Though nothing can come close to running in nature while breathing fresh air at the same time, not everyone is lucky enough to manage that time or have that opportunity. For them, the best alternative is running on the treadmill.
If you give about thirty minutes a day on your treadmill for starting, you will see your belly fats burning very soon. And as you run on the treadmill for days, you will find it easier to run more kilometers at a faster pace.
Now if you are wondering why haven’t you lost those stubborn fats yet even though you have been using a treadmill for a while? Well, keep reading to know how to use a treadmill to reduce belly fat properly.
How does the treadmill burn your belly fat?
Before getting into how you can use the treadmill to cut off belly fat, let’s look at how it burns the fat. For sure running on the treadmill can be a great solution to your belly fat. The process is complex if you make it, and simple if you simply do the things you are supposed to do.
First, you need to know the proper way of maintaining a good diet. If you are on a clean diet already, you are prepared to lose your stubborn fat. The first and the only rule of burning fat according to me is to burn more calories than your intake in a day. And this is where using a treadmill is helpful.
Burning calories depend on your heart rate. As the heart is beating at a higher rate, your body is burning the stored fat in your body. The more you can keep your heart beating, the more fat will be burning. And with proper use of your treadmill, you can take that heart rate to a whole new level with practice and patience, and in the process, you wouldn’t even know when you have lost all that belly fat.
Tips on how to use a treadmill for reducing belly fat
Now that you have the basic idea about how the treadmill can help you lose that belly fat you are struggling with, let’s get started with how we can make the best out of the treadmill.
There are numerous ways of running styles and time duration, but I won’t be baffling you with all that unnecessary information, rather I will cut to the chase and focus on a few best exercises you can do on the treadmill to burn your belly fat. Let’s get started.
1. HIIT
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the name of this exercise. The name itself implies what kind of exercise it is going to be. Yes, it’s a combination of high-intensity running and rest which will be repeated several times.
It’s an amazing way of burning calories and decreasing body fat at the same time in a shorter period of time compared to other methods of walking.
The basic idea is that you will run rapidly for a short period of time, rest, and again repeat the whole process several times. And even after you are done with your high-intensity training, your body still burns calories as it metabolizes body fat to produce energy for the rest of the day.
To do high-intensity interval training on your treadmill, you first need to warm up. Keep the treadmill flat and walk at a moderate speed from 2-3 km/H for a few about five minutes.
After ensuring that you have properly warmed up, you should start your HIIT. Set the speed to 9 or 10 Km/h and run for about 30 seconds. Then walk at 4 or 3 Km/h speed for 60 seconds. Again run at 9/10 km/h speed. Repeat the process 5 to 10 times. After that, walk at a very slow speed so that your body cools down.
If you find it easy to complete the whole process, you can increase the time duration of your high intensity running and increase the speed as well. And always keep the resting period double of the high-intensity training period.
2. Determine and run at fat burning heart rate
Many people often complain that they have been running on the treadmill for a long time, but they haven’t lost fat according to the time they have spent. This might happen, especially if you are not running at the heart rate you are supposed to run to burn fat.
You enter the fat-burning heart rate zone when your heart rate is more than a certain beat per minute. To determine that, there are various digital fitness devices available, but I will teach you an analog way to determine at which heart rate you should run to lose fat faster.
First of all, you need to know what your maximum heart rate is. It varies from person to person, you can easily calculate that by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate should be (220 – 30) = 190 beats per minute.
Now in general the fat-burning heart rate region is when you are running at 70% of the highest heart rate. Say if your heart beats 190 times per minute, (190 x 0.70) = 133 beats per minute.
So, if you are an average of 30 years old, you need to maintain a heart rate of 133 bpm to ensure you are burning fat. Now that you know the ideal heart rate to maintain, let’s see how you can use this information on the treadmill.
Before stepping on the treadmill, wear a branded fitness watch on your hand, or a heart rate monitoring device on your chest. Keep the treadmill flat and finish your warm-up first by walking at a slower speed.
Then press 2 in incline and jog for a minute at 4 km/h. Once you are closer to your fat-burning heart rate zone, run at a moderate speed which you should maintain for fifteen to thirty minutes. When you can’t continue anymore, jog for a minute at around 3 or 4 km/h speed. And finally, finish the session with a slow walk that will cool down your body.
For some people, the zone might be even less than 70 percent. They will be burning more fat with less running for sure, and you don’t need to give up seeing that. Keep up your good work and soon you will burn off that stubborn belly fat.
3. Always mix up your routine
You should never let your body get used to a running routine, so tweaking things up, increasing pace, and mileage is a great way to keep your belly fat burning. The change-up in routine not only keeps the fat burning process stable but also prevents boredom.
Sometimes we see great results as we start running on the treadmill. Fats burning by the day, and the overall weight starts decreasing. But after a while, all these stop, and we don’t see any further improvement. This is called a plateau in fat burning. When the old exercises which once were very effective, are not of much help now.
If you are at this stage, changing your running routine on the treadmill will make you lose fat again. On the other hand, repeating one exercise for a long period of time can sometimes be stressful as well. So changing things up also reduces the risk of injury.
4. Add incline running
Another most effective way to burn belly fat is running incline. Since you have access to a treadmill, you don’t need to search a hill to find a sloped track for running. You can simply press the incline button on your treadmill and start running.
Incline running will add diversity to your routine, and you will be burning more calories. While running on an incline, your body uses more muscles. And the more muscles used in a work, the more fat will be burned.
Like other routines, start by running on a flat treadmill for a couple of minutes at a slow speed to finish your warm-up. Then first set the incline to 2 and jog for a minute at the pace of 4 to 6 km/h.
Keep on increasing the incline every minute by 1 percent. Keep on repeating until you reach 8/10 percent. Then reverse the whole process and decline every minute until the treadmill goes back to being flat. Finish off your running with a slow walk on the flat treadmill.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does a treadmill help lose arm fat?
Though you can’t reduce fat from one specific body part. As the overall body fat percentage drops, fat from everywhere including your arm will drop as well.
2. How long should you run on a treadmill to lose those stubborn belly fats?
This depends on person to person. But you should spend at least 30 minutes on your treadmill to see results faster.
3. How much weight can you lose on a treadmill in a week?
Given that you maintain a healthy diet, you can lose up to 2 pounds a week by running on a treadmill.
4. Do I need to wear different shoes on the treadmill?
Well, you don’t. Just make sure the shoe you are wearing is comfortable enough to run and has a good grip.
5. Is running on a treadmill bad for seniors?
Absolutely not, if they are on a good diet, having no prior health issues such as bad knees, and taking adequate rest.
Conclusion
Using a treadmill is a great habit that you can include in your daily routine. Especially if you are struggling with unwanted belly fat. Now that you know how to use treadmill to lose belly fat, I hope you won’t just limit yourself with the treadmill. Go out there, do bodyweight training along with other forms of exercises as well.
