Belly Fat /Flab(notdave maybe?)

What is the best/quickest way to target belly fat?  I'm pretty sure it involves situps, etc, but is there a "secret" number of sets, time of day, diet etc?  I have pretty much toned my arms and legs, but have been putting off working on my stomach because I H.A.T.E. situps! 

Thanks Guys

Jason

320-299-202-200
highest-surgery-current-goal

Find a local aerobics class...they'll work that belly.

I hate sit ups too..they hurt my neck, so I do most of my sit ups on a exercise ball. But you can do planks, balance exercises, and yoga all work the core heavily.

Scott

If you have access to a gym, try the ab machine.  This will work that flab into a six pack.  Do 4 sets a day with 12-15 reps each.  Wait 1 minute between sets.  You'll need to figure out your optimal starting weight.  Keep increasing the weight on the machine until you feel like you can't pull any more then scale it back 10 lbs.  Then slowly increase your weight limit 5-10 lbs every 7-10 days.

Dalton

While I have heard that all these excercises are good for increasing core strength and muscles, they do not target belly fat any more or less than any other excercise.  Maybe I am wrong, but I thought that fat comes off as we exercise and eat fewer calories than we burn.  Adding muscles to our core will help us burn more calories, but isn't it true that the body tends to take the fat off in the first on areas last.  I also wonder about how much of what we have around our belly and thighs is part of our skin.  I can't tell.  I definately want to start to increase my CORE workouts too though.

Stephan

 everything I read seems to agree with you. But I am no exercise guru. I am allergic to exercise. but I am finding a cure as I lose my spare tire.

MrBill

Stephan is right, you cannot spot reduce fat with diet and exercise. A good way someone else put it was to try and drain a pool but only from the deep side, it can't be done. Fat comes off in layers all over the body (almost in reverse of how it got added on but not always perfectly so).



Keep up the cardio and eventually the fat will start slowly melting off. Situps and crunches work to strengthen your abs but a six pack is made in the kitchen, not the gym. You gotta get all the excess fat off before it's going to start looking anything like a washboard.

 Sprints and deadlifts are my favorite because they ramp the metabolism and also lower overall bodyfat through boosting growth hormone levels. Aerobic stuff can too, but you'll get best results if you switch the type of activity, say run one day, row the next day, bike the next and swim the next.

Some of my favorites are yoga and Karate. At my Dojo for example, we go at least two hours, mostly with heart rate elevated or slightly elevated, but without spend more than 5-10 minutes on a given move. 

The body begins to treat repeated activity as NONactivity.

Hope this Helps,

Dave

 I noticed something else today when I was doing yoga. I was doing a warmup where the front foot is straight with locked knee and the back foot is turned to a 45 degree, knee also locked. Then, you take your forward as close to your front locked knee as possible (index fingers and thumbs on the floor, either side of that front foot). I can get my head all the way to the knee and for me, this causes pain in my ab muscles about the level of the naval, where the ab meets the oblique (side) muscle. The ab muscle is "tucking inward" and this causes the muscle to remain that way for some time afterward. This provides a slimming effect, probably better even than sucking in the lower abs.

It's muscle activity that's harder to get any other way than pulling your head to your knee in "hamstring stretch" type activity. It almost feels like cramping instead of muscle work.

Don't forget that the abdominals are muscles and that when you work the muscles with weight resistance, they will grow, just like biceps, triceps, etc.  Most folks don't usually want bigger abs, they want defined, chiseled abs. I usually recommend crunches instead of sit-ups as they are more effective and less likely to cause injury to the neck or back.  Leg-lifts are also effective for strengthening the lower abdominal area.

I once had a client who couldn't understand why his waistline had increased over an inch after he started using the ab machine. Well, turned out he was doing 4 sets of 50 reps . . . using 150 lbs. of resistance.  Yep, his abs were definitely growing BENEATH his layer of belly fat! 

Like Dave said, changing up your exercise routine will help to burn bodyfat too.  The body will adapt to any "routine" much quicker than you think.