Can I Lose My Lower Belly Fat Using Kettlebells?

Heaving cannonball-shaped weights isn't a guarantee that you'll lose belly fat, but it sure can help. Kettlebell training can be a serious calorie burner if you do high-intensity moves such as swings, around-the-body passes, figure eights and snatches. Burning more calories than you consume leads to weight loss, including at your abdomen.

Target Training

You can do core-specific exercises with kettlebells, but these will only strengthen the muscles underneath your belly fat. You can't directly attack belly fat with abdominal exercises. Instead, you need to lose weight all over. A portion-controlled, healthy diet free of trans fats, refined grains and added sugars is an important strategy in losing weight. Cardiovascular exercise, particularly in the form of interval training, is another effective tool in the battle of the belly bulge.

Kettlebell Intervals

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A paper published in the 2011 issue of the "Journal of Obesity" explains that high-intensity interval training is preferable to steady-state aerobic training when it comes to losing belly fat 3. High-intensity interval training lowers insulin resistance and changes the way the skeletal muscles oxidize fat, resulting in fat loss -- particularly around the belly. This type of training involves all-out bursts of effort that raise your heart rate to near maximum for intervals lasting between 10 seconds and four minutes. You rest between each all-out interval roughly as long as you worked. Repeat intervals to achieve a 20- to 30-minute workout. Moves such as kettlebell snatches or swings can raise the heart rate to near maximum, found a study sponsored by the American Council on Exercise in 2010, which makes them ideal for intervals 2.