Does HIIT burn belly fat?

High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is the darling of the world of training. It's easy to understand why: it's fast by definition, usually does not last more than 30 minutes; easily done with body weight movements and ready for workout at home; and it's crazy effective at burning calories and getting you in shape.

If your goal is to lose belly fat, hearing all the hype about HIIT can cause you to wonder if it's a good option to target the fat around your abdomen. The answer? Although you can not see the fat reduction anywhere else on your body, you can certainly reduce overall body fat through workouts, and our experts have agreed that HIIT is one of the most effective ways to do this.

"Reducing belly fat means burning as many calories as possible through exercise," said exercise physiologist and personal trainer Tom Holland, MS, NSCA-CSCS, ACSM. When you do HIIT, "the idea is that you're pushing your cardiovascular system and your metabolic system to a much higher rate than you normally would," explained Michael Fredericson, MD, professor and director of physical and sports medicine at Stanford University. This gives you a number of benefits of weight loss.

You burn calories after your workout

The high intensity of a HIIT workout means that you burn a significant number of calories during your workout – but both experts agreed that calorie consumption also continued after workout, thanks to the consumption of 39, oxygen after exercise (EPOC). This is the phenomenon that occurs when your body regains a normal metabolic rate after a workout. To do this, your body absorbs more oxygen than it would usually do while you are at rest; To treat this excess of oxygen, your body needs to burn more calories even when you have stopped exercising.

HIIT workouts "are like a switch," Fredericson told POPSUGAR. "They really activate your metabolic system, it has a very high rate of treatment, and it takes a while for it to calm down." According to the American Council on Exercise, HIIT is the most effective way to achieve this post-combustion effect, which, according to Fredericson, can last up to six hours.

HIIT specifically targets belly fat

Beyond this overall effect of fat burning, Holland told POPSUGAR that some evidence suggested that HIIT could reduce abdominal fat in particular. A meta-analysis conducted in 2018 by French researchers showed that "the IHIT significantly reduced total fat, abdominal and visceral fat" (the fat stored around the abdominal organs), thus confirming the findings of a Smaller Italian study conducted in 2016 according to which State sessions were the most effective in reducing fat around the waist.

How often should you do HIIT to burn belly fat?

These kinds of benefits may make you want to get started on a HIIT diet six days a week, but Fredericson and Holland have both warned of the risk of doing too much, too fast. "If you've never tried HIIT, sit in and see what your body can stand because I've already seen people get hurt," Fredericson said. Once you have gained a solid foundation in fitness, he recommended you do up to two or three HIIT workouts a week, lasting 20 to 30 minutes each. Try this 20 minute beginner HIIT workout session to get started.

During your workout, you can maximize the burning of your belly by "pushing hard for a short time, then recovering at a very comfortable intensity," Holland said, just like the difference between sprint and jogging. He suggested beginners to start with a 1: 3 work / rest ratio, performing 10 seconds of difficult interval followed by 30 seconds of recovery. Once you are more advanced, you can switch to a ratio of 1: 2 or 1: 1. Fredericson said that during hard times, you should be out of breath and have trouble holding a conversation.

The diet will still play an important role with regards to belly fat, but it's also crucial to burn calories through regular physical exercise, Holland said. Effective and efficient, HIIT is likely to give you good results. Fredericson added that when he was associated with dietary changes, he was just starting to lose fat. Ready to start? This 20-minute HIIT circuit is designed to help you burn calories and burn belly fat.