Are you over 40? Do you want to lose belly fat? You'll often get the advice to do crunches and other exercises aiming at the abdominal muscles.
At first sight, that's logical. You're exercising a body part, so the fat on this body part is getting less. But the way we are burning fat does not work like that.
It is not possible to burn fat in just one part of your body. Where you will increase weight and where you lose it depends on your constitution, it s in the genes. Over 40 this genetic program is getting stronger and stronger.
Often I hear people saying things like "I want to lose belly fat" but it is not possible to lose fat on a particular body part. But we can accomplish something much better: We can get an overall thin body.
Crunches are great to tone up the core muscles around your belly. To get a nicely formed physique, many exercises for the ab muscles will assist you accomplish that. You might consider doing physical exercises for the back in addition, so front and back of your midsection are becoming strong. This will improve posture and prevent lower back pain. For many over 40 back pain is quite usual- our inactive life style contributes to that greatly.
Crunches are- comparably- a waste of time when it comes to losing weight. The belly muscles are comparatively small, so if you spend 15 minutes on crunches you burn much fewer calories as if you'd spend 15 minutes working on your leg muscles. In the same amount of time, you leg muscles will burn more calories.
If you consider doing crunches, do it for the right reason: To strengthen your midsection. If you want to lose weight permanently, better work out the bigger muscles on your body.