One of the questions I always get asked by my clients when they start training with me is “what is the best exercise to lose belly fat?”
As with all my clients that I train delving further into this question for me is really key. I like to find out the motivation and the mindset as to why they believe that this is so important to them. Understanding more about my clients enables me to be the person that can give them the answers that makes them look and feel better but also have the confidence to enjoy their lives better every day.
Most of my clients are over the age of 40 so both Men and Women alike tend to suffer from the “middle age spread” so exercises to lose belly fat is high on their agenda. However, I have also trained younger girls who suffer a lot from confidence issues due to their belly fat as they go through the puberty stage.
In this article I want to help decide your best course of action and your best exercise to lose belly fat.
Why do I want to lose belly fat?
So this is an important question to think about before embarking on your journey to lose belly fat. There are no right or wrong answers to this question but are based on your own personal circumstances.
Here are some things I want you to think about
1. How long have you wanted to lose belly fat? Months, Years, Decades
2. What have you done previously to lose belly fat? Exercise, Diet, Nothing
3. How does it affect your life? Confidence issues, relationship problems, Clothes I wear, Social Acceptance
4. What is your ultimate goal? Fit into my size 10 pair of jeans, Look good on the beach
5. Goal Setting – Do I achieve whenever I set goals for myself, I find goal setting difficult
6. What could get in my way of losing belly fat? Work, family, previous experiences
Be Your Own Individual
It is so important that you are your own person and that you understand the real reason behind why you want to find what exercises will help you lose belly fat.
Without understanding your motive there is no way that you will achieve your desired result. In fact this is so true for anything that you might set out to do.
Be your own person and you have a much greater chance to achieve whatever it is that you want to do. Having clear goals gives you a greater desire to achieve and ensure you set a timeline.
One of my clients that I trained regularly wanted to lose belly fat as her daughter was due to be a bridesmaid at her husbands brothers wedding. They were getting married in Cyprus so this was a great opportunity to picture herself on a beach looking and feeling better than she did currently.
She gave herself 4 months to achieve this goal which meant that she wanted to lose weight and drop 2 x dress sizes.
Not only did she achieve but she has also sustained it. Deep down I also knew that she wanted more energy for herself and increase her confidence with her friends and work colleagues. The belly fat for her was something tangible that she could see every time she got out of the bath!
Can exercise alone help me lose belly fat?
So, now that you understand yourself and set clear goals can exercise alone help lose belly fat?
My truly honest answer is no as you do need to combine with a healthy lifestyle. So an example of this would be if you are drinking 5 pints of lager every night but before you go to bed perform a 1-minute plank then it is definitely going to be very difficult and long to lose belly fat.
So go back to your goal setting and timeline and it will put everything into perspective for you.
What do you want to achieve?
When do you want to achieve this by?
How will it make you feel when you get there?
Exercises to help you lose belly fat
Without knowing much more about you I have grouped together different types of exercises depending on how you want to challenge yourself or what you enjoy doing.
Cardio Vascular Training
Improves the performance of your heart and lungs and is also described as aerobic training. Exercises include
Walking
Running
Cycling
Step Aerobics
Swimming
Skipping
Strength Training
Helps to develop the strength of muscles either with weights or our own body. I will list a few exercises for each body part.
Squats
Lunges
Planks
Abdominal Twists
Bridge
Single Legged Deadlift
Bent Over Rows
Bear Crawls
Plus combinations of the above in a form of functional training.
Stretch & Flexibility
Increases flexibility between our joints and muscles to help our posture and enable us to move better.
Yoga
Pilates
Mobility Exercises
To really gain the results you desire I believe that a mixture of all these exercise types is really important to achieving your success. Having an exercise program that mixes these up and changes regular is really important for your general well-being and physical appearance. “One Size” does not fit all as we are individual and unique in our own way. Find something you’ll enjoy that will also challenge you mentally and physically.
Conclusion
To achieve your desired result first find out why and set yourself a goal linked to a time limit.
Decide what type of exercise you enjoy or find something different that will challenge you. You can start to see results in weeks and if you look at your diet and general lifestyle you could quite easily speed this process up. Usually it is about changing your lifestyle. Eat better, cut down on alcohol, drink more water, sleep longer, exercise, de-stress and generally look after yourself.
Your renewed life can lead to new opportunities whether through different career opportunities, new friends or better relationships which in turn will give you increased energy and a renewed confidence.
Not only will you find an exercise to lose belly fat that you enjoy doing but you will also live healthier and longer.
Go on ……….. be a better version of you!
Alexy
Nice article, i had an experience long time ago, i want to loss my belly fat because it was so huge that you can see and notice it through my cloth, i was much younger then and i wanted to loss it so bad that i will visit the gym regularly, although it has reduce tremendously now and am still working on it still, thanks for this awareness because i always thought before now that exercise alone can reduce it, this explains the reason why my belly didn’t reduce fast because i was eating anything edible…i really appreciate this.
