We need to be honest about burning belly-fat and that means stating outright that no body can only burn belly-fat. You lose fat because you burn calories than you take in and speed up your metabolism. If any extra fat that you have goes directly to your belly then there is a good chance that it happened to your mom or your dad and is genetic.
We lose fat everywhere we cannot lose fat only in one area, so the more important question is how much cardio needs to be done to increase the loss of body-fat. The answer all depends on the kind of cardio work that we are doing. If the objective is specifically to lose body-fat then jogging or cycling for miles is not the answer.
Since the fitness boom started in the 80's there has been a fortune of research done on the most efficient way to burn body-fat. But all the research has still not been able to separate the fat-loss from the calorie loss, meaning you have to lose the amount of calories that you eat every day if you want to lose fat.
Research has now shown conclusively that the most efficient way to lose fat is to train using a high intensity interval training (HIIT) which will give you the longest 'after-burn' effect. Research shows that when you jog or cycle for a long period you burn calories to sustain your exercise but you stop burning these calories as soon as you stop training.
With HIIT training, the training is short and intense but it leaves a lasting impression that will speed up your calorie burn by increasing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) for up to 72 hours after your workout. It is this type of hard and short training which has the most effective fat-loss return.
It goes without saying that counting calories and staying away from fried foods is a lot easier than working out with high intensity for 45 minutes every day, but the two combined will have you quickly at your ideal bodyweight. It would then be your decision to train to increase your fitness or increase your muscle, or both.
