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Let’s speak about something that is incredibly aggravating, yet also very practical. Losing belly fat may be one of the most difficult fitness objectives for people over 50. This is due to hormonal changes like a decrease in estrogen, testosterone, or growth hormone as you become older. Furthermore, if you don’t act quickly, your metabolism will slow down, and you will lose lean muscle mass. Many people grow older and become more sedentary as a result of fewer obligations or failing to keep healthy habits. If you are in this age group and would like to reduce abdominal fat, we’ve got some useful advice and techniques to get you started right away.
The first thing to remember is that you must focus on three key areas: being on a healthy diet while losing weight, strength training on a regular basis, and getting aerobic exercise. Your abdominal fat will shrink when you do these activities on a daily basis, allowing you to achieve your fitness objectives. However, if you’re already eating properly, exercising regularly, and still not seeing results, you might be committing some common fitness blunders.
Don’t worry, as we’ll address these exercise blunders in this post, as well as how to correct them. Continue reading to discover more.
1 — You’re not putting effort into your strength training.
Although cardio is crucial for your heart’s health, physical fitness, and calorie burning, it should not be the only type of exercise you pursue. To lose belly fat and get into shape, you must include strength training in your routine. Strength training develops muscle, increases metabolism, and tones your body faster than simply doing cardio. Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is increased by strength training—it’s the body’s after-burn effect of needing more oxygen to return to normal. This will result in your body burning extra calories.
2 — You’re only doing steady-state exercise and not including any interval work.
You should, in addition, vary your cardio sessions. It’s critical to do at least 30 minutes of consistent steady-state activity on a daily basis. However, you should also include intervals or go at a greater intensity on occasion.
If you repeat the same cardio workout at the same intensity and duration all of the time, your body will adapt to it. This will result in less calorie expenditure over time, making your fat loss effort more difficult. Not only that, but as you age, anaerobic capacity and performance degrade, so adding intervals to your workout is a good idea.
If you do two to three sessions of steady-state cardio each week, replace one of them with a 15- to 20-minute high-intensity interval training session.
3 — You are not strength training correctly
If you’re already strength training, fantastic! Just make certain you’re using the proper exercises and sets/reps.
When it comes to choosing exercises, most of your workouts should include compound activities. These activate more muscle fibers and allow you to burn even more calories than isolated-joint movements like triceps, curls, and lateral raises. Make sure you add squat variations, hinge movements, presses, and pulls into your routine.
A popular fitness misconception is that lifting heavy boosts muscle growth and, as a result, that you must change to higher rep training to tone the muscle and lose fat. To the contrary, depending on your exercise regimen, you’ll need a combination of both lower and greater repetitions. Choose a weight that will be difficult throughout the entire set regardless of how many reps you do.
