Sit Ups Before Bed to Lose Weight

Many are interested in decreasing the amount of fat that they have around the midsection area, particularly the stomach. It’s a common practice to complete sit-ups before bed. While sit-ups are a constructive activity that helps to strengthen your core and improve your posture, they will not help you lose weight. To lose weight, whether in the stomach or any other area, you must do more than complete sit-ups.

Weight Loss

To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume over a period of time. You can do this by either burning more calories through exercise, consuming less calories than you would normally get from food and drink, or more effectively, combining both tactics.

Sit-Ups

How To Lose Weight with Dumbbells

Learn More

Sit-ups are a strength-training exercise that develops your rectus abdominus, which is the large muscle that runs down the front of your torso. When you consistently complete sit-ups, you overload your rectus abdominus muscle and cause it to both strengthen and tone. To use sit-ups to tone your abdominal muscles, work out three days per week with a day of rest in between.

Sit Ups For Weight Loss

Your muscles are completely independent of your body fat. Your muscle lies underneath your fat tissue. When you complete strength training you develop your muscles, and when you complete cardiovascular exercise or eat fewer calories you lose body fat. Therefore, completing sit-ups before you go to bed or at any other time during the day is ineffective for losing weight. If you’re consistent with your sit-ups, your rectus abdominus may become toned, but it will go unnoticed if you have an excessive amount of fat in the area.

How To Lose Weight

Exercises to Get Rid of a Muffin Top

Learn More

If you want to lose body fat from your stomach area, the most effective strategy is to participate in a complete weight-loss program, consisting of cardiovascular exercise, a low-calorie diet and abdominal crunches to help tone your muscle. You can’t target a certain area to lose weight from, so you will see fat loss from your stomach area eventually as your overall body fat percentage decreases, according to the American Council on Exercise 1.

Considerations

It’s important to understand that while sit-ups won’t help you lose weight, completing them would be a component to efforts to tone up your stomach. However, if you are limited in time and want to maximize your workouts for weight loss, instead of completing sit-ups before you go to bed, try to use that time to incorporate cardiovascular exercise into your routine.