A crunch a day won't keep the Belly Fat away

When it comes to exercise and training, one of the more common desires and goals that we come across as trainers is that of a ‘flat stomach’, or to get rid of some of the fat around the belly. People often ask us what exercises they can do to get rid of the fat on their stomach, and one of the top google searches when you type in the word ‘exercises’ is; “exercises to lose belly fat.” We understand and appreciate this is something that lots of people want, and having excess fat on your belly can make you feel uncomfortable. However, it isn’t as simple as exercising it away - as the title of this blog suggests.

Now, first of all, whenever we talk about body ‘fat’, what we really mean is adipose tissue. The word fat can be quite stigmatizing for a lot of people, and unfortunately has become somewhat of an insult, or negative term, to many. The truth is, we all have body fat, and we all need body fat. How much we need is different for men and women, with women requiring far higher levels of body fat than men in order to achieve optimal health. This is due to hormonal differences between men and women, and is most likely linked to childbearing. So, having fat, or adipose tissue, is not a bad thing in and of itself.

However, most of us have excess body fat, and wanting to reduce the amount of excess body fat we carry is not an unreasonable or unhealthy goal to have. Exercise can help us to achieve this through increasing our calorie expenditure, but, and let me be very clear when I say this, we cannot control where we lose body fat from on our body. This, known as ‘spot reduction’ is a myth, and no matter what someone is trying to sell you to help you achieve it, it will not happen. The only way we can decide where we lose fat from on our bodies is with surgical intervention - and that’s not something I would recommend except in exceptional circumstances.

That’s not to say that performing abdominal exercises, such as crunches, is a worthless endeavour - no, we should still be doing such exercise in order to strengthen our core muscles - which are important for injury prevention, performance and ultimately, quality of life. Strengthening and developing your abdominal muscles, just like any other muscle in the body, will help them to grow and become more visible, though. While we cannot ‘spot reduce’ belly fat, we can ‘spot develop’ muscle through exercise. You won’t necessarily rid yourself of any fat on your belly, but your abdominal muscles will nonetheless become more visible, and look more defined even with the presence of more adipose tissue. However, if you are doing hundreds of crunches every day in order to ‘melt’ that fat off of your stomach, your efforts are sadly misplaced.

In order to lose body fat, you must be in a calorie deficit. This is a universal truth, and there’s no way around it. So, if you want to lose fat from your belly, this is what you need to do - and that usually entails looking at your diet, not just the exercise you are doing. Creating a consistent calorie deficit over a sustained period of time, followed by a period of ‘maintenance’ (calories in = calories out) is the only way to lose body fat and keep it off. This usually requires a good quality diet alongside consistent exercise.

Now, the truth of the matter is that the areas of our body where we would most like to reduce body fat, our ‘problem areas’ so to speak, our probably the areas we hold the most adipose tissue. Genetically, we are all pre-disposed to holding body fat in different areas of the body. Now, these areas where we hold the most fat mass are likely the areas we will first ‘put on’ fat, and logically speaking, therefore the last areas we lose it from. That might sound disheartening, but it’s true. The areas we would most like to lose body fat are probably the areas we will find it toughest to lose fat from.

Which brings me to my point - how far are you willing to go to achieve that ‘flat stomach’ or ‘6 pack abs’? Because, in almost all people, that means having very low levels of body fat, which is both hard to achieve and sustain. That means making large sacrifices over the short and medium-term to get there. Are you willing to compromise your quality or enjoyment of life to achieve that goal? If so, great - with a good plan in place, you can get there! But if you don’t want to make big sacrifices - which I don’t blame you for at all - then it might be worth reassessing your gaols and resetting expectations. Having a flat stomach, or being super ‘lean, is not the be all and end all! There is a lot more to life than being shredded, and being a healthy weight and body fat percentage is vastly different to looking like a cover model (who, by the way, only look like ‘cover models’ for a fraction of their year).

I believe strongly that we all need to have more realistic ‘body goals’ - and what we see on the front of magazines is often not realistic, or even real (hello lighting, posing and copious amounts of baby oil). It’s ok to not be shredded, it’s ok to have a little bit of excess body fat - that’s what we look like, and often allows us to be more flexible in our diets and lives, which often means a higher quality and enjoyment of life.

Now, this is not to say you cannot have the goal of losing belly fat - everyone is allowed to have their own goals and wants. And if you are dieting for a specific purpose or reason, that could be an entirely valid goal. However, I just want you to have more realistic expectations of what your actions can and will achieve, and a more realistic (hopefully less judgemental), view of what your body should look like.

Doing hundreds of crunches and abdominal exercise won’t ‘burn belly fat’, and lead to that chiselled midriff you want - a good quality, calorie-controlled diet is needed in order to achieve that. It is almost never a case of exercise or diet - but rather exercise and diet together - that helps us achieve our health, fitness and body composition goals.