Body fat Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Orange County Personal Trainers

I hear these questions all of the time:

I do crunches everyday! Where are my abs?

If I do a crunch everyday, will I have abs?

If I do crunches everyday, will I have a six pack?

Is a crunch a good ab exercise?

What exercises should I do to have abs or a six pack?

Without question, the single most important factor in the appearance of your mid-section is the amount of fat and fluid between your abdominal muscles and your skin.

You have a 6-pack right now its the natural shape of your muscles. But for most of us the layer of fat over our abs is so thick that you cannot see them.

Trying to burn fat with a crunch or sit-up is like trying to dig to China with a spoon its a complete waste of time.

There is no such thing as spot reduction. You will need to do more than just crunches and sit-ups.

Just because you work on your ab muscles doesn’t mean that you will affect the speed at which you lose fat in that area. Fat loss is a lot like scooping water from a bath tub.

If you take a cup of water out of the middle of the tub, it doesn’t leave you with a one cup dent in the middle of the tub.

It leaves you with a cup less water all over.

If you lose a pound of fat, you lose it from your entire body, regardless of how many crunches you do.

female six pack abs — This didn’t happen with crunches.

Solution

Get on a program of functional total body exercise and supportive nutrition. (Enter: The Orange County Fitness Playground)

This will help you burn as much fat as you can each day.

If you get your body fat percentage low enough, you will see your beautiful abs even if you don’t do a single crunch.

A very nice looking midsection, for a man, start showing up at around 12% body fat.

For women, it starts at about 18-20% because men store all of their fat on their belly, and women put it on their hips and thighs.

Guys six pack abs — Not a crunch or sit-up here, just weight lifting and diet.

One Extra Point

Excessive toxins from conventional plant and animal foods (and alcohol) overload your liver and encourage extra fat to form around your midsection, whether you are a man or a woman.

The more toxic and/or dehydrated you are, the thicker the layer of fluid becomes, making you appear more chubby.

So, eating organic, grass fed, and free range foods will greatly affect the results of your program.

female abs — This body shaped by hard work, discipline, and nutrition.

So here are some guidelines that have worked wonders for our clients!!

1. Eat every 2-3 hours or 5-7 meals/snacks a day.

2. Yes, you will probably need to eat more often to lose fat for life!

3. Serving size: listen to your body. If you are hungry 30 min. later, you didn’t eat enough. If you feel sleepy, you ate too much. If you feel great, you got it right!

Pretty simple, right?

If you’re looking for more nutrition details, then you should read this article:

How to Eat Right: A Short Tutorial on Healthy Eating

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Reliance on endurance activities (cardio) to burn calories and fat is like using a shot glass to fill up a pool.

It is possibly the least efficient way to lose body fat! Cardio focuses only on increasing the amount of fat that you are burning during the time that you are active.

So, if you do 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, you have increased your metabolism only for that 60 minute session.

If you are doing cardio seven days a week (1 hour per session), then you are spending only approximately 4% of your week burning extra fat.

Another problem with this approach is that once you pass the 45-60 minute mark in your cardio session, you have depleted your body’s glycogen stores, and your body will now begin to use protein to fuel your energy needs.

Unfortunately, your body gets that protein from your muscle tissue, meaning that the extra time that you spend doing cardio is actually shrinking your fat burning furnace, muscle mass.

Keep this up for long enough and you will actually slow down your metabolism and burn less fat. This makes the other 96% of your week, when your burn the vast majority of your calories, much less effective.

The solution: Do resistance training circuits. Resistance training basically refers to higher intensity activities. For example, you could walk for 5-6 hours without too many problems, but you could not squat for 5-6 minutes. It takes far more energy to do one squat than to take one step. Squats, lunges, bends, twists, pushes and pulls against resistance would all classify as resistance activities.

Circuit training is when you sequence several activities one after another. It generally consists of up to 8 exercises in a row. For example, doing a lunge and twist, followed immediately by a squat, push ups, pull ups, and jumping rope would be a good circuit. The advantages of a circuit are that you get all the benefits of resistance training, along with all of the benefits of cardiovascular activity. You get the best of both worlds!

Resistance training benefits

*6-15 hour metabolic boost after workouts.

*24-48 hours of increased calorie/fat-burning activity.

*24 hours per day 365 days per year your metabolism will be faster and burn more fat!

**Ladies: 5 lbs. of muscle will fit in the space of 2.5 lbs. pounds of fat.

So, if you gain muscle and lose fat, you will be significantly smaller and firmer.

We are not saying that cardio is bad for you.

Far from it.

Any exercise is better than none.

We are saying that circuit training is a much more efficient way to lose fat.

Cardio offers the smallest return on the time invested.

Circuit training takes the relatively small amount of time that you have to exercise, and makes you burn more fat during the rest of your day and week.

Would you rather invest 7 hours a week, get seven hours of benefit or would you want to invest that same 7 hours and get 138 hours of fat burning benefit?

Was this article, “Is ‘Cardio’ the Best Way to Lose Fat? Costa Mesa Personal Trainers Don’t Think So…” helpful? Leave us a comment, and share this article with your family, friends, and coworkers.

Innovative Results personal trainers in Costa Mesa provide fitness plans that help people become more active and more energetic, delivering the best way to lose fat.

Their fitness programs have been voted #1 in Orange County and they continue to be involved in the local community.

If you are interested in learning more about their program or having them help you get in shape, dill out the form below.

I do crunches everyday, where are my abs? – Innovative Results – The Orange County Fitness Playground has a Solution for Your Six-Pack

Is ‘Cardio’ the Best Way to Lose Fat? Costa Mesa Personal Trainers Don’t Think So…

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