Belly fat is a trouble spot for lots of women. And it's not just for aesthetic reasons; belly fat, or visceral fat, is the one that surrounds your organs and is the most dangerous for overall health. To get rid of it, many people turn to quick fixes such as juice cleanses and endless crunches. Turns out, getting rid of belly fat is complicated and can't be done with exercise alone.
You can't spot-reduce body fat, so doing a thousand crunches a day won't guarantee that you'll lose the fat from your midsection. Although exercise can help you tone and build muscle, it won't get rid of the fat from a specific body part. To burn fat, you have to lose weight all over by burning more calories than you take in — this is achieved by eating in a calorie deficit and exercising, preferably with HIIT, which burns more calories, targets belly fat, and helps you achieve the afterburn effect.
Luckily, you can rev up calorie burn with certain workouts and tone your ab muscles with specific exercises. Here are some of the best HIIT workouts to torch calories and ab-focused strength moves to help you flatten your belly once and for all.
Be prepared to sweat with this killer treadmill workout, designed by the mastermind behind Equinox's Precision Running! You can tailor it to fit whatever level of fitness you're currently at by modifying the speeds however you see fit. Keep in mind the whole workout is intervals, so pace yourself in the beginning so you don't burn out too quickly.
After a quick warmup, this 20-minute workout focuses on cardio moves that will strengthen your legs, but we threw in a couple of core moves for good measure. Illustrated with GIFs, this workout is easy to follow and fun to do. Get ready to sweat!
Tabata is a form of HIIT that alternates between 20 seconds of intense bursts of work and 10 seconds of rest in four-minute rounds. This 30-minute video, which treats you to a few rounds of Tabata along with a warmup and cooldown, hits every muscle while burning serious calories.
This is a Tabata workout, which is a form of HIIT, and it's proven to help diminish belly fat better than steady-state cardio. Each four-minute section of this workout involves eight rounds of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. What makes this workout so intense is that it's long: 45 minutes total!
Equipment needed: jump rope (or just pretend!) and a set of medium-weight dumbbells
If running isn't helping you lose weight, do this 30-minute HIIT workout instead. It involves alternating between burpees and classic strength-training moves like kettlebell swings.
You'll get it all in this one workout: HIIT cardio and strength training. Just grab a jump rope; the rest is done with your bodyweight. If you're skeptical about using a jump rope to get in a good workout, just trust us. You'll sweat your butt off.
This HIIT workout uses only five exercises, but there are burpees involved. Your body will thank you later. Your whole body will be worked from head to toe, so expect to give it everything you've got.
Corey Calliet, Michael B. Jordan's trainer who appeared on Revenge Body, gave us an exclusive HIIT workout he does with his clients. All you need is a box or platform to do your box jumps and the rest is bodyweight movement.
This classic Pilates move strengthens your obliques, core, and legs, while stretching your hips away from your ribs.
Twisting in a plank position fires up the core and works those love handles.
Use five- to eight-pound dumbbells.
See the quadruped in action here.
Make sure the ball is sized to your body; you should be able to sit on the ball with 90-degree angles at your hips and knees.
Follow our step-by-step tutorial of the windmill to learn the subtleties of the exercise. Don't worry if you don't have kettlebells — you can use dumbbells, too.