Sit-up and take notice!

An acquaintance of mine recently proclaimed that part of her new year’s resolution (...to be impossibly thin in an impossibly short period of time…) was taking to the floor each night to do fifty sit-ups. I asked if she was doing anything else, like walking or swimming. The answer was a flat ‘no’ as she gathered a large portion of her midsection between her thumb and forefinger and announced that ‘this was really where she needed to loose it’.

The aim of this post is to stop other people from making that same mistake. Please read up on exercise before you undertake it or talk to someone who is in the know. Go to your local Gym and talk to the staff or search the web for information – anything – but do not be lead astray by infomercials and the like that tell you that all you have to do is ‘5 minutes per day and you too could have the body of a supermodel’!

There is simply no such thing as spot reducing. Fat can only be removed from the body in more or less equal parts. If you lose 5 pounds those pounds will come from all over your body in small amounts (thighs, hips, bottom, arms, neck, face, etc.).

From reading up on this very topic, I have learned that the abdominal (ab) muscles are muscles just like any other. When you train a muscle it will become stronger & tighter – e.g. if you begin training your bicep muscles with light weight curls then your biceps will become stronger & tighter. Therefore, if you begin training your abdominal muscles with sit-ups (or any other type of abdominal exercise) then your abdominal muscles will become stronger & tighter.

However, your new stronger & tighter abdominal muscles will still be buried beneath layers of fat tissue so you won’t be able to see them. Your abdominals will never be noticeable until you burn away the fat that is covering them up. Making your abs stronger and tighter is not the same thing as burning away the fat tissue: which sits on top of your abs.

In a nutshell: When you see an overweight person they not only have fat on and around their midsection but on their face and neck too. So, when that person loses weight they’ll not only lose weight from their stomach and hips but their face and neck will also be noticeably slimmer.

This is true because fat tissue can only be burned from all over your body at the same time, in more or less equal amounts.

The two best and most tried, tested and successful methods of burning fat:
1) Eat properly; and
2) Do non-strenuous aerobic exercises.

Oink oink,
Kath