Best abs exercises for losing belly fat?

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  • EmziiW
    EmziiW Posts: 3
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    This won't help loss fat, but this is great for flattening your stomach, even if you can't do a crunch
    I've found it to work quiet well so far
    http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/flatten-your-belly
    Hope this helps :D
  • ktmmom189
    ktmmom189 Posts: 132 Member
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    I have been doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred off of you tube. Works in cardio and abs. So far I have lost 2 inches off of hips and waist. Stomach is flatter:) All 3 levels are on you tube. You do level 1 10 days, level 2 10 days ect.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pc-NizMgg8
  • erin318
    erin318 Posts: 1
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    Make sure you are getting probiotics! Sometimes belly pooch isn't all fat, some of it is inflammation from waste that is trapped in your digestive system because antibiotics have wiped out a lot of the flora that is necessary in our digestive tract to properly digest food.
  • thelms77
    thelms77 Posts: 27 Member
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    I like that one!
  • BetterCrazyThanLazy
    BetterCrazyThanLazy Posts: 336
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    Cardio : )
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Cardio : )

    Why? How does cardio reduce belly fat?
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    NONE!

    Eat less --> lose fat

    Workout --> build muscle

    the end. LOL

    Nothing spot reduces. fat drops where the body decides to drop it.

    Actually I did a fitness contest for the Venus Index. Their program has you set your goals based on phi which is your natural shape without the fat. I purposely did not do all ab exercises because I wanted to try to make my waist smaller (to place better in the contest). The abs in my pictures were all developed WITHOUT ANY AB EXERCISES. You can check out my contest results on the Venus Index Blog (I am Roberta there - lol 51 year old in a pink bikini under "contests and transformations". I wrote about it on my blog bobbies fitness.

    So it proved that lifting heavy weights gave me abs, not ab exercises. But I'm doing ab exercise now (started up again in April after my photo shoot) and now my waist is getting thicker with muscle, but it's okay. I'm DONE with metrics! LOL
  • shadoewz
    shadoewz Posts: 46
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    If you are doing cardio that, in my humble opinion, is the best thing you can do for belly fat. I carry most of my weight around my middle, too, and while any ab exercise will help tone the muscles, it's the cardio that will burn the fat off the top of them :)
  • shelbyfrootcake
    shelbyfrootcake Posts: 965 Member
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    You can't drain a swimming pool from the deep end first. Fat works the same way. Just work on your total body fat % and eventually the belly fat will burn away :)

    I like this saying.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    If you are doing cardio that, in my humble opinion, is the best thing you can do for belly fat. I carry most of my weight around my middle, too, and while any ab exercise will help tone the muscles, it's the cardio that will burn the fat off the top of them :)

    Wrong. On a couple of levels.

    Exercise (regardless of the type) doesn't burn fat (or muscle). It burns energy (cals). What cals your body uses for the energy will depend on a variety of things, but mostly yoru diet the last 12-24 hours.

    To "burn the fat off muscles" you have to lose weight. To do that, you HAVE TO MAINTAIN A CALORIE DEFICIT. If you do that with exercise, great. If you do it with diet, great. But it's the deficit that causes the weight loss, not the exercise. It's very easy to out-eat an exercise program, but it's very hard to "out-lazy" a good diet.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    1. Comprise most of your deficit from eating less - let the diet do most of the work.
    2. Strength train, preferably as heavy as you can while maintaining proper form for about 5-10 reps.
    3. Incorporate a bit of cardio just to supplement the deficit.
  • keithmf24
    keithmf24 Posts: 63
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    as a 1000 people have already said cant burn fat in just one area.. however i have seen and heard of people doing lots of back excersizes. strengthening and increasing muscle mass in your back will tighten the skin around your core, however any fat layers in the abdomen will still mask your ab muscles.
  • RacerX_14
    RacerX_14 Posts: 578 Member
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    Lots of good advice going on here!!

    1. No fat spot reduction is possible.
    2. Calorie deficit equals weight loss, period.
    3. 30 minutes a day of exercise is plenty.
    4 Cardio 3-4 days per week is plenty.
    5. Keep the sugar to a minimum.
    6. Be patient. You didn't put the weight on overnight, its not going to come off over night.

    Good Luck!! I'm rooting for you!!!
  • prov31jd
    prov31jd Posts: 153 Member
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    So much BS in this thread.

    Here is an awesome article on general eating towards a healthy diet, losing fat and gaining sixpackabs :)

    http://www.menshealth.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-abs-diet-and-six-pack-abs?fullpage=true

    Really? Carry on if you think menshealth is the corner stone to weight loss!

    Not to mention -- this thread started with a woman asking how she can shed the belly fat, not a man. Women and men ARE different, and will lose weight and tone differently. Their needs simply are not the same. There may be some basic principles that apply to both in this area, but it would be so nice if there were as much good information out there for women as there is for men. (Menshealth, notwithstanding, as there's too much conflicting info there.)
  • marybaker912
    marybaker912 Posts: 1
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    I was wondering the same thing with my postpartum belly, and so many of you have provided such great information on the reality of belly fat and controlling it through food intake and exercise. Thanks everyone for the helpful information. Now on to my continued journey of lots of diet control and exercise!
  • prov31jd
    prov31jd Posts: 153 Member
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    "It's very easy to out-eat an exercise program, but it's very hard to "out-lazy" a good diet."

    LOVE this quote, Jacksonpt!
  • jennaworksout
    jennaworksout Posts: 1,739 Member
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    The easiest ab exercise is walking... out of the kitchen.

    ^ this

    but mostly abs come from diet....get rid of sugar and all breads...

    best exercises though would be plank twists, reverse crunch and bicycle crunch....especially for lower ab
  • blh_1010
    blh_1010 Posts: 284 Member
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    I had an issue getting abs, so I started 6 week 6 pack with Jillian before my wedding a year ago...and at the end of 6 weeks I had a four pack...seriously it does wonders! Try it out! :) I'm restarting it now...I've got two and I want at least 4 by October :) So Week 1 day 1 was yesterday :)
  • Nerdy_Rose
    Nerdy_Rose Posts: 1,277 Member
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    Belly fat is the last to go, usually. Lift up heavy things, and put them back down. It works.
  • H_Factor
    H_Factor Posts: 1,722 Member
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    first, as many have said, what you eat/drink controls how much body fat you burn. Good abs are 90% made in the kitchen.

    second, as several have said, you are better off doing compound exercises that engage the core muscles, but only in conjunction with other moves. Doing compound exercises will burn more calories. Also, if you do high intensity interval training (such as bodyrock.tv), you can burn visceral fat (which is the toughest fat to burn...but its the fat you will need to burn to flatten your tummy). great compound exercises involving the core involve various forms of burpees, squats, dead lifts, pike jumps, plank jax, chin ups.

    third, doing some core strengthening exercises is not a bad idea (just don't expect those exercises alone...without proper nutrition and other compound exercise work...to flatten your belly). However, you should avoid/limit those core exercises that put an undue strain on your lower back like sit-ups and crunches. Here's a link to a tough core workout that should not put strain on your lower back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyF-WjSdCE4&feature=youtu.be

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