One of the most common questions found on exercise forums is "can abs exercises burn off fat?"
It's understandable why people ask the question - to get great looking abs, you need to both strengthen the muscles and remove fat. So is it possible to do both things at once?
Technically, the answer is yes - any exercise burns calories, and ultimately you have to burn calories to lose body fat. However, to all intents and purposes, the answer is no. This is because the quantity of abs exercise you would have to do to burn a significant amount of body fat is astronomical.
Additionally, there is no such thing as 'spot reduction'. Exercising the abs does not burn abdominal fat - your body burns fat as and where it chooses. Usually, the most recently added fat is burned first, while the areas where you first gained fat (usually the stomach for men, the butt and thighs for women) will be the last areas to lose fat.
In other words, while the correct abs exercises will strengthen your core muscles, using them to try and burn a significant quantity of fat is an incredibly inefficient way of burning body fat.
(Please continue to the next page to read about how to lose body fat)
