Last Updated: July 22, 2008
Abdominal fat is the scourge of many a dieter. A fair number of them have done crunches until they've passed out, but they still want to know how to lose abdominal fat – fast. The unfortunate truth is some parts of the solution take time. Thankfully, others can show results in very short order.
The first thing to keep in mind is diet. Cutting calories can help a person lose weight, but diet alone can't tackle fat, and the wrong diet could make things worse. Too much calorie cutting will cost you muscle as well as fat, and that can lead to a slower metabolism. Of course, too many calories aren't the answer either. A well-balanced, healthy diet is imperative to having a flat tummy. Replacing sugary and high-fat foods with more nutritious options will go a long way to reducing your body fat. Choose low-fat proteins, whole grain carbohydrate and lots of fruits and vegetables for a fat-busting diet.
The next part of the equation for losing abdominal fat is exercise. There are two parts to a balanced exercise program – cardiovascular and strength training. Cardio will burn calories and fat, as well as raise your metabolism while you exercise. Strength training builds lean muscle mass, which helps increase your metabolism all the time. However, even though strength training alone will build muscle, which helps your metabolism, on its own it will likely leave you with a layer of fat covering your nicely sculpted abdominals. For optimal results when trying to lose abdominal fat, you must combine the two.
To lose abdominal fat fast, you have to kick up the cardio. There are all sorts of cardiovascular exercises. Swimming, running, biking, dancing, even walking are all good cardio. This is where things get complicated. Most people do cardio at a relatively fixed pace for a lengthy time. This can cause your body to enter a "steady state" – this means your body has adapted to what you are doing and has adjusted itself to conserve energy. Making matters worse is the fact that to keep up the exercise for so long, it has to be done at fairly low intensity. What this all means is that standard cardio isn't designed to lose fat fast; it is designed to lose it slowly.
To really turn up the heat, try HIIT. High intensity interval training is designed to help people lose fat, and especially abdominal fat, fast. Before you get too excited, HIIT is intense; if done properly, you are likely to feel rather ill afterward. With that warning in mind, here is the basic idea of HIIT. After a five minute low intensity warm-up, you alternate twenty to thirty second bursts of very high intensity cardio with roughly one minute sections of low to moderate intensity. The cycle is repeated up to fifteen times. By alternating high and low intensity, your body doesn't enter the "steady state" and you burn more fat. In addition, the fat burning keeps going long after you stop exercising.
And that is the key to how HIIT helps you lose abdominal fat fast – it works even when you aren't. So, if you are fighting the battle of the bulge, keep an eye on your diet, strength train, and do cardio as well (whether steady state or HIIT). A six-pack will be waiting for you at the end.