The weight loss industry is filled with many myths and false promises. One of the most popular myths involves the mis-use of the abdominal region to accomplish weight loss. Ab exercises alone will do nothing for your weight loss goals. You need to include variety in your work-outs if you expect to see significant results.
A very popular myth believed my many,
is that crunches and abdominal exercises are enough to help you lose weight.
That statement is absolutely false and can actually hurt your weight loss goals. Unfortunately there is much more that you need to consider when starting a weight loss.
Believe it or not ab exercises are only a piece of the puzzle, and a small piece at that.
Let's analyze the criteria that is used to create a successful weight loss plan.
The first thing you need to consider, is the amount of energy you are consuming and how much energy you actually need.
To put it in simple terms, calories consumed need to be less than calories expended.
You also need to keep track of the source of your diet. For example are you eating good calories, or are your calories mainly coming from junk food.
You will want to avoid empty calories at all costs, they will only slow down your efforts.
The last piece of the puzzle is obviously going to be your exercise plan. While it is possible to lose weight with no exercise plan in place, it is not recommended.
Exercising is not only good for weight loss, but also provides a heap of health benefits if performed regularly.
The above is a generalization of factors that need to be considered when starting a weight loss plan.
They are to be implemented as a whole, in order to achieve maximum results.
As you can see, weight loss is much more than finding the right ab exercise. In fact when even when it comes to setting up an exercise regimen, the abdominals are not a primary region of focus.
In other words, ab exercises simply do not burn off enough calories to be considered a fat burning exercise.
When doing crunches, sit-ups and other abdominal work-outs, the main focus is to tone the abs.
Your exercise plan should consist of a strenth training which is where working out the abdominals kicks in.
Keep in mind that you will need to allow your abdominals rest time. It does not make sense to work the abdominals every day. They are a muscle, and like every muscle, they too need their rest.
A good rule of thumb is to work out the abs at least twice a week.
As you can see, weight loss is much more than just abdominal exercises. You will need include variety in your diet and exercise plan as well.
