How to lose belly fat with dance
5 Dance Moves to Help Burn Belly Fat and Get a Tight Tummy
Dance your way to a slimmer middle.
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Getting great abs doesn't have to involve the drudgery of crunches and planks. Channel your inner dancer to lose belly fat and reveal a toned tum.
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However, losing belly fat isn't just about looking good on the dance floor — it's a matter of health. Too much belly fat, especially the deep inner fat that widens your waistband, puts you at greater risk of chronic disease, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Don't fear, though. If you've got rhythm, you've got the tools to lose the extra pounds. Borrow moves from hip-hop, belly dancing and jazz to tone your muscles.
Get Your Groove on to Burn Fat
Belly fat shrinks in response to a more physically active lifestyle, and dancing is an effective way to move more — and enjoy it. Whether you shake it in Zumba or swivel your hips in your own living room, you're burning calories, which is key to losing belly fat.
While you can't target a specific area for fat loss, your belly is one of the places that shrinks first when you get moving, explains Rush University Medical Center. Movement helps boost your daily calorie burn, so you end up with a caloric deficit and your body has to dip into fat stores to provide energy.
Dancing is a fun way to burn calories. If you weigh 155 pounds and dance fast for 30 minutes, expect to burn 223 calories in 30 minutes, equal to a cross-country hike. Slower ballroom dance still sizzles 205 calories in 30 minutes and even a slow waltz fries 105 calories in the same amount of time — the amount you'd burn in a casual game of volleyball. People who weigh more burn a greater number of calories when dancing, too.
Read more: The Best Cardio Exercise to Lose Belly Fat
Tip
Watch portion sizes and the quality of your food choices to make sure you lose belly fat. Limit sugary sweets, including soda and refined grains.
Waist-Whittling Moves
After you've danced to burn calories, perform some concentrated skills to tone your abs and further dance away your flab.
Hip Circles
This belly dancing move targets your outer ab muscles — the obliques — and your glutes. Put on some swanky tunes to get you in the mood. The jazz hip roll is a similar movement.
Step 1: Take Your Stance
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Lift your arms slightly to the sides of your body.
Step 2: Start to Move
Shift your hips right and left to get them warm.
Step 3: Get Your Circle On
Move into a circular motion — move your hips right, back, left and front. Repeat in the opposite direction. Keep the move going for about 90 seconds.
Camel
Keep your belly dancing mojo moving with this move that targets the front of your abs, known as the rectus abdominis.
Step 1: Take Your Stance
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Press your chest forward as you arch your spine. Keep your shoulders retracted and your arms at your sides.
Step 2: Tuck Your Pelvis
Reverse the action by drawing your abs in, tucking your pelvis and allowing the shoulders to press forward.
Step 3: Keep the Ripple Moving
Continue to work the ripple for 60 to 90 seconds.
Hip-Hop Crunch
Switch the tunes to something with a pounding hip-hop beat to work your rectus abdominis with this standing crunch that masquerades as a cool dance move.
Step 1: Take Your Stance
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and place your hands behind your head.
Step 2: Crunch and Lift
Tighten your abs to your spine as you lift your right knee up to your chest. Simultaneously crunch your upper body toward the knee. Repeat with the opposite leg.
Step 3: Find Your Rhythm
Find a rhythm as you alternate the sides for one to two minutes.
Reach Down
Add this move to your hip-hop routine for serious oblique work.
Step 1: Take Your Stance
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, hands behind your head.
Step 2: Reach With Attitude
Free your right arm and reach down toward your outer right knee, sidebending as you go. Avoid twisting; keep your hips squared to the front of the room.
Step 3: Keep It Moving
Repeat with the left arm. Alternate for one to two minutes.
Belly Roll
This move borrows from belly dancing, but with the right beat, it fits right into your hip-hop routine. Regardless, expect to need some practice to master the skill, which targets your rectus abdominis.
Step 1: Take Your Stance
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and your arms floating alongside you, slightly to the back.
Step 2: Expand Your Ribs
Breathe in to expand your ribs and pull in the lowest portion of your abs.
Step 3: Expand Your Lower Belly
Relax your breath, expand your lower belly and draw in the upper region of your abs.
Step 4: Keep the Wave Moving
Alternate the moves to create a wavelike movement. Work your way up to 30 seconds or longer.
Read more: 12 Workouts to Improve Your Mood
Can Dance Give You a Flat Stomach?
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Dancing can give you a flat stomach from burning calories and working out your abdominal muscles. Achieving a flat stomach by dancing will require that you burn more calories from dancing than you eat in a day and implementing a dance routine that helps build abdominal muscle. The type of dance, how long you dance and the intensity at which you dance will determine how many calories you will burn.
