Reduce Visceral Fat at 50 and Get Your Belly in Shape With This Workout
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Got a beer belly? This 4-move workout is the best visceral fat reducer to get rid of your toxic belly fat after 50.
Belly fat isn’t just aesthetically annoying to carry around. It’s an obstinate health issue that puts you at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. For women, Harvard Health warns it’s even associated with breast cancer (1).
Belly fat, also known as visceral fat is even more dangerous after you hit 50. That’s because visceral fat isn’t like any other excess fat around your body like bat wings, double chin, or extra cellulite on the back of your legs.
Visceral fat is hidden deep under the un-harmful, pinch-able abdominal fat layer called subcutaneous fat. It’s stored inside an abdominal cavity close to the vital organs like the intestines, pancreas, and liver.
Dangers of Belly Fat
What’s more, visceral fat is metabolically active. It produces and releases toxic chemicals to the body, causing an array of metabolic disorders including high blood pressure and insulin resistance. (2, 3)
Having excess visceral fat in your belly can even lead to dementia, cancer, liver disease, asthma, and lower back pain (4).
A waist circumference of 35 inches or larger for a woman and 40 inches or larger for a man is considered a sign of excess visceral fat (5).
If your waistline is expanding, it’s also a sign too, according to Harvard Health.
As you get older, your natural decline in metabolism amongst other things can make it a bit harder to erase this stubborn belly fat.
If you’ve been struggling with excess belly fat, it’s time to banish it with this belly fat reducer workout.
It’s also important to clean up your eating and focus more on eating healthy whole foods that are rich in nutrients.
Ready to kickstart your belly fat workout? Grab a pair of dumbbells and get ready to develop lean muscles while burning fat like crazy.
Here is a 4-move belly fat reducer workout to get started.
1. Dumbbell Deadlift
Begin by standing upright with your feet hip-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand in an overhand grip, with your palms facing the front of your thighs.
Extend your arms, so the dumbbells rest on the front of your legs.
Use your lats to pull your shoulder blades down towards your back pockets. Inhale and brace your core to help you keep your low back in a straight line.
Keep a slight bend in your knees, bend at the waist, using a hip hinge to push your tailbone back, and slowly lower the dumbbells.
Continue to lower the dumbbells until you feel tightness and a slight stretch in your hamstrings.
At that point, squeeze your glutes and reverse the hip hinge pattern and lift your torso back into your starting position. That is one rep.
2. Dumbbell Walking Lunge
Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand. Tighten your buttocks, and step forward with one foot, adjusting your weight, so your heel hits first. Keep the other foot planted.
Bend your front leg until your thigh is parallel to the floor, knee bent to 90 degrees. Then, press into the front foot and drive back up to your standing position, bringing your back foot forward to the front foot.
Each “step” of your walk will be a lunge, alternating legs. Complete 10 to 12 steps on each side for a set.
3. Burpees
Begin in a standing position. Move to a squat with your hands on the ground.
Drop your whole body into a pushup position, fully extending your legs. (This is called a squat thrust.)
Complete a pushup
Bring your feet back to the squat position.
Stand and spring up with your hands over your head.
This is one rep. Complete 10-15 burpees or as many as you can in 30 seconds.
4. Bicycle Crunch
Lie flat on the floor with your lower back on the ground. Lift the shoulder blades off the ground.
Place your hands behind the back of your head, then left your knees up and hold at the 90-degree angle to our quads.
Straighten your right leg out to about a 45-degree angle to the ground while turning your upper body to the left, bringing your right elbow towards the left knee.
Make sure your rib cage is moving and not just your elbows.
Continue alternating by bringing the opposite knee to the opposite elbow. Aim for 15-20 repetitions per side.
Bonus: Treadmill Intervals
Love cardio? Hop on your treadmill and get ready for bursts of high-speed running! Start with bursts of 15-second sprinting. Follow that with a 30-second rest. Repeat 5-10 times.
