Ok, so you want to lose belly fat and have amazing abs. You’ve done tons of sit-ups, lots of cardio, and you’ve eaten more or less ok. Still that damn belly fat isn’t budging.

Well, I’m here to tell you the truth about what is probably at the heart of this belly fat loss problem.

And, in order to fully understand this, I’m going to refer to 2 important concepts from science:

1. Work

Work = force x distance (from physics)

2. Oxygen consumption and caloric expenditure

For every liter of oxygen you consume, your body will burn roughly 5 calories.

I’ll elaborate on each one of these shortly but to help us understand why traditional exercises to lose belly fat don’t work, let’s make use of the comparison between a stability crunch (or sit-up) and a full body exercise called the “clean and press”.

Work

Let’s look at the stability ball crunch or an abdominal crunch on the floor…exercises to lose belly fat

When we consider the abdominal crunch in relation to WORK, we’re essentially looking at how many calories that specific exercise will burn.

So, if we dissect the ab crunch (pictured above) is it safe to assume that you will cover a distance of about ONE foot during the movement? Ok, great.

When you extend around the ball and finish in somewhat of a seated position, that distance represents one foot in our example.

Now, I’m going to assume the weight that you are moving (your torso) is 50 pounds, considering you are only moving your upper body.

And if we look back to our definition of WORK…

WORK = Force x Distance

That means that the WORK being done is approximately 50 lbs x 1 foot, which gives us 50 ft-lbs.

Got it? Still with me?

One of the More Uncommon Exercises to Lose Belly Fat

Now, let’s look at the example of our full body exercise – the clean and press.

In this exercise, you start with the weight at floor level and end with it pushed above your head (as seen above). It is an Olympic-type movement and I use a lot of them in my fat loss workouts.

In this case, let’s say that we have barbell that weighs 70 lbs.

This time the distance we are moving the weight is going to be 7 feet (assuming you are 6 feet tall and that the weight moves 1 foot above your head). The total distance from the floor to where you push the weights is 7 feet.

Now, this is where things get really interesting.

If we process the equation, we have 70 lbs x 7 feet which gives us a grand total of 490 ft-lbs.

Look at the difference!

Ab Crunch = 50 ft-lbs

Clean and Press = 490 ft-lbs

Remember that we said that WORK is simply a measure of how many calories your body is burning.

Therefore, the more work you do, the more calories you burn.

A lot of people want to know how to get a six-pack without the pain and without the hard work. Well, you can’t.

That is the reality unless you are genetically gifted. You cannot get around strength training and cardio and eating healthily. Abdominal belts, sauna belts, and little abdominal movements do not work because of the work factor; because of this basic equation. Hard work is how it works.

If you’re huffing and puffing, feel your body getting warm, and start breaking a sweat while moving your body or external, then you know you’re doing work and thus burning calories.

The best exercises to lose belly fat will be those that burn the most calories since losing belly fat simply comes down to burning calories – that’s it!

And that’s why small movements like sit-ups and leg-lifts will NEVER do the trick.

Oxygen Consumption and Caloric Expenditure

The second component to this fat loss equation is that for every liter of oxygen you consume you burn 5 calories. That’s because as you recruit more muscle into your exercises, those muscles will need more oxygen to fuel the movement.

In a full body movement like the clean and press you are obviously going to be using more muscle than while doing a crunch. Therefore, you’ll be breathing more heavily to get a lot more oxygen in your body, which means that you are going to burn more calories during your workout.

You will get the immediate benefits of huffing and puffing. That is a good sign and it means you are doing something fabulous for your body. You immediately know that you are doing more good for your body than when performing ab crunches.

Another important thing to consider while doing these types of full body strength exercises is because you’re using more muscle and pushing more weight you also be getting stronger!

Now, that’s a double whammy!

Abdominal crunches get you nothing other than a temporary localized burning sensation in your abs.

You are training your rectus abdominis muscle and that is it. There is very little energy expenditure when you do crunches.

I have seen people spend hours in the gym doing crunches while talking and reading and that is just ridiculous.

If you are doing that, you are not going to see results and you are wasting precious hours of your life in the gym!

Conversely, a workout where you are unable o talk to someone else because you are huffing and puffing is going to produce results. That is what’s going to burn calories and that is what’s going to get you strong to fuel your metabolism for the long run.

Exercises to Lose Belly Fat – Do Crunches Fit the Bill?

Absolutely not.

Abdominal crunches only target a very small set of abdominals muscles, which means that you are going to get stronger abdominals but you are not going to see them because you are not burning fat.

If you really want exercises to lose belly fat then it really boils down to using full-body movements because you are able to do more work which is going to burn more calories.

You will be using more force and heavier weights over a greater distance than you would using the abdominal crunch when you do those full-body exercises.

And as we’ve seen over and over now, that is the key to losing belly fat.

It requires hard work, diligence, and also a commitment to eating well. But if you can take action on these pointers then I know you’ll have the tools to choose the best exercises to lose belly fat!

[Source: http://www.yurielkaim.com/4882/why-sit-ups-will-never-burn-belly-fat/ ]