Do crunches burn belly fat? This is a question many people have been asking either when they are just beginning to inquire about losing weight or even if they are well on their way. Some experts will say "Yes of course, the more ab crunches you do a day is in direct relation to how much belly fat you burn", where another expert will say "No not at all. Cardio is the way to go if you are trying to burn belly fat." Both are true to an extent, but it is not entirely one or the other.

When it comes to actually burning belly fat from doing ab crunches, the results are indirect. Let me explain. Doing ab crunches themselves does not burn your belly fat off your stomach (which makes 'Expert #1's statement incorrect), but rather it helps you to do so much more easily and quickly when you do cardio exercises in the future. Every time you train your muscles through weight lifting or similar methods, you are creating a higher metabolism for yourself and incrementally increasing your body's muscle mass, which in turn allows you to burn off fat much faster when you do your cardio exercises. The interesting part is this: if you are asking "do crunches burn belly fat?", you may as well ask "do bicep curls burn belly fat?", or maybe even "do squats burn belly fat?". If you exercise any of your major muscle groups, you will be creating an easier path to losing belly fat by increasing your muscle mass and in turn increasing your metabolism! Strange huh? It may be difficult to wrap your head around but just know that every major muscle group you exercise is contributing to eliminating your belly fat.

Let me give you a quick 'true life' example of this. When my father and I would go to the gym to work out, I would see this theory (well, science if I may) clearly displayed in front of me. We would both be on the StairMaster, and would start by inputting our weights into the machine so it correctly calculates your calories burned during the exercise. My father has a significantly larger body mass than I do, and if we both exercised at the same speed and for the same length of time, he would always burn about twice as many calories as I did! I did not get discouraged however because I know it's just because his metabolism is higher from his larger body mass, and his rate of burning off fat is more rapid... and that's the order just so as not to get confused: larger muscle mass = larger metabolism, not larger metabolism = larger muscle mass.

So by itself, crunches do not burn belly fat, they just strengthen and tone your abs. But doing them will make it easier for you to do so when jogging, walking or swimming. Doing cardio exercises is the singular most effective way to lose belly fat. So do crunches burn belly fat? Yes... indirectly.