One thing that can be said about the workout is that it takes time to show results. However, if you do suffer from joint issues or are overweight, you would find it rather difficult to lose that belly fat as fast as someone that doesn’t ail with these issues. You could neither work long on your treadmill nor on your cycle. So, how would you focus on a fulfilling exercise session?
Well, the key is to opt for an elliptical. Now, could an elliptical actually help you burn that belly fat? This blog will learn does the elliptical work your stomach or it’s just another drum roll you hear before a flop film.
So, without further ado, let us get into the blog and decide whether this machine is right for you or just an elaborate sham!
Make sure along with elliptical; you also get the best shoes for elliptical; a good pair of shoes keeps you comfortable during the exercise, saves you from foot injuries, and protects joints from jerks and impact.
Understanding Belly Fat: The Key to Faster Weight Loss
Belly fat isn’t just an aesthetic issue but also a health problem that can impact your body & enhance the risks related to cardiovascular diseases.
Now, there are two main variants of belly fat for you to distinguish between:
Subcutaneous Fat
This fat is located just below your skin, and you can easily feel the same by pinching the skin present on your thighs or stomach. Also, love handles can be termed as subcutaneous fat, which is located just above your hips.
Visceral Fat or Deep Fat
It is commonly known as abdominal fat, an accumulation of fatty tissue or fat at the skin’s deeper levels. This would include places in and around the organs such as the liver, kidneys, abdomen, pancreas, or intestines. This type of fat is not soft as the subcutaneous fat and can’t be pinched as well.
Keep in mind that visceral fat is dangerous to health and increases your potential to be affected by various health issues such as heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension, etc.
We call ellipticals whole body workout machines, does elliptical burn thigh fat? Stay sure, along with burning belly fat; it is also effective to burn thigh fat.
Burning Calories and Belly Fat: The Elliptical Story
Here is how an elliptical machine benefits you:
1. Boost in Cardio Capacity and Stamina
Cardio or aerobic exercises are important if you plan on investing in a well-balanced exercising routine. Whenever you partake in an aerobic exercise, you make your lungs and heart work harder to provide the muscles with a higher amount of oxygen and blood.
With an elliptical machine, you get access to a great aerobic workout session that helps strengthen your lungs, heart, as well as muscles.
This further helps you build optimum endurance and stamina. This machine allows you to invest in stead-type cardio workouts as well as high-intensity-based interval training.
2. Maximum Calorie Burned
If you need a machine that helps you crush those calories in a shorter time frame, you can get on your elliptical. An elliptical can help you burn down about 270-400 calories within 30 minutes, depending on your weight.
For example, if you weigh about 125 pounds, you can lose 270 calories, and if you weigh higher, like 185 pounds, you can lose up to 400 calories. The higher your calories burned, the more you bring that weight down.
3. Minimal Stress on the Joints
When the market experienced the inflow of elliptical for the very first time, people suffering from achy joints & overuse injuries had a sigh of relief. With an elliptical, they got a chance to train and lose weight with cardiovascular exercises that also take off the pressure on joints.
Your ankles, knees, hips, & similar joints tend to take a massive beating after you run or opt for a high-impact cardiovascular exercise. Given the fact that your feet don’t have to be lifted off from the pedals when using the elliptical, it can help you indulge in a cardio workout of low-impact design.
Elliptical can massively reduce strain on the joints as compared to jogging, running, or similar workouts.
4. Focus on Lower and Upper Body Workout
With treadmills and cycles, your body is focused just on the lower segment. This leads to improper exercising routines that might not help you lose that belly fat easily. To shed those pounds from your belly, you need to focus on machines that provide you both lower and upper body workouts.
Using an elliptical helps you focus on cardio exercises that target both the upper & lower body and helps you remove that belly fat faster.
Using an elliptical, you can target the hamstrings, chest, glutes, quads, back, triceps, biceps, as well as core muscles.
5. Burn the Body Fat
Given that the elliptical possesses the capability for high caloric burn down, it can aid you in both losing the body fat and toning the muscles. All this is possible in a short span of time; this is especially true in the case of interval work.
In order to maximize fat burnout, you have to focus completely on the workout intensity. Try to implement interval training for your workout routines following the 2:1 ratio. This involves 30 seconds worth of high-intensity workouts, which is followed by a 15 seconds recovery time.
Next, opt for 60 seconds worth of high-intensity workout followed by a 30 seconds recovery time. However, keep in mind that you must not stop moving the legs while in the recovery period mid-exercise. Make sure you continue moving the pedals. However, this should be done at a fairly slow pace.
6. Target Your Leg Muscles
- Elliptical allows you to target different types of muscles in your legs as opposed to focusing on just one muscle body, as seen with normal exercising machines.
- You can change the incline and resistance on the machine’s foot pedals to target different types of muscles such as glutes, calves, quads, or hamstrings.
- When you increase the incline of the elliptical, you can feel the lower body’s backside burning as the fat content is reduced. You can even adjust the foot pedals at a lower angle to feel some burn in your quads.
- Not just that, you can even move in reverse with the pedals to focus completely on the glutes and hamstrings.
7. Improved Balance
While weight-bearing exercises can aid in the strengthening of the bones, they can further aid in balance improvement. If you plan on using the elliptical to burn down belly fat, you can use the balancing technique for the same. To do this, you need to stand up in a straight pattern & leave the handles of the machine.
This allows you to target the core muscles while working on balance. However, you need to make sure that the inclination and resistance are set at a level that is manageable.
This would ensure that you do not fall off when using the machine. Additionally, when using this trick for the very first time, you need to make sure that there is a trainer by your side to help you out.
8. Maintain Fitness Post Injury
You can also bulk up after facing an injury or accident that bars you from partaking in heavy exercises. The first place you will see fat depositing is in your belly, and that sure is the last place to shed. With an injury, you might not be able to participate in heavy exercises, but the best way to lose weight from your belly without worsening your injuries is to invest in an elliptical.
Since elliptical gives you access to low-impact exercises, it doesn’t stress your joints as much as high-impact workout such as jogging, running, or jumping does.
A slow workout on your elliptical will help you regain complete motion range while strengthening the joints and muscles. It also helps take off the stress from the injured body part.
9. Multiple Exercising Options
Elliptical can come with a range of pre-programmed routines that tend to mimic belly-fat burning exercises such as interval training, hill climbing, as well as similar customizable options. This will also help you achieve a specific and targeted workout, especially when you have been planning to lose that stubborn belly fat.
10. Quick to Learn
The best thing about elliptical is the fact that it is easy to learn in a short span of time. Even though it has an easy learning curve, you would be better off asking for the guidance of a reliable personal trainer.
These professionals can provide you tips related to the correct use of the machine & the workout type that adheres to your long-term fitness goals, which in this case is burning down the belly fat.
Let's Conclude - does the elliptical work your stomach?
When in need of losing belly fat in a non-traditional way, the key is to exercise on an elliptical at least 2-3 times/week for a duration of 30-45 minutes. Exercising regularly doesn’t just help reduce the fat and calories in your body and helps bring down the overall stress levels, which might be a major contributor to belly fat accumulation.
Make sure you do not dream of achieving a picture-perfect body within days. Set some realistic long-term as well as short-term goals without pressuring yourself. Remember, the goal is to stay healthy regardless of body aesthetics!
How to burn 500 calories on elliptical is a detailed elliptical weight loss guide that will lead you to step by step and take the start quickly. Visit o know more and to get your workout plan.