Crunches aren’t the answer for belly fat

Slender legs and arms but a soft waist — a common issue for women with an “apple” body shape. So their most frequent questions are similar: how to build abs, how to get rid of belly fat.

By the way, a recent study showed that, compared with “pear”-shaped figures, people with an “apple” shape have a 12% higher risk of colon cancer and a 40% higher likelihood of cardiovascular disease. The culprit is harmful abdominal fat, which accumulates not only under the skin of the abdomen but also on internal organs, causing inflammation and disrupting their function. As a result — a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and diabetes, our colleagues at «Doktor Piter» (Doctor Piter) report.

So you do need to get rid of belly fat, but vigorous ab blasting won’t help much.

— «You can’t slim down locally. You can’t train one body part and expect fat to disappear there or definition to appear», — explains fitness expert Danielle Gray. — «Every body is individual, and you will lose fat not in spots but overall, as its percentage in the whole body declines.»

According to the trainer, the best way to firm up and shed belly fat is strength training — a set of exercises using your own body weight or added resistance.

— «Thanks to strength training, you can build lean muscle mass. In addition, this type of load lets you burn calories long after the workout ends because during that time our body consumes oxygen more intensively,» the fitness expert tells Today.

Combined with healthy eating and sufficient protein, strength training will help get rid of deep abdominal fat while preserving muscle mass.

— «In addition, such training increases insulin sensitivity as well as levels of growth hormone and testosterone, which improves long-term fat metabolism,» says the fitness trainer.

By the way, strength training is not only lifting weights. Exercises with resistance bands and other expanders, aerobics with weights, and even yoga — including Hatha yoga and aerial yoga — all help build muscle and reduce fat.

However, don’t forget cardio workouts, which are beneficial for the heart and blood vessels.

— «Don’t replace one option with the other; combine both types of load,» advises Danielle Gray, also reminding about the importance of stretching before any workout. It will make you more flexible and reduce the risk of injury.

Proper nutrition will help you achieve results faster. Earlier, a dietitian explained why we crave sweets and how to cope with it.

— «A craving for sweets is familiar to many, and it can have several causes. Often it’s simply a formed habit — since childhood we’ve been used to soothing stress with candy or having tea with cookies after lunch,» said dietitian Natalia Karelova.

But an increased desire for sweets often masks a shortage of positive emotions. Boredom, fatigue, and stress can push us toward sugary foods, because eating is the quickest and simplest way to get pleasure, calm down, and comfort ourselves. However, physiological reasons shouldn’t be ruled out. For example, a strong craving for sweets can be linked to hyperinsulinism — a condition in which there is too much insulin in the blood. Less commonly, but still possible, the cause can be a sharp drop in blood sugar, triggered, for example, by an overdose of glucose-lowering drugs. Hyperinsulinism, however, is much more common. In any case, if the craving for sweets becomes obsessive and interferes with your life, it’s worth identifying the causes and possibly consulting a doctor.