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Does Weightlifting Burn Belly Fat?

by Glenn Fitzpatrick
buff guy weight lifting

When it comes to losing weight, you are probably thinking about doing a lot of crunches or spending most of your time doing cardio. Indeed, these kinds of exercises can actually help you in burning calories, but it is not the most effective means of losing weight.

How to Lose Belly Fats with Weight Lifting Exercises

Do you know that you cannot control which part of the body fats you burn?  You can lose belly fats if you lose your entire body fats. There are many ways to lose fats, but it is recommended to have a fixed fat-loss program such as increasing your activities while you are out of the gym, perform weightlifting exercises thrice a week, getting sufficient sleep, and eating healthy foods.

If you incorporate weight lifting in your workouts, you can trim your belly fats faster. There are actually two types of belly fats- subcutaneous fats and visceral fats. Subcutaneous fats are found just beneath your skin while visceral fats are found in your abdomen.

pinching his belly fat

Visceral fats actually protect your internal organs. But, too much of these fats have detrimental effects on your entire well-being that is why you need training that can actually burn your belly fats. If you want this to happen, you should increase your physical activities, so you will burn more than take in calories. 

The National Institute of Health (NIH) suggested that we should eat various fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains, and high-quality protein. We should also limit our trans fats and saturated fats intake, as well as sugar and sodium. If you want to lose weight, you should limit your diet within 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day for women and 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day for men.

Does Weight Training Burn Belly Fats?

It is a general rule that all kinds of physical activities can actually help you lose weight because you burn calories by achieving a calorie deficit. If you lose your entire body fats, your belly fats are actually included.

A study conducted among 10,500 healthy men for a 12-year period shows that men who undergo weight training experienced a reduced waist circumference, meaning the belly fats are actually burned, while those who perform aerobic exercises lose overall body weight.

Weight lifting can actually affect a lot on your midsection. It helps in increasing your muscle mass. And the more you have muscle mass, the more you boost your metabolism. The reason for this is that muscles are capable of burning more calories while at rest compared to fats.

If you’re a neophyte, you can start weight lifting thrice a week. You can also focus on compound exercises first. Compound exercises such as deadlifts, leg presses, and barbell squats affect large muscles. This kind of exercise can actually burn the most calories because it focuses on groups of large muscles. Well, weight lifting is also said to increase your testosterone and growth hormone levels, which is very crucial if you want to lose your belly fats.

Weight Lifting Compared to Other Forms of Exercises

Although the purpose of workouts for losing weight is to burn more calories, exercises vary. Weightlifting exercises are different from cardio exercises according to their intensities. Cardio such as cycling and jogging requires moderate intensity while High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as the name implies requires high intensity. Although this requires high intensity, meaning more challenging than your usual cardio, you will lose weight faster.

HIIT crossfit box jumps

During a HIIT, you burn more calories at a faster rate and allow you to produce a hormone called catecholamines, responsible for burning more fats to be converted as energy. After the training, you will continue burning more calories. Such an exercise can actually allow you to experience an “after-burn effect,” which can last up to 24 hours after a workout.

Although weight lifting is quite the same with HIIT, the approach is different. In weight lifting, you burn more calories because you exert a lot of effort during your workout. The carbohydrates stored in your body are depleted once you perform weight lifting.

Just like HIIT, your muscles need to recover after a heavy workout. But there is an “after-burn effect” which has the same benefits to HIIT. But a study shows that the result is actually better in weightlifting compared to HIIT when it comes to weight loss.

Conclusion

If you want to burn belly fats, you should consider not only your physical activities but also your diet. It is recommended for you to have a strict diet so you will consume low calories compared to the amount you burn. And since you want to lose belly fats, you have to avoid losing muscles.

Since weightlifting can promote the production of your testosterone and as well as your growth hormones, this kind of training exercise is actually a perfect choice for burning your belly fats. By doing this exercise, your body is given a signal to be cautious in protecting your muscles. If that happens, then your body will probably use fats as energy for you to perform your daily routine.

Of course, it can result in burning more fats while saving your muscles. And you should not forget that after weightlifting, you need to consume a large meal while your body is in a state of muscle breakout. If full protein meal is not applicable to you, then try having a protein shake.

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