Lose belly by exercising at home

To reduce your belly at home, you don’t need to buy a fitness mirror that costs thousands of dollars, you don’t need to do abdominal crunches for an hour every day, and you don’t need to be hungry to the point of dizziness. The core is the combination of "controllable calorie gap + low-burden core activation + daily posture adjustment". You can do it 3 days a week for 20 minutes each time. People with a waist circumference of less than 80 can basically stabilize their waist by 2-3 cm in 4 weeks. The effect will be more obvious for people with a high body fat rate.

To be honest, I was dubious about this before. It wasn’t until I was locked down at home for 3 months last year and saw the girl across the street from me slumping on the sofa every day, drinking Coke and eating potato chips, to practicing blindly by following the fragmented tutorials on the Internet, and lost 5 centimeters in waist circumference in two months. I finally figured out the secret behind this, and it was not as extreme as the online saying of either pure hunger or pure training.

In fact, the fitness circle has been arguing about this matter. One group firmly says that "there is no partial fat reduction." It is useless no matter how many abdominal crunches you do. You must rely on aerobics and controlled diet to reduce body fat, and your belly will naturally be flat.； The other group believes that "visually thin is also thin." As long as the core muscles are increased and the transversus abdominis can be tightened, even if the body fat rate does not change, the belly will not be loose and protruding, and the waist will still appear slim when wearing clothes. I would say that there is nothing wrong with either of these views. It just depends on your own needs - if your body fat rate is not high, but you just sit for a long time and your stomach is loose and your pelvis is tilted forward, then you can focus on core exercises to adjust your posture. ； If you can pinch the meat around your belly button and it exceeds 2 centimeters, then it is right to put the calorie deficit on the agenda first.

When it comes to calorie deficit, you don’t need to count calories every meal until your hair falls out. My own lazy method is particularly easy to use: eat normally during the day, and replace half of the refined rice noodles with whole grains such as sweet potatoes and corn for the evening meal. Instead of drinking milk tea every day, replace it with sugar-free oolong tea or lemonade. It’s okay to drink one cup if you are craving for it. Do jumping jacks for 10 minutes more that day to create the extra calories. There is no need to feel guilty. Oh, by the way, don’t drink ice all the time, especially girls. People who drink ice for a long time will actively accumulate fat in the abdomen to protect the internal organs, which makes them prone to belly fat. My friend who is a doctor in the endocrinology department told me this, and it’s reliable.

The training part is more casual. There is no need to change into fitness clothes and lay out a yoga mat. You can do core activation while standing washing dishes, cooking snail noodles and waiting for the water to boil: suck in your belly until you can feel that the muscles on both sides of your waist are stiff, hold it for 10 seconds and relax for 2 seconds. Do five or six groups. The core activation time in a day will be more than if you do ineffective abdominal crunches for half an hour. If you have dedicated time to practice, novices should not just do 100 abdominal curls. I have done this before, and my neck was so sore the next day that I couldn't lift it up, and my stomach didn't respond. Later, I asked a friend who is a fitness instructor and found out that I only used my neck to exert force, and my core was not trained at all. Beginners should start with the Dead Bug Pose. You can do it while lying on the bed: lie flat on your back and bend your knees, raise your arms to the ceiling, and then slowly lower the opposite arm and leg down so that it does not touch the bed, and then bring it back. One set of 12 times, do 3 sets. It is very friendly to the waist, and people with bad lumbar spine can also do it. The same goes for plank support. Don't hold on for 1 minute. If your core is weak, your waist will collapse easily and your lumbar spine will be injured. Start with the kneeling position of the plank. Hold for 20 seconds and rest for 30 seconds each time. Do 5 groups. Just increase the time slowly. The effect is not bad at all.

Oh, by the way, there are many people whose bulging belly is not fat at all, but caused by anterior pelvic tilt. I used to feel that my waist was sore when I stood, and my lower abdomen was protruding forward. Even though I only weighed 90 pounds, my belly was still visible even if I wore a tight-fitting T-shirt. Later, I stood against the wall for 5 minutes every day before going to bed, with the back of my head, shoulders, butt, and heels all pressed against the wall. I kept my core standing. I adjusted it in two weeks, and my belly became visually smaller, which is more obvious than the effect I had after practicing for half a month. If you are not sure whether your pelvis is tilted forward, just stand against the wall. If you can fit more than a fist into the back of your waist, you will basically be safe. Adjust your posture first and then do abdominal exercises to get twice the result with half the effort.

There is another point that everyone is arguing about: Should I use a belly band to reduce my belly? Some people say that wearing it can remind you to tighten your core at all times, while others say that wearing it for a long time will make your core lazy and your muscle strength will decrease. My own experience is that novices can wear it occasionally when they first start practicing. For example, wear it for 1 hour when sitting for a long time at work to remind themselves not to slump. But don’t wear it for more than 3 hours a day, let alone sleeping. There will be no problem. If your core is already strong, there is no need to spend that money.

I practiced this way at home for two months during the lockdown last year. I didn’t go to the gym or go hungry. My waist size dropped from 74 to 68. I could fit a fist into the jeans that I couldn’t fit into before. Don't believe the nonsense on the Internet about "training to get your vest line in 7 days." Just follow this pace and measure your waist once a week. Don't stare at your belly every day, which makes you prone to anxiety. Maybe one day you dig out last year's old skirt and wear it, and suddenly find that your waist is a lot looser. That feeling of surprise is much more interesting than weighing yourself every day.