When you look at the reasons why people, especially women, struggle immensely to lose weight and belly fat, you will find that many could trace it back to physiology. If you tend to gain weight in certain areas, more than likely you inherited that gene from your parents.It will be hard to get rid of it, but that does not mean there is not a way. Men typically gain weight around their abdomens (which should be prevented, because this can lead to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other illnesses), while women will more likely gain their weight around their hips and thighs. This is due to different hormones in the body, because the brain tells the body to store protective tissue around reproductive organs. Even though many people are opting to blame their weight and their struggle to lose belly fat on genetics, the biggest reason for weight gain today, is that people do not know that the foods they are consuming are creating havoc to their bodies. They believe all marketing strategies and product information given about foods and what to eat to lose belly fat, but most of this information is completely misleading and can, in fact, cause the opposite effect. There are certain foods that most “diets” recommend, but you will be surprised to find that many of them actually make you gain weight even further. This is the main reason why it is so hard to lose belly fat.
“When people realize what actually is preventing them from losing weight it becomes a turning point in their weight loss plans, and they start seeing weight come off at a much faster pace than ever seen before, and they are actually able to keep it off,” says Rob Hilton of Lose Fat Belly Guide.
Losing unwanted belly fat (and keeping it off) means that not only do you need to use up more calories than you consume in a day, but it is essential that you also eat the right foods. Don’t be fooled into thinking some foods are harmless no matter how much you eat. Identifying these “bad foods in disguise” is not always easy, but there are basic guidelines you can follow. CLICK HERE If you are aware of one food that does not help when trying to lose belly fat, you can easily link it to and identify it with other foods in the same categories. Another mistake people make when trying to lose belly fat is ruling out a food group entirely. Your body needs carbohydrates, fats and proteins, otherwise it stores what it does not get (your body automatically thinks there is a shortage) and you do not lose that weight.
Now, I am going to tell you why crunches suck, WHY they don’t work, and even better – what exercises DO work to get you those rock solid abs that you want!
- The single most important factor in seeing your abdominal muscles is low body fat. If you want those really, really great abs, you’re body fat needs to be at about 10% or lower… and I promise you’re not going to decrease your body fat through crunches. Crunches burn little to no calories (especially if you’ve been doing them a while… your body adapts, remember!?) and actually work very few muscles — mostly neck and back, (and arms, if you put your hands behind your head).
- Crunches can hurt your back. The actual “crunched up” part of the crunch exercise puts an extremely awkward and unhealthy strain on the weakest part of your back. Basically, the part of your back that bends and strains while doing sit-ups and crunches is actually the same part with the most potential for nerve damage. EEK! Even if crunches DID work your abs (they don’t), the back damage you could someday suffer definitely wouldn’t be worth it.
- You cannot “spot treat” your abs. Despite what you’ve been led to believe, your body doesn’t burn fat in isolation. Think about it for a minute: if people could “spot treat” their bodies, then you would see guys walking around with ripped abs and flabby arms… or women with fat butts but super-toned thighs! It just doesn’t happen that way naturally. So, what does this mean? Well, in other words, doing abdominal exercises will not burn lots of fat from your abdominals… it will burn a little bit of fat everywhere. So, to burn fat from your abs you’re actually much better off doing intense exercises that trigger your body to burn a TON of fat – and strength exercises that involve lots of different muscle groups (like squats and dead lifts) are the best way to do this!
- Multi-muscle strength exercises will get you 6-pack abs fast. Think about the bench press… or even the push-up. Although these are not normally considered great “ab exercises”, most people don’t realize that these exercises force you to work many muscle groups all at once… and hence are truly the BEST “ab exercises”. Don’t understand what I mean? Drop right now and do a “man’s” pushup. If you can’t, chances are your abs (not your arms) aren’t strong enough. That’s because exercises like the bench press and pushup actually force you to stabilize your core muscles while your arms work to push weight. If your abs are too weak, you won’t be able to maintain the proper pushup position (hence the “female version”).
- About 10 percent of good abs is exercise. The rest is all nutrition. Because having great abs is mostly about having a low body fat percentage, if you want to burn your fat mass you have to eat right. Again, this does not entail starving yourself. Actually, quite the opposite! You need to feed your body with a lot of nutritious, simple, whole foods frequently in order to keep your fat-burning muscles fueled and your metabolism on fire.
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