Sit ups or no?

Question

I just started to walk 2 miles a day, I need to loose the fat on my stomach and love handles. So I have heard doing sit ups won't burn the fat only build muscle, so do you think I should wait to start doing a lot of sit ups now or wait until my fat is mostly gone and then do it?

Answer 1

Just walk (and diet) for now. I'm assuming your primary goal is to lose weight, not gain muscle (unless you're also doing push-ups, chin-ups, bench-presses, etc.), so there's no reason to do sit-ups.
One of the worst things commercialism has done for society is to make people believe that you can "target" weight loss, like those ab machines they sell on TV where they imply that you will lose fat from your tummy.
Truth is, you lose fat equally from all parts of your body no matter what "area" you're targeting. For Example, if you have flabby arms, you can do a stationary bicycle where your legs are pumping but your arms are completely still and you will still lose just as much weight in your arms as you would doing an "arm exercise".

To simplify it: Yes, sit-ups are for toning and muscle-building, not fat loss. Stick to the cardio work.

Answer 2

sit ups and other ab exercises will help burn fat. However, you can not see the muscles under a layer of fat. Exercise and diet will help lose weight. Muscles burn more calories than fat. You should use an exercise program to strengthen your muscles so you will increase your rate of fat lose. You can not spot reduce. It may seem that your fat is around your waist, but it is all over your body.

Answer 3

Sit ups can do both burn fat and make muscle!! Buy a yoga ball and use it to do your abs work you can put your back at different places in your back to work all your abs and not hurt your back as if you were in the floor.

You can start now, muscle and fat won't get rid of from one day to the other so you won't see much of a difference from one day to the next!!!

Good luck now!!

Answer 4

It will do both - help you to loose fat and help build muscle. Just remember there is no such thing as target weight loss. You cannot do specific exercises to loose weight in specific parts of your body, its a universal thing...so its all good for your whole body. The more exercising you do (up to a certain point of course) the faster you will loose fat, get more energy and improve how you feel.

Answer 5

you cant target where you want to lose weight from...you can tone your abs by doing situps, but it won't burn fat in that specific area...your body will burn fat from wherever it is genetically programmed to do so...so cardio is the best for fat burning! So keep on walking everyday, and do situps do tone.

Answer 6

Do situps. It's true that it builds muscle but thats only when you do so many. You burn a lot of calories around your stomach when you do sit ups.