The situp is a classic exercise for building abdominal muscles. A common misconception is situps burn fat from your stomach. However, you can't target abdominal fat by doing situps because your body loses fat at the same rate in all areas. But you can tone your muscles and increase the amount of calories your body is able to burn with situps. Use situps as a way to augment your regular cardiovascular and strength training routine.
Correct Form
A situp involves lying on a flat surface with your back on the floor and your knees bent. Your feet are flat on the ground and with your elbows bent, your hands are placed behind your ears to support your head. Using your abdominal muscles, raise your upper body toward your knees in a controlled motion until your elbows reach your knees. Hold this position for one to two seconds and then in a controlled motion, lower your body back to the floor and repeat. Incorrect situp form increases your risk of injury.
Strength Training
Situps tone your rectus abdominis muscles, giving your stomach a six pack appearance. The more muscle that you gain, the more calories your body can burn. Situps involve body weight resistance, but you can increase their intensity by adding resistance bands or dumbbells. By increasing the intensity of your situps, you're able to increase the amount of muscle you gain and burn more calories. The average person needs two to three days per week of strength training and these sessions should last around 30 minutes. Although situps are a strength training exercise, working all your major muscle groups will burn more calories than working your abdominals alone.
Aerobic Activity
When it comes to exercise, aerobic activity is your big calorie burner. If you perform situps vigorously for 30 minutes, you can increase your heart rate and burn calories. If you weigh 150 lbs. and do situps nonstop for 30 minutes, you could burn 150 calories. You burn about five calories per minute doing situps, so in order to burn 150 calories, you would need to do 750 situps in a half hour. It's much easier to burn calories through activities such as walking or bicycling, since your abdominal muscles are likely to fatigue before you can reach 750 situps. If you walk 30 minutes at 4 mph, you would burn 175 calories or a leisurely bike ride would burn 135 calories.
Counting Calories
Situps alone without dietary changes will not result in much weight loss. There are 3,500 calories in 1 lb. of fat, so in order to lose weight, you must reduce the amount of calories you consume. Cutting 500 to 1,000 calories per day allows you to lose 1 to 2 lbs. per week. Your diet should consist mainly of vegetables, fruits, lean meats, whole grains and low-fat dairy. Adding situps and other aerobic and strength training activities to your healthy low calorie diet will increase the amount of pounds you can lose. By losing weight gradually, you're more likely to keep off the excess pounds.
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