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8 Ways to Reduce Your Belly Fat

By Paige Waehner, About.com

Updated December 19, 2008

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Interval Training to Reduce Belly Fat

Interval training is great for burning calories and building endurance, but it's also a great way to target more abdominal fat. In one study, researchers compared interval workouts with steady state exercise and found that exercisers lost more abdominal fat when doing interval training. That doesn't mean that steady state exercise isn't important or that you have to do interval training all the time. However, adding intervals to your routine will not only give you better results, it will also help you push your limits and keep your workouts a little more exciting.

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Try these ideas for adding intervals to your routine:

  • During your regular workout, add 3 to 5 short bursts of high intensity exercise. Work as hard as you can for as long as you can (around 30 or more seconds), slow down and completely recover before going into the next interval.

  • Create a walk/run interval workout. Alternate 1 minute of walking with 30 seconds of sprinting or hill climbs. Repeat for 20 or more minutes.

  • Try Cardio Coach Workouts or other MP3 interval workouts. The Cardio Coach series is just one option for using your MP3 player for interval workouts. You can also try NextFitness for more workout options.

  • Choose from these interval workouts:

If you're doing high intensity interval training, meaning you're working at level 8 to 9 on the perceived exertion scale, experts recommend keeping your sessions to about two a week to avoid overtraining or injury. As you build endurance and strength, you may be able to add more interval training to your workout routine.

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