Weight Loss: Losing Stomach Fat At The Gym

Consistency is the key to losing stomach fat at the gym

Woody Allen once said "80% of success is just turning up" and there's a lot of truth in that statement. Losing stomach fat and successfully keeping it off permanently isn't about any diet or weight reducing supplement. The only thing that will work for you long term is consistent good nutrition and exercise.

Burn more calories than you consume

To lose weight or more importantly, fat from your body you must burn more calories than you consume. That's a fact, a physical law of the universe that states that all energy will be conserved either as heat or mass. The mass in this case is the fat that clings unattractively to your body, mostly around the stomach area.

Your goal is then to convert your fat reserves of energy into heat by work or exercise. Working your body requires energy, which can come either from the calories in the food you eat, or from the reserves in your body tissue, whichever is the easiest for your body to convert or burn. The calories that you consumed recently will be burned first and then your body starts to convert body tissue.

Good nutrition will help with any weight loss exercise program. You can get a taste of how small changes in your food can make a big difference in this article: Food That Help You Lose Weight.

How quickly will you get rid of stomach fat?

A very rough rule of thumb states that to burn off 1 pound of fat you need to do 3500 calories worth of exercise. Remember that your fat reserves will only be burned off once you've used up the calories in the food you just ate. If you're weight was stable, neither increasing nor decreasing before you started going to the gym then you know that all the extra exercise you do is going to help you burning stomach fat.

How much exercise you do at the gym will vary of course and the calorie counters on the fitness exercise machines aren't as accurate as you might think but they will give you a rough idea of how many calories you are burning. Very roughly speaking you might burn off 10 calories per minute jogging on a treadmill so if you do a mixed routine of machines and perhaps some weights or maybe a class then 500 calories a session is very achievable.

You can't lose stomach fat fast and hope to keep it off permanently

But you're thinking that 500 calories a session isn't going to lose stomach fat fast if it takes 3500 calories to lose a pound of fat and you're right. This is why most people fail to lose weight by going to the gym. They fail to realize that losing stomach fat requires consistency so they work out a few times a week for a couple of weeks and see no improvement so they give up.

500 calories a day is a pound of fat in a week if you go to the gym every day. Losing a pound of fat a week is a very safe and healthy way to lose weight and you should find that it isn't difficult to keep it off in the long term.

If you're too busy to go every day like me then 3 to 4 sessions a week is a good target to aim for. This should allow you to lose a pound of fat every 2 weeks, which is a great long-term weight loss plan.

Turning up consistently to do regular exercise whether it's at the gym, the swimming pool, at work or just walking your dog is the key to losing stomach fat.