Dancing to Burn Calories
If you weigh 240 pounds and you ballroom dance for one hour, you will burn about 382 calories. If you participate in high-intensity dance aerobics, you will burn about 796 calories in the same amount of time. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that a good way to distinguish the intensity of the dance you’re doing is by whether you can talk during the dance.
If you can only say a few words, you’re most likely doing high-intensity dancing. If you can talk but can’t sing, you’re most likely doing moderate dancing.
Types of Dances
The best type of dances that will help you burn fat and build abdominal muscle are dances that are high impact and use a lot of leg motion. Shape magazine recommends hopping, Glee Club dancing and kinetics. Hopping dance classes create an aerobic workout that helps strengthen your abdominal muscles through different variations of hopping. Video-game console based exercise programs have you mimic moves you see on the screen.
Dancing to Build Abdominal Muscle
Although dancing will build your core, you still want to focus on strengthening your abdominal muscles. Twice a week, implement a routine where you do sit-ups, leg lifts and crunches. As you burn more calories and reduce the fatty tissue around your stomach, your defined abdominal muscles will show through. Along with these exercises, also work out the other muscle groups, such as your legs, back, chest, arms and hips.
Precautions
If you are not currently living an active lifestyle, begin with low-impact dance aerobics to condition your body. If you are severely overweight, you will need to do a modified dance routine until you are able to lose some weight. High-impact dancing can be potentially harmful if you are overweight. Incorporate a low-calorie diet to help you lose weight as you train to dance.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Exercise for Weight Loss
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Healthy Weight
- MOVE!: The Basics of Weight Control
- Shape Magazine: 5 Wild Dance Workouts That Burn Belly Fat
Writer Bio
Diane Marks started her writing career in 2010 and has been in health care administration for more than 30 years. She holds a registered nurse license from Citizens General Hospital School of Nursing, a Bachelor of Arts in health care education from California University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science in health administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
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Is it possible to lose weight with the help of dancing - an excellent means for losing weight
Contents
Getting rid of extra pounds is one of the tasks that many girls set themselves when they enroll in a dance studio, while most of us associate weight loss with grueling workouts in the gym, rather than with exciting activities on the floor. So can you lose weight with dancing? Let's jump ahead and answer right away: yes, but only with an integrated approach and the support of a qualified trainer-teacher. You can easily find a real professional who will help both with motivation and with the tactics of burning excess in our club.
How to lose weight by dancing
There is no secret here: our body gets rid of its stores of stored fat when it expends more energy than it consumes. Therefore, we can do this in two ways: increase the load or create an energy deficit (that is, reduce the number of calories consumed).
And if you do both, it's a combo! The body itself will not notice how it begins to lose excess. At the same time, dancing as an effective physical activity and a method of losing weight is best suited: here is the music that cheers you up and makes your heart beat faster, and your favorite hobby, and the motivation to be more successful in your dance group. Yes, the mere fact that, having signed up for a dance, you have to leave the house once again to come to class, it will help to burn calories.
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How it works
Here's what will happen in your body while you move on the floor: first of all, metabolism is activated. The body will burn calories intensely for several hours after a workout. During this period, it is advisable to drink more fluids, but do not take heavy meals, so as not to interfere with the "magic" process of losing weight. With regular dancing, the lymphatic system normalizes its work, and this is getting rid of all kinds of edema and the ill-fated cellulite.
The result will not be long in coming: the skin will tighten, the muscles will tone up, and the silhouette will become clearer and, of course, more feminine. In addition, dancing is a great exercise for the heart, and if you used to suffer from shortness of breath, it will pass soon after regular training.
Here are some more pleasant "bonuses" from dancing:
- You lose weight in a pleasant company, supporting each other and not being left alone with your "extra" kilograms;
- Many dance exercises work those muscles that are difficult to "touch" even in the gym;
- In any case, you get a strengthened muscular corset, which means an even posture, a toned stomach and tight hips;
- Unlike many other sports, there are practically no contraindications for dancing, and even if you have health problems, you can choose the right direction;
- Dancing is the optimal combination of strength and cardio workouts, which is considered the most suitable for the fat burning process, and due to the alternation of periods of tension and relaxation, your workouts will come closer to the intervals that are now so popular in gyms.
In addition, if you came to a special studio, it means that you are not indifferent to classes, and these are increased chances that you will not give up training and losing weight halfway, but continue to dance even when the desired result is achieved.
