Ab crunches and beer belly

geffkane

I was wondering whether there is a point in doing ab crunches while one still has a beer belly. obviously any definition gained will not be seen through the fat, but does it aid in any specific way in actually reducing the belly?
I now have fairly good def elsewhere from weights over the last few weeks but the belly is still there. Any advice appreciated

dv6

From what ive read on here before you cannot to anything to spot reduce fat in a particular location. just keep what you are at to cut down on the BF and eventually that belly will be a thing of the past.

rubadub

Well training abs will make the (underlying) muscle develop. Developing muscle will result in calorie usage, and hence fat loss. Then the developed muscle requires more calories to maintain it and so again will lead to fat loss if your daily calorie intake was remaining the same.

However time could be far better spent on other exercises. Other exercises will develop larger muscle groups. As the larger muscles develop you will get more calories used up making and maintaining them. (e.g. thing of your leg muscles growing 5% in size compared to your abs growing 5%, more muscle mass on the of legs so a 5% increase is more muscle overall)

I still have a bit of a belly, and I still don't bother with crunches. I do some leg raises on a chinning bar, thats about it. I stick to big lifts, squats, deadlift, dips, pullups, chinups, standing military press. These will result in max muscle growth per time spent exercising. Heavy squats work the abs well too.

Diet is important for fat loss.

AARRRGH

Diet and cardio is the only way to get rid of that belly.

aye

First off the diet might need a change.
if you drop around 300 to 500 calories a day, this will help with the fat loss.

then start weight lifting, and as said more muscle = more fat burning.
muscle has a higher metabolitic rate than fat, so having more of it means you will lose body fat.
and as said your legs contain the most amount of muscle.
big compound movements, such as the squat, will build more muscle.

cardio is good for cariac strength, and is good for fat loss, however, it wont build muscle, and a lot of cardio would actually help lsoe muscle.
best to do interval training, this will speed up your metabolism also, and you wont spend as much time doing the cardio.

another option is to do cardio after your weigths session, as by this time you will have used all your glyocen stores, and will be using fat for enery when doing the cardio.

an exercise for flattening the stomach would be the plank.
this works the transverse abdominus, which is a muscle beneath the abs that you see, commonly known as the six pack.

http://www.abs-exercise-advice.com/plank.html


just found this, interesting read.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PersonalBest/story?id=1465091

the book is quite good.