What are Sit-Ups good for?

[chazzy1864]

That may be true, but doing sit-ups certainly helps provide a leaner look...a look that gives the impression that the person has less fat.

Because you caused the abdominals to hypertrophy. Which made them larger, given your same body fat level; showed more.

[SquatTilYouDrop]

Lots of horrible advice and flaming in this thread!

1 star....

[merlin1214]

no, it would not. understandable mistake if you're a self-admitted noob, since this is one of the most widely propagated workout myths out there.

if you want to burn fat, do cardio. if you want to build more muscular abs, do crunches, leg lifts, etc. you sound like you want to do both, so do both. it does no good to do just situps and crunches and expect a beer belly to disappear.

There is actually a lot of good information in this thread, aside from the flaming.

The fact that you can't target fat is true. Men generally gain fat in their belly area first. When you lost fat you tend to lose it in the opposite order that you gain it. In other words, you'll lose your belly fat last. There is no way to target it, you just have to lose the fat everywhere else first, then you'll eventually lose your belly fat.

With regards to the "lose fat, do cardio" comment, that is inaccurate. The best way to lose fat is to do cardio AND strength training. Muscle BURNS fat. If you do only cardio you will lose fat, but you will also lose muscle. If you want to most effectively burn fat, retain muscle, and be as healthy as possible you need to do cardio and lift.