Experts even identify five areas that are the best helpers for those who want to lose weight:
- Strip plastic and pole-dance include both power and aerobic loads, as well as stretching and acrobatics. Naturally, all this forces the body to train in an enhanced mode. Weight loss guaranteed! It should be borne in mind that classes in this direction do not begin at all with an approach to the pole, but with the development of basic exercises that strengthen the muscles of the whole body. They say that even those parts of the body that I had not suspected before begin to work.
- Reggaeton is a direction that requires good physical preparation and a trained body. Energetic dance replaces full-fledged cardio.
Plus - increased load on the legs, hips and buttocks. - Belly dance. Great for those who want to tighten the muscles of the body and see the long-awaited press. In "shaking" the whole body is strengthened, and calories are burned due to energetic movements. In addition, belly dancing is believed to work the thighs and buttocks, toning them without boring squats and lunges. Worth a try!
- Irish step - this trend has become one of the top leaders for weight loss, maybe unexpectedly, but quite justifiably: it is believed that such activities completely replace jogging in the park. The upper body in the Irish step is almost not involved, but the legs work out to the fullest.
- Flamenco - provides the body with a uniform load. This direction trains all major muscle groups, toning them and correcting the feminine silhouette. Flamenco is a very energetic dance that will not let you get bored during class. And it is also very useful for the spine and, as a result, a beautiful posture.
All Latin dances and jazz modern also got into the top ideal for weight loss dance styles.
Do not expect from dancing that you will start to lose weight in some specific places. Belly dancing, for example, will not make you press "cubes", leaving your arms and legs as they were. Weight loss is a complex process, and the fat layer is burned throughout the body, and in problem areas - the slowest. But certain dance directions will be able to increase the physical load on specific parts of the body, where beautiful muscles will subsequently appear instead of “burnt” fat. Is this not a sporty fit figure?
How to speed up the process
Losing weight is not a quick process, but the first results can be seen after a few dance lessons. When you need to lose more than a couple of kilograms, you should think about proper nutrition, without which no fat burning is possible. The scheme is simple: we increase the load on the body and at the same time create a small calorie deficit.
When the body realizes that it needs more energy, it will take it not from incoming food, but from its own reserves.
Proper nutrition is not a meager diet at all, but only frequent small meals, increased amounts of meat, cereals and fiber, and a minimum of pastries and sweets.
It is worth considering another aspect of any weight loss. Regardless of which dance direction you have chosen to correct your figure, comprehensive self-care from the inside and out will help speed up the process. Namely - the correct drinking regimen (at least one and a half liters of clean drinking water per day), massage for the skin, moisturizing masks and body wraps. It is difficult to achieve results alone in the process of losing weight, but as an addition to dancing and proper nutrition, care will play the role of an accelerator.
For a pleasant weight loss, a company of like-minded people and a qualified mentor, please contact us!
Without sports: 6 types of dances for weight loss with video
Are you worried in advance how to get back in shape? Dancing is the most pleasant, emotional and interesting way to a beautiful figure.
But what kind of dances will help us find the perfect body the fastest?
Zumba
Zumba is not really a dance, it's more of a dance fitness. This is an aerobic workout based on rhythmic movements performed to incendiary music. It is a mixture of salsa, cumbia, flamenco, calypso, mamba, rumba. This is not only useful and energy-intensive, but also really fun!
Effect. Training involves all muscles, but the main load falls on the lower body - legs and buttocks. Zumba develops plasticity, flexibility, endurance, trains the respiratory and cardiovascular systems and, of course, improves mood.
How much can you burn in an hour of training? 400-500 kcal.
Difficulties. None! In fact, this is the only type of dance for which you do not need any special physical training. At the end of the lesson, you do not need to combine the learned chords into a beautiful dance, you can improvise, and the coach will not force you to perfectly repeat all his movements.
You just dance, rejoice and get rid of extra pounds.
Here is a little workout so that you know what Zumba really is:
Pole dance
Pole dance (pole dance) will not only allow you to relax and surprise your loved one, but also lose weight. Classes include all types of load: power, aerobic, stretching, acrobatics. Pole dance is not a striptease, as many people think, but only its imitation. The main emphasis here is on the technique of execution, and it is worth noting that it is not easy.
Effect. Pole training tightens all muscle groups (the muscles of the arms and shoulder girdle work, the abs and back muscles, legs and buttocks, as well as the calf muscles), improve flexibility, stretching, transform posture and gait. Exercise has a positive effect on the functioning of the cardiovascular system.
After just a few sessions, you will notice that you have become more graceful, feminine, self-confident.
