eventually stalls. On the other hand, if you managed to maintain and keep all of your lean muscle mass, you would still be burning all those extra calories!
Exercising regularly - by exercising, I mean weight lifting - will help building strength, develop muscle, improve physical fitness, reduce muscle loss while on a diet, and help you burn more fat, which translates to losing belly fat. While you cannot spot reduce, you can increase your fat loss by strength training and eventually burn off the belly fat with exercises. There are studies that have found a direct relationship between physical training and reducing waist circumference in overweight individuals.
In a study involving overweight women, 112 female subjects were randomized in to the normal sedentary life group or the one year physical training group. This study found that after the one year period, the control group had a waist reduction average of 0.3cm compared to 1.6cm for the training group. Furthermore, the study noted that there is also a tendency for better waist reduction in relation to the women's observed physical intensity level. [3]
In the above study, the women follow a moderate training program involving three brisk walk and 1 to 2 aerobic exercises per week, and as the study mentioned, there is a tendency for better waist reduction related to the level of workout intensity. Studies have also found that intense workouts stimulates energy expenditure and promoted lipid oxidation for prolonged periods even after you've completed your workout. [4] So if you are able to training at a higher intensity, your body works for hours afterwards to burn extra calories, making it easier for you to lose body fat and burn belly fat. For your workouts, try out some of the listed exercises below to burn belly fat:
Front Squats - Front squats places special emphasis on the thighs and the outside sweep of the quadriceps. This is a fantastic exercise to workout your entire lower body.
Squats - Squats is one of the most basic compound exercise for developing strength. For some, this is a staple exercise of their workout routines, but for others, they avoid any type of squats. Squats is not an easy exercise to perform, and requires balance, strength, and control. However, this is one of the best compound exercises, and will work to help preserve muscle mass while on a calorie restricted fat loss diet.
Deadlift - Deadlift is one of the best power exercises that involves more muscles than any other exercise. Deadlift is a compound exercise that you should include in your training program - whether your goals is to build muscle, or burn fat.
When performing the deadlift exercise, always keep your back tight and straight, with your head up, looking forward - arching your back will place undesirable stress on your spinal column and lower back. When you maintain a straight back, the vertebrae are all in alignment with no unequal stress placed on any point of your spine, thus reducing the risk of injury.
Barbell Bench Press - The flat bench press is a compound exercise that builds size and strength in the chest muscle, front delts, and triceps. Not much needs to be said here - this is one of the most popular exercises for building upper body strength.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of different exercises you can perform to lose body fat and burn belly fat; however, I chose these exercises because they are the "best" for building strength, and for building and preserving muscle mass. These are compound exercises that anyone can benefit from regardless of gender. Both men and women can improve their physical fitness and increase their fat loss with these compound exercises. There is no shortage of people who erroneously believe that performing large amounts of abdominal exercises such as crunches or twists will help them burn belly fat; however, I will mention again here that you simply cannot spot reduce. No amount of ab exercise will help you burn belly fat. Just because you are doing exercises that target muscles around your mid section does not mean that it also works to burn belly fat.
The method to lose belly fat is to follow the steps we mentioned here.
- To burn belly fat, you must lose overall body fat - spot reducing is a myth
- Get a control over your stress and your lifestyle - reducing stress will help you improve your fat loss
- Make sure to have a good diet and nutrition program that helps create a calorie deficit while still maintain a balanced diet
- Take up strength training if you aren't already - building muscle mass will help you lose fat and burn belly fat
>> Click here to learn more about the Fat Loss for Idiots Diet
>> Click here for Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program
