10.15.09
How to Lose Weight: Why Crunches Do Not Help You To Lose Belly Fat - And What To Do Alternatively To Lose Weight Posted By : Prry Prman
How to lose weight- I get many emails from women over 40 asking this question. At this age the unwanted body fat often accumulates on the stomach.Are you over 40? Do you want to lose belly fat? You'll frequently receive the advice to do crunches and other exercises aiming at the abdominal muscles. Will these exercises answer the question "How to lose weight?"
It appears to be logical- if you are exercising a body part, the fat on this particular body part will get less. But the way we are burning fat does not work like that.
There is no spot fat reduction. Where you will increase weight and where you lose it depends on your constitution, it s in the genes. Over 40 this genetic program is getting stronger and stronger. Especially in women over 40 the genetic program often leads to building up fat on top of the stomach- urging them to ask: How to lose weight?
"I want to lose belly fat" is something I hear very often- but, unfortunately, it is not possible to lose fat on a body part. All we can do is to get an overall lean body (what is an ever better outcome anyway than just lose belly fat).
If you ask yourself: How to lose weight- are crunches effective? Crunches are great to tone the core muscles around your belly. To get a nicely shaped figure, numerous exercises for the ab muscles will help you achieve that. I recommend to do some exercises for the lower back muscles as well, to make the whole midsection strong. This will improve posture and prevent lower back pain. For many over 40 back pain is rather common- our sedentary life style adds to that greatly.
In comparison crunches are not the most time-efficient thing to do when you want to lose weight. The belly muscles are relatively small, so if you spend 15 minutes on crunches you burn much fewer calories as if you'd spend 15 minutes exercising your leg muscles. Your leg muscles are much bigger and will burn more calories in the same time. If you are asking yourself: How to lose weight than crunches won't help you much.
So: Don't do crunches to lose belly fat over 40, do crunches to tone up your core.
In this short article I gave you some ideas on how to lose weight.