i’ve heard that to lose belly fat, you need to first do sit ups and stuff to get ab muscle, and then do cardio for the muscle to burn the fat. is that true? if not, what is? also, if i already have muscle under about 1/2 inch thick of belly fat, how many laps in the pool per day should i do to lose all the fat in a month? btw, i’m 13, and i am already doing 30 sit ups a day.
There is no question that having increased muscle mass (size) will aid in weight loss from fat. However, it IS a fallacy that you can spot reduce. If you do sit ups and you have a "hidden" six pack, any extra calories you use for exercise come from the fat uniformly distributed around your body. There are different types of fat found in different parts of your body that get used at different rates. However, exercising one area does not make that area (like the abs) decrease in fat before others.
In a high school pool, while swimming at the rate of two lengths every minute you use about 0.075 calories per minute per pound you weigh. So, a 150 pound person swimming for 10 minutes would use 150 x 0.077 x 10 = 115.5 calories.
To lose ONE POUND of fat, you must use 3500 calories MORE than you eat. So, at the rate I’ve described, you’d have to swim for FIVE HOURS to lose one pound of fat or 50 hours to lose 10 lbs of fat.
So, if you need to lose 10 pounds, that will take 50 hours of swimming at the rate of 50 yards every minute, a bit over 28 miles of swimming.
To do the same on a bicycle riding at the rate of 15.0 miles per hour, you’d need to ride 65 hours (or 975 miles) to lose 10 pounds (just about 1 pound for every 100 miles) .
To do the same jogging at 5 mph you’d need to jog for about 8 hours to lose one pound of fat or 80 hours to lose 10 pounds.
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