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Lose stomach fat with these effective exercises

Athletic woman pointing to her stomach

It’s over a month after the Christmas excess and your clients have been working hard to shift the unwanted pounds they gained. While it’s been relatively easy to lose the weight from the upper body, that stubborn belly fat isn’t going anywhere. 

It’s true that losing weight from your waist can take longer than any other area of your body. Fat cells are not identical, which causes belly fat to react differently to the fat stored around your arms. To explain this, we need to look into how fat is actually burned. 

The fat burning process 

Burning fat is a two-step operation consisting of lipolysis and oxidation. Lipolysis is where fat cells release molecules of stored energy (fatty acids) into the blood, while oxidation is the process where cells use those molecules as energy.

The body triggers lipolysis by producing adrenalin and noradreline, known as catecholamines. These chemicals travel to your fat cells through your blood and attach themselves to points known as receptors. Once attached to the fat cells, catecholamines stimulate the release of the fatty acids stored which allows the other cells to use them as fuel. 

Fat cells contain two types of receptors for catecholamines which have opposite functions, known as alpha and beta receptors. Beta receptors trigger lipolysis, but alpha receptors decrease it. This means that fat cells with a high amount of beta receptors will lose fat more quickly compared to fat cells with a greater number of alpha receptors. 

So overall, the fat cells in stomach fat contain a higher number of alpha receptors, which work against the beta receptors and hinder lipolysis, therefore making it harder to lose fat. 

Weight training is the most effective way to lose stomach fat

The good news is, there is a way to reduce belly fat. Research by Harvard University revealed that adding weight training into your exercise routine is the most effective way to eliminate belly fat. 

The research followed two groups of men and women across a 12-year period and found that people who added 20 minutes of weight training to their regular cardio workout, gained less fat around their waist over the years, compared to the cardio only group. 

Lifting weights burns more calories and fat during exercise, while building muscle at the same time, which burns more calories at rest. So if your clients are struggling to rid themselves of the dreaded ‘pooch’ then add more weight training exercises into their exercise plans. 

Most effective exercises to burn stomach fat 

Create a weight training program for your clients using compound movements that will reduce body fat percentage overall, rather than focusing on specific areas.  

You want your client to be using heavier weights, for less reps, rather than lighter weights for higher reps. Some simple, but effective, exercises include:

•Weighted squats into a lunge.

•Deadlift into bicep curl. 

•Weighted walking lunges 

•Reverse Grip bent Over Barbell Rows.

•Pullups 

•Small amount of high intensity interval training (HIIT cardio) – 30 second sprints, followed by 30 seconds rest, repeated for 20 minutes. 

Join Amaven and we will design a personalised exercise program for every one of your clients based on their strengths and weaknesses. They can access their own fitness plan online and continue training with unique home workouts.  

You can’t out train a bad diet

Diet is an integral part of torching belly fat, if your clients really want to shed those stubborn pounds they need to be sticking to a healthy and balanced diet as well as weight training.

Eliminating added sugar is the first step, along with reducing carbohydrates and saturated fat and trans fat intake. Encourage clients to eat more vegetables and foods filled with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, like avocado and salmon. 

Clients should only consume starchy carbs like whole-wheat rice, sweet potatoes and whole-wheat bread after they have trained, to replenish the glycogen stores they have lost during their workout. 

Protein is an important part of a balanced diet to repair muscles and restore the body, however there is far too much emphasis on how much protein we need to eat. While dramatically increasing protein consumption will make you feel fuller for longer, causing you to eat less, going over-board with protein will lead to weight gain just as it would with any other macronutrient. 

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