You start the day at six or seven in the
morning; you grab a quick breakfast then you’re off to work. While in the
train, you’re on your smart phone, trying to tie lose ends together, getting
things done before you even step foot in the office. Or you’re supermom – you
have kids to cook breakfast for, who need to have their homework looked over,
who need the care and attention that kids thrive in. Let’s face it; in this
modern day and age, most women have their schedules full, juggling their
personal lives with the professional, taking on a lot of work and flourishing
in it. So when exactly are you supposed
to fit in an hour of cardio?
These busy, modern times leave very
little room for a full blown workout. We see models on TV doing crunches and
giving two hours a day to the gym and we tell ourselves, no wonder they have
such great abs. They make a living out of looking good after all, and spending
hours on a treadmill or in a rejuvenating spa actually pay the bills – for
them. Two hours a day or even just an hour a day is a lot of time when you’ve
already got your hands full with being awesome. But what most women who are
struggling with belly fat don’t know is that it takes very little to get those
enzymes started towards burning that fat.
Repeat
after me – 15 to 20 minutes for five times a week. It doesn’t have to be high
intensity workouts either; just moderate-intensity activities like bicycling,
swimming or brisk walking at a casual pace is the trick to burn visceral fat. In
fact, a Harvard study shows that while spot exercises like sit-ups and crunches
can tighten your abdominal muscles, they do very little for.
visceral fat which is the real enemy. 15
minutes is less than the time that you spend reading the newspaper or checking
social media in the morning. It’s less than the time you spend in that
half-awake, half-asleep state before getting out of bed.
And if you spend even
as little as 15 minutes on brisk walking or swimming laps (for those lucky
enough to have access to a pool), you’ll see better and faster results than if
you do a hundred crunches a day.
You can also supplement your
moderate-intensity exercises by grabbing opportunities to keep things in
motion. Take the stairs when you have a chance or walk those five blocks to
your apartment instead of taking a cab. Even stretching out a little while
sitting on a chair in the office will help get the heart rate going a little.
Remember, the little things count.
Remember, you’re targeting the visceral
fat that’s underneath and not the subcutaneous fat which is literally just skin
deep. The visceral fat is very deep in your abdominal cavity, padding the spaces
between your organs. You can’t get to the visceral fat with exercises that
target your stomach (although those exercises will do wonders for the
subcutaneous fat and tone). You need exercises that involve your entire body, get
your heart rate going, and use a lot more muscles than just the abdominal ones.
The good thing about getting rid of visceral fat though is that a lot of
activities actually call for using it as energy. If you take up a physical
hobby – something fun that also gets you moving – like surfing or tennis,
you’ll be losing that visceral fat faster than you can blink and you could even
have fun in the process.
Your
goal is to introduce regular, moderate-intensity, and short exercises to your
routine five times a week. And while these exercises may be a lot lighter than
a full blown workout of cardio and weights, they are still workouts and you
need to prepare for them properly. Don’t forget to stretch properly before you
start to warm up, to drink lots of water, and to cool down after your routine.
Everything we’ve discussed so far is about preserving your health and giving
your body
what it needs so that it’s running well
and will handle fat more efficiently like when it’s burning or storing fat. The
last thing that you want is to strain yourself or pull a muscle. Eat a banana
at least once a week for potassium and citrus fruits like oranges for vitamin
C.
If you live by what we’ve been talking
about in this book, losing that unwanted belly fat is only a matter of time.
But when you do reach your goal – when you’re healthier, when your jeans fit
better, when you’re more comfortable with your body – you have to stick to the
healthy lifestyle that we’ve been describing for you. According to a study
conducted at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, women who continued their
modest exercise routines maintained their visceral fat loss while those who
slipped back to not exercising gained back their visceral fat, experiencing a
33% increase.
This is an excerpt from the book:
No comments:
Post a Comment