How to beat belly fat

I answered a question on a forum early today, and I wanted to share this with everyone here as well. A young man was asking what he should do to get rid of his belly fat. He has been running 5 days a week and had limited success. He feels his diet is pretty good.

Here is my answer:

There's nothing wrong with what you are doing...If you are losing weight. If not, you need to change you routine. It's simply a matter of calories in vs. calories expended.

Someone mentioned that you should up your intensity (run harder). That may be an answer, or it may not be worthwhile at all. Higher intensity efforts are great for conditioning. If you do a sport, you'll get a lot out of them. For fat loss, they have their place, but you are best served worrying about burning max calories.

However, this gets confusing, because burning calories occurs at two times: While you exercise and throughout the day. Right now, your running routine only helps burn calories while you run. But what about after?

That's one good reason to add weight training to your routine. You'll burn more calories all day long by adding muscle. About another 40-50 cals a day from adding a pound of muscle.

If your concern is only to burn calories while you run, you should try to be just below your anaerobic threshold. This will allow you to run for a while without completely gassing, but at a rate that is fast enough to really make you work and burn calories. Don't do this everyday though, you'll burn out.