A few posts with mentions of 'belly fat' and 'belly wobbles' etc..,
Ok let do some science (yay!). Two main types of fat - visceral and subcutaneous. Visceral sits around organs and protects them and this includes your intestines and hence your belly. Subcutaneous is under your skin and your gender and genes dicate where it ends up such as on your thighs. Girlies also have boobage.
With excess fat it becomes an organ in its own right. And not all fat is the same its only in its pure form in the liver the other stuff such as visceral fat, well it secretes stuff some of which is harmful or creates problems including diabetes/heart probs hence why for example bellies are a measure for poss diabates. Men tend to hav more visceral fat but women develop it more post menapause. Other factors that lead to visceral fat include inactivity, stress and lackof sleep.
Oh and of course your body processes fat differently when you drink alcohol. It sorta stops processing fat at this stage so if you drink a lot of booze on a diet its counterproductive for reasons beyond pure calories.
So when drawing up your battle plans for belly fat you need a more holistic approach.
- Relax maybe a guided meditation tape - its that naughty hormone cortisol it signals fat to be stored viscarelly and we produce it when stressed INCLUDING when you strain and stress when exercising! You can now get mouthguards which stop you clenching your jaw when exercising to stop this, but are expensive from Under Armour
Excercise - plenty aerobic and anerobic stuff. Studies show visceral fat goes with exercise and diet, but less so with just diet. High intesnity internval type excercise is also very effective (this is working in your upper reaches such as 90% of max for a short period of time). Visceral fat is the first to get burned and so your belly will hopefully lose this element and you will just have a residual subcutaneous bit to then work on.
The belly muscles are quite thin and while you can work them they wont burn many calories. 1000 sit ups wont burn as many cals as 100 squats with a kb. Doing the squats burns the fat, doing the sit ups tightens the muscle you wont notice under fat...you need to work big muscles first and save a bit for specific abs work
Best exercises for toning your abs?
Wipers (weighted)
Bicycle crunches
Captains chair (you'll need a pull up bar or dips frame)
Vertical leg crunch
Plank on eblows (or stright arm or plank with elevated feet)
mountain climbers
side plank (or side plank with crucnh or side plant with leg lift)
Good luck with your belly war