To lose belly fat, you must do cardiovascular exercise at an intense-enough pace to elevate your heart rate and sweat. Using a StairMaster or another type of stair treadmill qualifies as a vigorous aerobic workout. A 160-lb. person burns more than 650 calories per hour climbing stairs, according to the Mayo Clinic. Do 60-minute workouts daily and you can lose more than 1 lb. of body fat per week. If you have medical concerns, speak to your doctor before starting an exercise program.
The Myth of Spot-Reduction
Skip those abdominal-resistance machines and incline boards in your quest to burn belly fat. This equipment helps you build core strength and muscle, but it does not burn body fat. You cannot target on which part of your body will lose fat when you diet and exercise. However, by doing an intense aerobic workout on the StairMaster, you shrink your fat cells wherever you tend to store them, including your belly.
Maximizing Fat-Burning
The longer and more regularly you use a stair climber, the more fit you become. Your body gets overly efficient doing the workout and burns less belly fat. Keep your challenge level high by making tweaks to your StairMaster workout that maximize the calories you burn. Increasing your speed is one option. Use the interval setting on your stair climber to vary the pace of your workout. When you do 30-second to 1-minute sprints up the stairs, you spike your heart rate and burn more fat for the duration of your workout.
Building Muscle
Unlike running on a flat surface, climbing a StairMaster targets your gluteal, calf and thigh muscles. If you do not lean on the hand rails, or touch them only lightly, you also engage your core muscles to maintain your balance during climbing. These elements of a stair-climbing workout make it a strengthening regimen. You build new muscle tissue, which makes your body burn more calories to support it. You raise your resting metabolism so that you burn more calories around the clock.
Upper Body Workout
Adding an upper-body workout to your stair-climbing makes your exercise routine more challenging so that you burn more calories and build muscle on your arms, shoulders, back and chest. If you have balance and coordination, you can pump your arms while climbing the StairMaster. Otherwise, intersperse strength intervals with your step-climbing workout. Every 10 minutes, exit the StairMaster for a quick round of pullups, pushups, burpees, standing flies, bench presses, triceps dips, triceps extensions or biceps curls.
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