Does Cross Trainer Burn Belly Fat?

As you get older, you do less exercise, you start to gain weight and lose muscles, until the day you realize that you don't have a flat stomach anymore... and that you have abdominal fat. But belly fat can be different from that of the legs, thighs, hips or arms and have serious consequences on your health! It is therefore very important to understand what abdominal fat is, what the causes are and how to get rid of it. And above all, is the elliptical bike good for losing abdominal fat? We'll explain you everything and give you valuable advice on how to burn belly fat.

1. What is Belly Fat, Stomach Fat and Visceral Fat?

Belly fat is not only an aesthetic concern but a real health problem because it can have an impact on your body and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. There are two very different types of belly fat to distinguish:

• Subcutaneous fat,, located just under the skin. You can feel it by pinching your skin on your stomach or thighs. Love handles on the hips are part of the subcutaneous fat.

• Visceral fat, also known as deep fat, commonly referred to as abdominal fat. It is the accumulation of fat or fat tissue at a deeper level under the skin, around the organs of the abdomen, liver, pancreas, kidneys and intestines. Visceral fat is firm and cannot be pinched like subcutaneous fat.

Subcutaneous fat is not dangerous to health, unlike visceral fat, which increases the risk of various diseases and health problems.

What are the risks associated with visceral fat?

Visceral fat is dangerous to health because it modifies hormonal functions such as mood, appetite and weight regulation. It can increase the level of "bad cholesterol" as well as blood pressure. Finally, it makes the body less sensitive to insulin, thus increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Visceral fat increases the risk of the following diseases and health problems:

- type 2 diabetes

- obesity

- high blood pressure

- heart disease

- breast cancer

- colorectal cancer

- depression

- Alzheimer's disease

How do you know if you have visceral fat?

Many people do not know if they have visceral fat. If you have a prominent belly, then you probably store visceral fats. To be sure, you will need an MRI examination, but it is quite expensive. A reliable and easier way to find out if you have visceral fat is to measure your waist circumference.

How to measure your waist circumference?

To do this, you need a tape measure. Place the tape measure above your belly button and below your chest box, wrap around your waist and measure your waist without pulling in your belly. Your waist circumference must be less than

- 35 inches (88 cm) for women

- 40 inches (102 cm) for men

If your waist is above these values, chances are high that you store visceral fat.

Visceral fat is not a problem to be taken lightly: it must be lost and therefore started to be reduced without delay! First of all, it is necessary to understand the causes of visceral fat accumulation in order to be able to effectively get rid of it and prevent it from returning.

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2. What Causes Visceral Fat?

Weight gain and excess fat are mainly due to a positive energy balance (or caloric balance), i.e. when the energy intake exceeds the energy expenditure. In short, when you eat too much in relation to your needs, you gain weight. As explained above, however, visceral fat is different from other fats. It has specific factors such as stress, hormones and genes. Here are the factors that promote abdominal visceral fat:

• A diet rich in sugar and fats. When the absorbed fats are too high to be spent, they are stored in the fat cells. The more fat a person has, the more visceral fat he or she has.

• A lack of physical activity, a sedentary lifestyle. According to WHO recommendations, you should have a minimum of 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week. And that's a minimum! During physical activity or exercise, your body burns calories and fat. When you have little or no physical activity, your body accumulates fat.

• Stress seems to play a role in the formation of visceral fat. Researchers have found that the hormone released by stress, cortisol, is responsible for high levels of visceral fat.

• Alcohol. Consuming large amounts of alcohol can promote the accumulation of adipose tissue in the abdomen (deep fat).

• Hormones, Hormones, especially hormonal fluctuations, can influence the storage of fat cells. Estrogens and progesterone (female sex hormones) promote fat storage. Some periods in women's lives, such as menopause, characterized by many hormonal changes, are associated with changes in the distribution of body fat. Studies have shown that abdominal fat, particularly visceral fat, is more important in postmenopausal women.

• Genetics: Researchers observed variations in abdominal visceral fat levels in the population and tried to determine the extent to which visceral fat was linked to genetic components. It has not yet been established which genes could be responsible for visceral fat. What is known is that men are predisposed to store fat in the upper body, abdominal belt, stomach and love handles, while women store fat rather in the lower body, in the pelvis, buttocks and thighs.

In general, the body accumulates fat when more calories are consumed than the body needs and not enough sport or exercise is done to burn these extra calories. If you are under more stress, then the accumulated fat will probably become visceral fat. To lose weight and get rid of belly fat permanently, you need to change your diet and increase your level of physical activity!

3. Does the Cross Trainer help lose Belly Fat?

To burn calories, it's simple: you have to exercise! Exercise and physical activity not only burn calories and fat but also build muscle and this is important because muscles burn 3 times more calories at rest than fat.

Regular exercise and sport is very important: it is one of the two components of the energy balance equation (calories ingested - calories expended). Regular physical activity must be part of your diet if you want to lose weight, lose weight and tone your body.

The elliptical machine offers a very effective workout to burn calories (300 to 700 kcal per hour) and fat because it allows you to vary between cardio exercises (in an aerobic zone) and HIIT workouts (in an anaerobic zone) to burn belly fat more quickly. The elliptical bike also has many benefits on your body, works most muscles, tones legs, thighs, buttocks but also arms, stomach and pectoral muscles, and also has surprising effects on your brain, such as reducing stress, one of the factors that can promote the accumulation of visceral fat.

Nevertheless, there is good news: belly fat is the easiest fat to burn, unlike subcutaneous fat which is more difficult to remove. Riding an elliptical bike is a very effective way to get rid of belly fat and prevent it from coming back. But to do this, you need to work out regularly, that is, at least once a week, ideally 2 to 3 times for 45 minutes. The ideal is to combine regular training, alternating between cardio and HIIT workouts, with a healthy and balanced diet to eliminate visceral fat. If you do this, you will lose weight and burn fat on stomach!

Is the elliptical or the treadmill better for burning belly fat? Both fitness machines offer a cardio workout and allow you to exercise in the aerobic zone (70-80% of your maximum heart rate), in which you burn stored fat, and are therefore very good for weight loss on stomach. However, it is much easier to do interval workouts (HIIT) on the elliptical machine, like on the stationary bike, than running on the treadmill. For that reason, we would rather recommend the elliptical bike or the exercise bike if your goal is to lose belly fat.

The most effective way to lose belly fat is to have a healthy lifestyle that combines regular exercise and a balanced diet. This is how you can get rid of stomach fat effectively and permanently!

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4. Which elliptical cross trainer workouts to get rid of belly fat?

Our advice: Alternate cardio training with interval training (HIIT). This is the most effective way to reduce tummy fat. Here are 2 training programs you can follow: the first to lose 0.5 kg in one month and the second a little more demanding to lose 1 kg in one month. You can start with the first one for 4 to 6 weeks and then move on to the second.

Clara Miller, Fitness Writer
Clara Miller has a Master's degree in Sports Science and Sports Management and has worked for famous sports and fitness brands. She is passionate about sports and regularly writes about fitness, weight loss and motivation for various blogs and magazines.