Tips to Help Teens Lose Belly Fat

Tips to Help Teens Lose Belly Fat
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MayoClinic.com suggests that teenage obesity is a dangerous and growing problem, and the key to combating or preventing obesity is to establish healthy lifestyle habits. Enhancing physical activity and smart dieting are the primary methods for losing belly fat. You cannot target fat loss in a specific zone and teens must rely on activities that burn fat for energy to lose belly fat. These include low-level activity and high-repetition weight training.

Only Sit During Class

You have plenty of time to rest your body while you sit in class and work your brain during the day. Keep moving with the rest of your time. Walking is a low-intensity activity that helps you burn more calories of stored fat during the day. You can walk to school, park or get dropped off farther away from campus to increase the amount of physical activity that you get during the day. Take advantage of any extra time you may have before, after or in between classes to keep moving and walking around. Try to walk for at least 10 minutes three times a day, but the more the better.

Take Study Breaks

Study breaks provide more opportunities for low-intensity activity that includes walking. Take 10 minute study breaks to perform some kind of low intensity activity. You might go for a walk, walk in place or ride your bike. Low intensity activity can help you burn more fat during the day. In addition, low-intensity activity such as walking can help you get more out of your study time, because it oxygenates your brain and helps rest your eyes.

Go Shopping

Go to the mall or commercial shopping strip to enjoy leisure time with your friends instead of sedentary activities like going to the movies. Wear comfortable shoes so you can stay on your feet for 45 minutes or more. Walk briskly throughout the entire shopping corridor when you first arrive and before going inside any stores. This provides continuous low-intensity activity that stimulates calorie burning that helps you lose body fat. This warmup also gives you a preview of stores and sales you may want to check out.

Reduce Calorie Intake

A pound of body fat contains approximately 3,500 calories and you can lose a pound of fat each week by reducing the number of calories that you consume by 500 calories a day. The lowest daily caloric intake recommended for women and men is 1,200 and 1,500 calories respectively. Reduce your caloric intake by avoiding fatty and sugary foods.

Resistance Exercise

Resistance exercise, including high-repetition weightlifting, helps burn fat and may boost your metabolism for ongoing body fat loss after working out. Teens can lose body fat with high repetition compound movements that recruit as many muscle groups as possible. A high-rep circuit includes three exercises, an upper body pushing and pulling exercise and a leg pushing exercise. Work your upper body with pushing movements, such as the bench press and pulling movements that include lateral pull-downs or seated rows. Do squats or leg presses for your lower body. Perform one set of 20 to 25 repetitions for each exercise back-to-back without resting between sets to complete one circuit. Complete four to five total circuits to complete your workout .

References

Article reviewed by Allen Cone Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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