Visceral fat: The best exercise to reduce belly fat – ‘significant visceral fat-mass loss’

Lorraine: Expert shares tips on losing belly fat

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Storing excess visceral body fat is associated with increased mortality risk. This is regardless of having a normal body weight and body mass index. Trainers have found that losing fat in specific parts of the body with “spot training” may be heard. However, research suggests that HIIT could be “a time-efficient strategy to improve body composition“.

A HIIT workout includes short bursts of intense physical work, followed by short periods of rest.

These types of workouts, being high in intensity, tend to be short in duration too.

This makes them a good option for people who are short of time when it comes to exercising.

HIIT is designed to keep the heart rate up and burn more fat in less time.

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An academic review published in Sports Medicine found that HIIT “significantly reduced” total, abdominal, and visceral fat mass.

The analysis was based on 617 subjects with a mean age of 38.8 years, of which 52 percent were females.

Researchers used body scans or magnetic resonance imaging to study changes in visceral fat concentration.

The research found no difference in how much visceral fat both sexes burnt through HIIT.

The study also found that a HIIT running session was more effective than a cycling one in reducing visceral fat mass.

Moreover, high-intensity training (above 90 percent peak heart rate) was “more successful in reducing whole-body adiposity”.

While lower intensities tended to target abdominal and visceral fat mass better.

HIIT training also helps burn more calories if compared to aerobic exercise.

However, waistline measuring could never reveal whether HIIT training is actually reducing visceral fat.

The only way to discover one’s own visceral fat is through imaging.

There is, however, a less invasive way to find out about markers of visceral adiposity.

Some routine tests could help find low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose, and high triglycerides, which are all associated with excess visceral fat.

Trying HIIT training could be easy and straightforward.

For a session, a timer and some strong motivation to go “all-out” are the only equipment needed.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, work intervals should range from five seconds to eight minutes, and be performed at 90 percent of the maximum heart rate.

As for total duration, it’s best to stick to short sessions.

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