Weight will not fall off by just doing daily situps. You must burn calories and monitor your eating to effectively lose weight. While situps can tone your tummy, they will not be the reason you lose weight. Pairing situps with cardio exercise and strength training will, however, give you the results you want.
Weight Loss
Weight loss is achieved by creating a caloric deficit. You must burn more calories than you consume in order to see the scale move. Restricting your calories and breaking a sweat with exercise will help you reach your caloric deficit. It takes 3,500 calories to melt off a pound of fat. Therefore, you must burn 500 calories a day to reach a weekly weight loss of 1 lb. Simply doing 20 crunches will burn less than 20 calories.
Situps
Situps are beneficial to build core strength. The American Council on Exercise notes that situps primarily target the rectus abdominus and the transverse abdominus -- the obliques are the secondary muscles worked. Target training your core will help you tone muscles but you must do more that just 20 situps a day to see changes. Mix up your core training by adding more situps as you grow stronger each day and slowly adding in new abdominal exercises. Other abdominal toning exercises include a plank pose, bicycle twists, reverse crunches and even scissor kicks.
Cardio Training
If you want to lose weight you must cardio train because it requires more effort than simply doing crunches. Cardio training helps burn calories and will allow you to lose weight. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends aerobically training for 30 minutes most days of the week to stay healthy. If you are looking to lose weight increase the intensity of your cardio training and work your way up to aerobically training for a longer duration.
Eat Wisely
The foods you eat will also help you reach a healthy weight loss. Choose whole grains, lean meats, nuts, fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy products. These foods will keep your body fueled and filled to promote weight loss. Avoid empty calories like alcohol, soda, processed foods and fast-food to save calories and promote a faster weight loss.
Member Comments