Many people want to reduce belly fat but unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation regarding this. Some people believe that crunches reduce belly fat.
They keep doing hundreds of sit-ups and crunches to get a flat stomach which is the wrong way. So let’s bust the myths and learn some facts.
Is It Possible To Reduce Belly Fat Only?
Some people believe that abs exercises burn belly fat, squats and lunges burn thigh fat, and so on.
They basically think that giving exercise to a particular area is all they need to burn fat from that area. Well, your body doesn’t work like that.
You can not reduce fat from a particular area of your body. Spot reduction is just a myth.
How your body stores fat…
Let’s understand what fat is and how our body stores fat?
Fat is nothing but storage of excess calories. When you eat more than your requirement than body stores that energy in the form of fat. Your body accumulates fat in fat cells in the form of triglycerides.
Now this accumulation of these fat cells can be on your belly, thighs, arms, or elsewhere. Its all genetics. You can neither store fat nor can reduce it from a targetted area.
SUMMARY: It is not that simple to burn fat from a particular area. Spot reduction is a myth. Hence, it is not possible to reduce belly fat only.
What Do Crunches Do To Your Body?
It is almost impossible to burn fat or reduce your belly by doing crunches alone. But this doesn’t mean you should ignore abdominal exercises from your workout routine.
Crunches are just an exercise to train your abdominal muscles (abs) and performing them doesn’t mean you are reducing belly fat.
When you do crunches or sit-ups, you are just training your abs muscles like other muscles in your body. Abdominal exercises alone are not sufficient to reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat.
They do not reduce belly fat but they definitely do strengthen your core muscles. So when you drop your body fat percentage, you will reveal crisp and chiseled abdominal muscles.
So How To Reduce Belly Fat?
To reduce belly fat, you have to lose overall body fat. Hence, there are 12 tips that will definitely help you in fat loss…
Caloric Deficit Diet:
You must have heard that abs build in the kitchen. It is correct up to some extent. Your diet plays a major role in losing fat. The foremost thing you have to do to reduce belly fat is to take a caloric deficit diet.
When you consume fewer calories than you burn you create a calorie deficit. It is also called an energy deficit.
When you create a calorie deficit, your body gets energy from stored fat. By creating this negative energy balance, you will burn the extra fat that you carry throughout your body.
Don’t train your abs daily:
This is a common mistake people do when they want to reduce belly fat. Like other muscles in your body, abs also needs rest to recover. Though abdominal muscles are very small in size still they need 24-48 hours to recover. So training your abs around 3-4 times a week is sufficient.
Increase your workout intensity:
You can increase your workout intensity by doing more in less time. There are many ways of doing that – take less rest between sets, add supersets and giant sets, do drop sets, rest-pause, forced reps, etc. You can apply any of these principles to increase intensity.
Add more compound movements in your workout:
Compound exercises are those which require more than one joint or muscle to complete the exercise like squats and deadlifts. These exercises include multiple muscles hence they burn more calories at the same time as compared to isolated exercises.
Some important compound exercises you must add in your workout are:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Bench Press
- Barbell Rows
- Overhead Press
- Pushups
- Pullups
Read more about compound exercises:
Compound Exercises: Benefits, Types, & Safety Tips
Don’t do too much cardio:
In order to reduce belly fat, some people do a lot of cardio due to which they reduce their muscle mass too. And nobody likes to lose their hard-gained muscles.
For the majority of people, a 30 min session of cardio at a time is enough. But don’t do cardio before weight training. Do it either after your weight training or in a different session altogether.
Related posts:
Best Time To Do Cardio Exercise (Science-Based)
Drink Black Coffee Before a Workout:
Drink black coffee before the workout. Coffee contains a high amount of caffeine which accelerates fat loss. This is cheap and readily available.
There are several fat burning effects of coffee. Along with fat loss, there are some other health benefits of drinking coffee in a limited dosage.
Reduce your carb intake:
Carbohydrates are supposed to be the primary source of energy. So by reducing your carb intake, you are forcing your body to use energy that is already stored in your body in the form of fat.
You don’t need to go on a keto or a no-carb diet. Just reduce it to manage a calorie deficit. Take at least 100 grams of healthy carbs per day.
Remove sugar as much as you can:
Eating sugary foods can be the worst mistake that you can do in your fat loss diet. Suger consists of the simplest form of carbs which quickly spikes up your insulin levels at the moment you eat it.
Though, a small amount of fructose (fruit sugar) is acceptable if you have a sweet tooth but say a big no to any form of artificial sugar.
You can eat some fruits in your pre or post-workout meal. As at that time, there are least chances of storing that sugar in the form of fat.
Replace white with brown:
White carbs or foods made up of refined flour like white bread, increase your insulin level more rapidly. So they are more likely to store in your body in the form of fat.
On the other hand, complex carbs are slow-digesting in nature and keep you energetic for a longer time. Hence, they don’t spike your insulin that much and less likely to store in the form of fat in your body.
So try to eat brown or complex carbs only like brown rice, oats, sweet potato, quinoa, vegetables, etc.
Take a high protein diet:
Protein is an essential macronutrient that is required by your body. The chemical structure of the protein is very complex hence it takes more time than carbs to digest in your body. So protein makes you feel fuller for a slightly longer time.
If you are training hard and doing regular exercise then take at least 2 gm protein per kg body weight e.g, if your weight is 75 kg than try to take around 150 grams of protein daily.
11 Best Protein-Rich Foods For Vegetarians
Add vegetables in your diet:
Adding enough amount of vegetables in your diet is very important. Vegetables contain a lot of soluble fibers. It keeps you full for a longer time and makes you consume fewer calories throughout the day.
Vegetables also contain essential vitamins and minerals and smoothen your bowel movement too. So add at least 2 servings of vegetable salad in a day.
Eat healthy fats:
Fat is an essential macronutrient that your body needs for several processes. It keeps our joints healthy and helps in the proper functioning of the brain.
Taking a low-calorie diet to reduce belly fat, doesn’t mean remove fat from your diet. Eat healthy fats in a moderate amount (at least 0.5 gram per kg of body weight).
Some of the healthy sources of fats are fish, egg yolks, tofu, cheese, seeds, nuts, and olive oil.
Do Crunches Reduce Belly Fat – The Takeaway
Here are the key points from the article that you should take home.
1. It is not possible to target a particular area for losing fat. Hence, you can’t reduce your belly fat by doing crunches only.
2. Abdominal exercises alone are not sufficient to lose belly fat.
3. Crunches build abdominal muscles and strengthen your core. So when you reduce your body fat percentage, you’ll get those defined abs.
4. To reduce belly fat, burn overall body fat.
5. Some tips for fat loss:
- Train your abs 3-4 times/week.
- Reduce your calory intake.
- Increase workout intensity.
- Add cardio in your routine.
- Do more focus on compound exercises.
- Reduce carb intake and avoid sugar.
- Add raw or steamed vegetables in your diet.
- Take a high protein diet with healthy fats.
So this was the detailed article explaining “do crunches reduce belly fat or not”. I hope it cleared your queries and you learned something from this article.
Thank you for reading this so far.
