Fat burn or just muscle gain?

JeremiahStone · July 2011

Do crunches burn off the fat around your abdomen or just build muscle? What exercises focus on burning fat around the abdomen and upper torso?

anubis609 · July 2011

BOGmama2010 · July 2011

You cannot focus on burning fat in a specific area. You need to do cardio to burn fat overall. Yes, doing crunches will help you build muscle and it takes more calories to feed the muscle. But, without a strong clean diet and cardio, you will never see your abs. Your abs may also be under the last bit of "onion skin" as well. You may see everything else and have to work just that much harder for the last bits of fat to melt off your abs.

hrigsby · July 2011

It does both, building the muscle helps the fat burn quicker. Crunches and reverse crunches will help the abdomen area as well as planks.

MrsCon40 · July 2011

excuse me - your thread direction appears to be flaccid.

anubis609 · July 2011

excuse me - your thread direction appears to be flaccid.

Pardon the mistake. The picture was posted upside down. Tilt your head until it appears erect.

cjsgrimlin · July 2011

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excuse me - your thread direction appears to be flaccid.
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Had to look it up but that's funny!!!

Lleldiranne · July 2011

I read somewhere recently (don't know if it was here or on another site) that crunches are actually one of the least effective ab muscle building exercises (and tend to hit quads as much as the abs). If you really want to target that area, look into exercises that will target all of the ab muscle groups (you want to hit the obliques and transverse as well as the "six pack" area). Balance activities are good. So is the plank position. I know there's a bunch more, too.

But, what other posters said is true. You can't target areas to burn fat. Where fat goes away from first (and last) is determined by your genetics. Building muscle (everywhere) will help burn fat more, as will cardio exercise. It's going to take a balance to get the body you want.

mark03264 · July 2011

Crunches will build muscle. There is no way to burn fat in a specific area of the body. Some studies show that the plank builds abdominal muscle better than crunches. Push-ups are even better because they are a plank while building others muscles at the same time.

rileysowner · July 2011

You cannot spot reduce. Crunches are not particularly good ab exercises either from what I have read. Better ones are planks, side planks, and the like. Don't forget to train the posterior chain muscles (back muscles) as well with things like bird dogs. Also doing squats and dead lifts with heavy weight will help strengthen the core.

JennLifts · July 2011

build muscle.

ccyha1 · July 2011

To get rid of those bumps around the mid section, takes cutting down on your food intake. Like portion control of the five foods group. Combine it with any abs crunch of your liking will work. It worked for me. I'm very active but as I got older those bumps became more apparent. No amount of crunches or sit ups worked until I started portion control and like lightening, it was gone.