Imelda
Thank you so much for your comments which are greatly appreciated. I think that many of us in the past have wanted to lose belly fat but never want to give up the food and alcohol that might have giving to us in the first place. Thank you once again I am my article helped.
Petar Leykov
Hi Emelda. Very well written article. You stressed everything that is needed when you want to lose belly fat. We know that this is the most difficult part of the body to lose fat, I know that from personal experience. As you said in your article it’s very important to have a goal and be committed to it doesn’t matter how hard is it. To achieve a belly without fat it’s really difficult and requires not only correctly performed exercises but also a healthy diet which you will follow strictly without being tempted by the junk food. I would say that the food its 75% and the exercise itself are 25% if you want to get rid of your belly fat. Thank you again for the great article Emelda.
Imelda
Thank you Petar, I am really pleased that you agree and you are definitely correct about food playing 75% and exercise 25% to achieving anything regarding losing body fat. I just wanted to notify people that the question of “What is the best exercise to lose belly fat” is not straight forward. Thank you
Donny
Lately I’ve realised I’ve been getting belly fat too and I just made it my goal to make sure after the lockdown is over I’ll have had made great improvements though I’m not sure if it is that easy but definitely it is worth trying. Thanks, in was certain o could lose the belly by just exercise and had forgotten there is need for monitoring my diet as well. I’ll definitely start working on that too.
Imelda
Thank you so much Donny, I am so pleased that you have taken something to help you from this brief article. Always happy to help further if you need. Thank you
Sonny
I noticed my waistline steadily expanding since I quit smoking about 7 months ago. Subconsciously I’ve been eating more I think due to the repetitive hand-to-mouth habit. I never paid much attention to it but now it’s getting out of hand and I need to take action. I will start with long walks and gentle yoga. Thanks for your recommendations!
Sonny
Imelda
Thank you Sonny, yes it is always hard quitting smoking as you always look to something else to help the void. I always say to people that you can only tackle one thing at time and I truly believe you stopping smoking is a huge mountain to have over come so well done. Getting healthier eating habits and a bit of exercise will be so much easier in comparison. Well done!
Feochadan
One needs to have a very personal and emotional reason for wanting to make any kind of change or else it won’t take. The example here is of a young lady for her wedding – a definitely good reason to lose weight and she had a time limit so that would have made her work even harder. How many of us who “say” they want to lose belly fat will go through the effort it takes to actually DO IT as this young lady did? I do hope that more people get inspired to do this as it is a complete improvement of their health and people in the US are the most over-weight in the entire world. This causes a HUGE strain on healthcare systems.
Imelda
I completely agree with you Feochadan and I am pleased you saw this in my article. It is so important for us to help ourselves be healthy and take the stresses off the healthcare. Thank you
Solomon Maoba
Imelda we enjoyed reading your post very much. You’ve tackled a very common question that a large majority of people tend to ask themselves and actively seek out answers for. You took quite a while getting to the actual exercises themselves but focused a large potion on goal setting and visualization. Is this intentional?
We felt that your post was about creating the correct set of mind for achieving certain goals, particularly body goals. Are we correct in assuming that mental preparedness is as important as eating well and exercising?
Solomon & Selina
Imelda
Hello Solomon, thank you for your comments which are greatly appreciated. Yes, the exercises left to the end was intentional as that information is so easy to fun on the internet and youtube etc. I wanted to tackle things from a mind perspective and for people to understand exercise along will not give you that result. I did also want people to use my examples for anything in life. Thank you once again
Welcome Moeng
Hi Imelda, this is quite a captivating and well-written article. While reading your article I was reminded how I simply lost my belly fat. After the accident in 2011, I had to stay at home and could no longer exercise because I had broken my left arm and fingers. I put up so much weight and began to have one pack instead of the 3 pack. I gained 2 sizes in just 3 months and this was frustrating. I felt so unfit and powerless, but as soon as they removed the metal plates on my arm, I hit the road to run.
My goal was to lose at least one size instead of 2 and develop my upper body. I thought this would take me 3 months, but it took me more than that because I did not incorporate diet. However, I began to combine different exercises such as jogging 20 minutes with a sweater on and doing, Yoga and also indoor cycling.
I really admire your approach of finding out the reason and the motivation for a person wanting to lose the belly fat. you also providing all the possible ways and options for a person. This article is an eye-opener and I learned a lot.
Imelda
Thank you Moeng, your comments are really important and translate well to the article I have written. It is really good to hear you story although sorry to hear about your accident. Yoga and Indoor Cycling are great exercises to do and add a little healthy eating and you have the perfect combination. Thank you so much for your insight and comments.