Pole dance helps to get rid of complexes, to feel attractive and sexy.
How much can you burn in an hour of training? 450-450 kcal.
Difficulties . You cannot master pole dancing in one, three or even five lessons. This is hard work that requires perseverance, aspiration, and patience. A beginner can start training, but it’s still better to have a good stretch right away. In addition, if you are a shy person in life, then you will need to force yourself to get rid of awkwardness and start dancing. But believe me: a beautiful and seductive body is worth your effort!
This short pole dance video will prove to you that pole dance is so much more than just an erotic dance.
Belly dance
Belly dance is one of the most sexy and sensual dances. Do you think it does not contribute to weight loss, since only the stomach is involved in it, and all movements are smooth? In fact, many muscle groups work during belly dancing, and this is a very effective way to tighten your figure and lose unnecessary pounds.
Effect. Of course, the abdominal muscles have the hardest time of all. The oblique muscles work especially actively, which can be difficult to reach even in the gym. In addition, the muscles of the shoulder girdle and back are strengthened, beautiful hips are formed, extra centimeters are removed from the waist. It is believed that belly dancing has a beneficial effect on the female reproductive system, and also normalizes metabolism. And of course, a woman performing a belly dance feels attractive, desirable and beautiful!
How much can you burn in an hour of training? 350-400 kcal.
Difficulties . Yes, belly dancing is far from the easiest dance direction, but at the same time, the load on the joints and ligaments during classes is minimal, which means that a woman of any age and any weight can master this dance. You can dance at least every day - you do not need rest between workouts to restore muscles.
Mesmerizing belly dance video:
Irish Step
If your main problem is fat legs, try Irish step. These dances will replace your running, jump rope, and step aerobics. During the dance, the legs actively work, the torso remains practically motionless, and the arms perform only smooth movements. All types of Irish dances are performed to traditional Irish melodies: reels, jigs, hornpipes.
Effect. This is the perfect dance for those who want to really pump up their legs. Relief, tightened, slender hips, calves, buttocks - this is the main result of Irish step classes. In addition, this type of dance helps to pump up the press, correct posture, develop the respiratory system and strengthen the heart muscle. The dance is very rhythmic, which means that at each workout you will have to sweat a lot, but, as you know, not only harmful substances, but also extra pounds go away with sweat.
How much can you burn in an hour of training? 500-600 kcal.
Difficulties. Irish music has a clear rhythm and requires precise steps, so if you don't know what the sense of rhythm is, it can be difficult for you to keep up with the pace of the dance.
Irish step is a serious dance that cannot be learned in a couple of practices. Keep in mind that you will master the Irish step faster if you have never practiced other dance styles. The fact is that classical choreographic training sometimes prevents the body from remembering the positions of Irish dances, so it’s better to start learning from scratch.
When you dance just like the girl in the video, you will not have a single extra gram left:
Latin American dances
Incendiary, energetic, emotional Latin American dances are definitely what you need to quickly burn fat .
Bachata, salsa, cha-cha-cha, rumba, jive - the choice is huge! Fatigue, weakness, bad mood - these concepts simply do not exist when you dance salsa or rumba. In addition, most of the Latin American dances are performed in pairs, which means that during the dance you can’t be lazy so as not to let your partner down.
Effect. During the training, all muscle groups are involved, but the emphasis is on the abs, thighs and buttocks. You will learn to keep your back, monitor coordination, move plastically and feel your body. Latin American dances will tighten the figure and help get rid of extra pounds. And of course, incendiary dances are the perfect cure for the blues!
How much can you burn in an hour of training? 400-500 kcal.
Difficulties. Not everyone can perform movements at such a frantic pace as required by Latin American dances. You have to give 100% to see the result.
Take a look, would you like to dance samba just like professional dancers do?
We advise you to pay attention to bachata. Like all Latin American dances, it helps to open up, shake off complexes, strengthens the cardiovascular system and keeps the body in good shape.
Bachata is also quite simple in choreography (which is especially important for beginner dancers). So much so that even people with some physical features can perform it. Actually, bachata is known as a healing dance that helps strengthen muscles after injuries.
Flamenco
A dance that makes not only the legs thin, but the whole body. A passionate Spanish dance, flamenco sets a very fast pace, so that the process of losing weight will not seem monotonous and boring to you. In flamenco classes you will gain self-confidence, achieve harmony of soul and body and feel what it means to be truly free!
Effect. Flamenco classes teach you how to beat a fraction, keep your back straight and arch your hands. After a couple of months of training, the hips and buttocks lose weight, and the calf muscles acquire a beautiful relief.
