Last week we talked about increasing our intensity during our workouts to maximize our results. Building more muscle and burning more fat are more efficient when we know how to increase our workout intensity.
Where is the last place we seem to lose body fat? For most of us it’s in the belly. Belly fat is what’s covering the potential six-pack. In order to see a six-pack we need to shed the belly fat. But what are the best ways to burn belly fat? This is what we are going to cover today. So lets dig right in.
The Confusion On Belly Fat
Believe it or not most people think that doing a ton of abdominal exercises is going to burn the belly fat. Or maybe just doing a lot of different workouts will burn your belly fat. The problem is that you can’t actually spot train your body. So doing 1,000 sit ups a day isn’t going to get you that six-pack.
Our Body Is Efficient
If you think about it. Our bodies are super efficient and it knows exactly how and where and when to burn up energy (calories). To break it down a bit more. I heard a great analogy for making sense of all this. It compares our body fat as fuel and our muscles as an engine…
Fat in our bodies can be compared to fuel in a car where the muscles would be the engine. When we workout our muscles at a high intensity they are going to need fuel to recover.
When we look at our bodies and we take two people who we’ll call person A and B. Let’s say both of these people have the same amount of body fat in pounds. When person A has fuel (fat) to burn and a smaller engine (less muscle) they are going to hold fuel (fat) longer, since smaller engines (less muscle mass) don’t burn up the fuel as fast. Where as person B has a larger engine (higher muscle mass) so it will burn the fuel (fat) up much quicker than person A.
What this means is that a person with more muscle will burn more fat. Pretty simple right. But we’re not done. A person with less muscle can still burn fat BUT it’s just going to take longer. For example, I’m a fairly lean guy. Let’s say for this analogy that I have 150 lbs of muscle and I want to burn 20 lbs of fat. And my buddy has 220 lbs of muscle and wants to burn 20 lbs of fat. Who do you think will burn those 20 lbs faster? My buddy will, because he has a lot more muscle which when he works out burns more fat. That’s not saying I can’t burnt the same amount it’s just going to take me a lot longer that it took him.
Patience
This is where I think most of struggle, I know I do. We are in an instant world. We want everything yesterday. We have to be willing to workout and keep are nutrition on par for long periods of time than we may want. This is where I see many people give up and quit. They tend to look to how far they have to go more than how far they have come. So what the heck are the quickest and best ways to burn belly fat?
How To Burn Belly Fat Faster
It’s easier to understand if you use the analogies from above. What we need to do is Build More Muscle. What we need to remember is that the muscle we are working on that day is what’s going to be responsible for burning the belly fat. Now if we take it a step further the larger the muscle group the more calorie (fat) burn we can get. You’ll hear how people say they hate leg day. Well guess what? Leg’s are some of the biggest muscles in the body and in turn burn more fat including, you guessed it, belly fat. You better believe I love leg day now and I never miss it. Another great tip would be to do compound exercises where you would work multiple muscles in one move. You’ll see a ton of this is in Tony Horton’s P90X2 where Tony has you using the stability ball while lifting a dumbbell or balancing on one leg while doing a curl for couple of examples.
Muscle Burns Fat
Quick Guide: 5 Ways To Burn Fat Quickly
- Push Play 4-5 Days Per Week
- Workout 25-60 Minutes Per Day
- Shorter Rest Periods (We discussed this here)
- Don’t Work Abs Everyday
- Compound Exercises (Used in P90X, P90X2 and Asylum)
What About Nutrition?
You can’t talk about belly fat and six-packs without mentioning nutrition. You should know it’s virtually impossible to get a six-pack or low body fat without good nutrition. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Abs are made in the kitchen”. Nutrition will be 80% of your overall results so we have to take nutrition serious or you could be wasting your time altogether.
What Are Some Nutrition Tips To Help Lose Belly Fat?
- Keep it simple. Each meal should include protein, carbs and healthy fats.
- Cook your meals. If you don’t like to cook (too bad) it’s going to be difficult. One thing I heard recently was to try to eat what you DON”T see on tv. When was the last time you saw a commercial for tomatoes or broccoli.
Plan ahead. If I’m being honest I don’t like to cook but it’s the only way I know I’m eating what I need to be eating. A great tip that works for me is to spend one day (few hours) a week and cook all your meals and package them up and refrigerate them for the week. I do this to a degree. I will prepare my lunch for an entire week. Why only lunch? Lunch is the hardest meal for me and usually where I falter on my nutrition. I cook my breakfast every morning, either egg whites or oatmeal. My next meal is my Shakeology, the healthiest and easiest meal of the day. And man is it gooooood. After that I have one of my prepared lunches that contain either chicken, fish or pork along with a carb (brown rice) and veggies. I just heat it up in the microwave and I’m set to go. I’ll have another snack before dinner which is usually an apple with natural peanut butter or a Pure Protein Bar. And then I cook dinner with my children (daddy, daughter time) something I really enjoy. This is what works for me. Find what works best for you and watch the belly fat melt away.
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Yours In Success,
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