A fat burning leg workout routine may be the way to alleviate both the physical and emotional toll of wearing extra pounds around the midsection. While it's impossible to spot reduce fat, there are activities that act as a belly fat burner.
Tip
Too much body fat, including the two types of belly fat, subcutaneous and visceral, can potentially be dangerous. Visceral fat, which resides in a deep layer around the abdominal organs, has even greater health risks. Combine a healthy diet with exercises such as regular leg workouts to help eliminate this type of fat.
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Do Belly Fat Burner Activities
It's not possible to spot reduce fat, but there are clinically proven ways to lose excess pounds. There are two types of fat: Subcutaneous is the deepest layer of fat and visceral fat is the potentially dangerous deep level of fat that can accumulate around the abdominal organs. According to the Mayo Clinic, belly fat can increase the risk of illnesses such as heart disease. Excess fat anywhere on the body can also play a role, making it a smart idea to eliminate extra weight to avoid potential health risks.
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Losing weight by maintaining a balanced diet and exercising will help to shed those harmful excess pounds. Combine a mix of fat-burning cardio workouts and strength-training activities for the muscles to achieve best weight loss results.
The importance of physical activity is emphasized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their recommendation is to pair physical activity of about 60 to 90 minutes of moderate intensity activity combined with a healthy diet on most days of the week. This will lead to effective long-term results of keeping weight off; and, even a moderate result of 5 to 10 percent of your total body weight is beneficial.
Read more: How to Lose Belly & Leg fat
Lower Body and Belly Workouts
ACE Fitness explains that when working with the lower body, make sure you train in all three planes of motion encountered in daily life, mimicking the movements you may encounter in your everyday routine. Opt for activities that incorporate side-to-side, reverse, twisting, single-leg and high-intensity jumping movements. This full range of motion may reduce risk of injury, improve cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles and reduce overall body fat.
Perform leg exercises that burn belly fat and work all your major muscles to lean out thick legs, including the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves. Exercises such as squats, lunges, leg presses and calf raises target these muscles; do this type of leg workout on three alternating days, separating them from cardio activities.
Tip
Modify your workout by eliminating high-intensity jumping movements if you have a condition that doesn't allow for them; performing other types of leg exercises is still beneficial.
Why Legs Burn Belly Fat
"When burning fat is a primary goal, you want to perform exercises that utilize as many muscle groups as possible to burn as many calories as possible," Tom Holland, certified strength and conditioning specialist, NSCA-CSCS, ACSM, ACE, NASM, AFAA and Bowflex Chief Fitness Advisor told LIVESTRONG.com.
This makes lower body exercises actually a great idea for burning calories overall, which will lead to weight loss in all areas of the body. If hitting the gym, be sure to use cardio exercise machines that help in the loss of fat, including the belly, combined with strength-building resistance training.
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