Have you looked down recently and saw that your belly had gotten a bit bigger and firmer? If you are a frequent drinker of alcoholic beverages, then what you are seeing is called a beer belly.
The beer belly or the beer gut appears on most beer lovers. It is characterized by a protruding stomach that often feels hard or firm.
Although having a bit of belly fat is normal, having it protrude may be a cause for concern. A study printed in the British Medical Journal found that as the waist size increases, the risks of mortality do so as well. This is because excess belly fat is linked to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes.
In order to get rid of the beer belly properly, people must first understand how it develops.
What Causes Beer Belly?
Everything we eat contains calories. Calories are a measurement of the energy we get from the food we consume.
Throughout the day, the calories you consume get used up as fuel for your day-to-day work and activities, and any excess energy gets deposited into your stomach, waist, and other parts of your body. That excess energy deposit is what you will see as belly fat.
Generally, men need to consume 2,500 calories each day to function normally and healthily. Consuming alcohol helps you quickly reach and go beyond that average since a can of beer has an average of 150 calories.
Paired with a lack of physical activity, an unhealthy diet, and lack of sleep, alcohol consumption can lead to rapid weight gain. By making healthier lifestyle choices, you can quickly reduce your belly fat. One of these healthy choices is by engaging in physical activity.
5 Exercises To Get Rid Of Beer Belly
Exercise and physical activity are great ways of getting rid of your belly fat. They use up the calories you consume instead of allowing your body to store them in your stomach. However, you have to understand that churning out hundreds of sit-ups and crunches will not help you because you cannot target the fat on a specific body part.
Abdominal exercises are beneficial for you, but their purpose is often misunderstood. Abdominal exercises strengthen and condition your abdominal muscles — also known as your core. Ab exercises may get you strong, toned abs, but they will not affect the layer of fat covering your muscles.
The best and only way to reduce belly fat is to reduce the fat all over your body. You will need to work as many muscles as possible and get your heart pumping to boost your metabolism and, as a result, burn your beer gut.
The following exercises will help you do just that.
1. Jogging and Running
Walking on its own is a great exercise for weight loss, but jogging and running can be even better. Unsurprisingly, jogging and running burn more calories than walking. Every 30 minutes, jogging burns 298 calories, and running consumes 372 calories.
Studies have also shown that both physical activities burn visceral fat. Visceral fat, compared to subcutaneous fat found under your skin, is a type of fat that covers internal organs. Visceral fat contributes the most to chronic diseases such as diabetes.
What puts jogging and running at the top of the list is that they are easy to do anywhere. There is no equipment required to begin jogging and running, so you can easily add it to your routine.
2. Sprinting
Sprinting is a different form of running, where you run as fast as you can for a set distance. Doing intense, short bursts of sprints and other physical activities with rest periods in between falls under interval training.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) with exercises such as sprints usually lasts 10 to 30 minutes and is highly effective in burning calories. A study found that HIIT burned around 30% more calories per minute compared to other exercises.
You can incorporate sprints during your jogs by running as hard as you can for 30 seconds, then jogging for 1 to 2 minutes. You can repeat this pattern for 10 minutes, gradually building up to 30 minutes.
3. Cycling
Cycling is a great exercise that you can easily add to your routine. By choosing to add cycling to your daily commute, you can harvest impressive benefits.
Harvard Health estimates that a 70 kg person burns 298 calories every 30 minutes of cycling. Studies have also found that cycling increases overall fitness and puts people at a lower risk of heart disease and even death.
4. Weight Training
Weight training is the go-to of men, but it is not limited to bodybuilders and powerlifters. What most people do not know is that weightlifting also helps you lose weight.
According to Harvard Health, a man that weighs 70 kg burns around 112 calories every half hour they spend weight training. Not only that, weight training can help you build muscle strength and spur muscle growth.
This is an important piece of information because bigger, more developed muscles can raise the number of calories you burn at rest — also called the resting metabolic rate. A study showed that 11 minutes of strength-based workout thrice a week can increase a person’s resting metabolic rate by about 7.4%.
5. Swimming
Physical activity does not have to be boring and stressful. If you want to have fun while you burn calories, then swimming is a good option for you.
Swimming is also a good option for people that experience joint pain since swimming is a low-impact exercise. As such, it is easier on the joints and has a low risk of causing injury.
Harvard Health approximates that a 70 kg person can burn 233 calories every thirty minutes of swimming. You can increase the number of calories you burn by changing how you swim.
Every thirty minutes of doing backstrokes burn 298 calories, and doing breaststrokes can burn around 372 calories. Even by just treading the water, you can burn 372 calories every half hour.
Conclusion
Getting rid of your beer gut is no easy task. However, making the right lifestyle choices and getting more physical activity can quickly reduce your beer belly. Now, equipped with the knowledge of the best exercises to reduce belly fat, you can do so more effectively and in less time.
