Why Cardio Sports Are Less Effective in Eradicating Stomach Fat?

Medical Video: Workouts for Women : How to Lose Belly Fat with Exercises

Some important organs are located in the stomach, such as the liver and kidneys. Fat around the abdomen is needed as a cushion to protect these important organs. However, what if there is too much fat in the stomach?

Belly fat or often called fat visceral too much around the stomach can increase the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and even cancer. Therefore, it is not surprising that many people want to lose belly fat. In addition to supporting the appearance to make it look slimmer, it is also important to maintain a healthy body.

Many people who want their stomachs are not fatty and look slim. Not only women, but also men. To get rid of belly fat, they usually do cardio, such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, and jumping rope. However, is it true that cardio exercise is effective in removing belly fat?

To answer that question, it seems we have to know in advance what cardio is and its benefits.

What is cardio exercise?

Cardio exercise is exercise to increase heart rate, where the heart is composed of muscles. These muscles must move to make them stronger and stronger again. When the heart muscle is strong, the blood vessels can drain more and faster blood so that more oxygen can flow into the muscle cells. This allows cells to burn more fat during exercise and at rest.

Cardio exercise produces more muscle movement over a continuous period of time to keep your heart rate at least 50% of its maximum level. In addition, the benefits of cardio are to strengthen the heart and lungs, increase bone strength, reduce stress, and also improve sleep quality.

Cardio exercise really helps you lose weight because this activity can burn fat. Weight loss occurs when the body burns more calories than receiving calories from food. The opposite happens when the calories burned by the body are less than the calories the body receives. So, if you already do cardio, try to eat with fewer calories so that weight loss can be achieved.

Does cardio exercise effectively eliminate belly fat?

Referring to the definition above, cardio exercise plays a role in reducing overall weight, not just focusing on eliminating belly fat. To eliminate stomach fat, other sports are needed that are more effective in burning fat in the stomach, such as sit ups, side planks, low plaques, circles in the sky, squats, and other sports that are more focused on the abdominal muscles.

A Harvard study shows that cardio exercise, such as running, swimming, and cycling, is not the best way to get rid of belly fat. The study involved 10,500 healthy men aged 40 years or more. Researchers analyzed their exercise habits and found that men who exercise lifted a load of at least 20 minutes per day can better maintain excess belly fat compared to those who only do cardio.

Incorrect cardio can actually increase fat in the stomach

In addition, as Phil Kelly said, wrong cardio exercise can increase the hormone cortisol in the body which can cause the body to store more fat. So, the wrong cardio exercise might cause an increase in abdominal fat instead of eliminating abdominal fat.

Incorrect cardio exercise with high intensity can increase cortisol levels in the body and does not make the body produce anabolic hormones that encourage growth, repair, and burning of fat so that no other homon is produced to compensate for the adverse effects of this hormone cortisol production.

Therefore, for those of you who want to get rid of belly fat, you should do sports other than cardio which are more effective in eradicating belly fat. However, if you want to get rid of belly fat and also lose weight, you can do cardio plus exercise with movements that are more focused on strengthening the abdominal muscles, as explained above.

Don't forget to exercise regularly and keep your intake so that maximum results are achieved faster. Do also exercise according to your abilities, do not be forced so that it is not a negative effect that is actually produced.

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