Lose Abdominal Fat With Exercise - 3 Simple Strategies

If you have been told that the best way to lose weight and slim down is to run for an hour every day on a treadmill, you've been lied to! The truth is that cardio does little to help you burn fat in the long run.

Here's the problem with cardio... When you jog for so long your body will actually start to burn fat and muscle to get energy to keep going. This fat burning stage is what everyone talks about when they suggest that you run forever on a treadmill.

The problem is that you're burning fat AND muscle. Burning your lean muscle mass away will make it much harder for you to lose abdominal fat. As you lose your lean muscle mass, your metabolism decreases, and your body will burn less and less calories every day, making it much easier to over-eat and retain the fat on your body.

What you should do instead of cardio is focus on lifting weights (Yes, even if you're a lady!) Lifting weights will increase your lean muscle mass, making your body burn more calories on it's own every day. Building lean muscle mass is by far the easiest way to increase your metabolism and lose abdominal fat. Don't worry about bulking up either. If you believe that touching a dumbbell or free weights will make you huge, think again! Most men have trouble building a lot of mass, even when they are trying to get big.

If you want to lose abdominal fat quickly, you're going to have to change the way you look at cardio routines. The highly recommended "Hour per day on the treadmill" won't do much to get you closer to your goals. The #1 word you should focus on when thinking about burning fat is "intensity." The greater the intensity in your workouts, the faster you will see results.

Instead of doing the normal slow jogging cardio routine, ramp up the intensity and you will achieve far greater results than you could ever hope to accomplish with slow jogging.

Here's how: When you sprint you activate almost all the muscles on your body. And since you are demanding so much of your muscles, they will break down. This leads to an increase in your metabolism for 1-2 days after your sprints while your body works to repair the damaged tissue. This will help you lose abdominal fat at a steady rate, even while you're sleeping.

Now that you know two strategies you can use to lose abdominal fat in your workouts, you need to know when to use them. Doing an intense workout like lifting weights or sprinting will increase your metabolism by a good amount for 1-2 days after the workout. The more intense your workout, and the more muscle groups you exercise, the longer the increase in your metabolism.

To burn off the fat fast, you'll want to keep your body in the high metabolism stage. And since you'll be doing workouts that increase it for up to 2 days, you will only have to workout 3-4 times per week to accomplish this.

You can lift weights on monday, wednesday, and friday, then do some sprints on saturday. Or you can pick other days that work better for you. There's no perfect formula, but you won't lose any abdominal fat if you aren't consistent with your workouts.

If you miss a workout or a whole week, don't sweat it. Just make a goal to be more consistent and actually workout in the time that you plan out in your schedule. One thing you shouldn't do is try to make up for it the next week by working out every day. It's important to allow your body to rest and recuperate after every intense workout that you do. If you try to work out really hard every day you will end up overtraining your muscles, which will really set back your workout goals.

To lose abdominal fat permanently, you will have to change your eating and exercising habits. It will require a lifestyle change, but it's worth it. Not only will you be more healthy and have more energy, but your body will look great and your spouse will also greatly appreciate the sacrifice you're making!

It's important to keep learning from here on out too. You should make it a goal to find out the truth about how your body works and what exercises are actually healthy and beneficial. There's a lot of lies and worthless products out there that companies will try to push on you, but just know that there is no miracle cure. To lose abdominal fat it will take hard work and persistence, not a miracle pill or magic program.