No matter how much you weigh or what your body type is, crunches and other core exercises can help you tighten and tone your abdominal muscles and improve your overall physical health. According to MayoClinic.com, however, they won't spot reduce fat, which means that the visceral and subcutaneous fat in your belly will likely prevent the toned muscles from becoming apparent.
Effects
Crunches, sit-ups, the plank and other core exercises primarily serve to tone, develop and define core muscles, including upper and lower abdominals. It's logical to think that they could make your entire stomach hard and big, by extension, but since those muscles are underlying and covered by fat, that's not the case. If you are slim, by contrast, those muscles will be located closer to the outer layer of your skin and the movements may help tighten and harden your midsection.
Calories
To lose weight on your belly or in any other area of your body and make toned muscles visible, you need to burn calories. Although crunches and other core exercises do contribute to calorie burn, they're not as effective as vigorous aerobic exercises that increase your heart rate more dramatically. For example, HealthStatus.com reports that 60 minutes of crunches and sit-ups burns about 350 calories for a 175-lb. person, but the same hour's worth of jogging burns closer to 600 calories.
Crunch Variations
To develop and strengthen your core muscles, it's helpful to go beyond a basic crunch. Although the basic crunch targets mainly the rectus abdominus and transverse abdominus, CNN reports that your body has 29 core muscles in all and that you can get more desirable physical results by working multiple muscles at the same time through alternative exercises. Try bicycle crunches to challenge oblique muscles and a plank pose to develop and strengthen the inner core and stabilizing muscles.
Considerations
Before you go ahead with any new fitness routine or plan to get rid of belly fat, it's helpful to talk with your physician, who may be able to offer personalized recommendations. If you need to shed pounds as well as tone your midsection, try meeting the American Council on Exercise's recommendations for weight loss, which suggest working out for at least 45 minutes at a time on five or six days per week. It's also important to reduce your daily calories or follow a structured, low-calorie diet to lose additional weight and further improve your health.
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