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How To Use Treadmill To Lose Belly Fat In 2024?

Emma

Updated on - Written by
Medically reviewed by Kimberly Langdon, MD

how to use treadmill to lose belly fat
Treadmill workouts help you burn calories, leading to fat loss. Photo: Shutterstock & Team Design

The many benefits of an active lifestyle have been explored intimately by the scientific community at large. The famous runner’s high is not just an optimistic opinion – it’s been proven as a scientific fact[1].

Exercise is not just a mood-booster[2]; far from it, actually. High-intensity exercise has also been shown to be great for one’s long-term cardiovascular health[3], as well.

For most, however, the most important benefit of exercising on a treadmill is how effective this approach is for weight loss and the reduction of body fat.

Even walking regularly on a treadmill may help you lose belly fat if your dietary intake does not exceed your expenditure.

How To Burn Belly Fat By Running On A Treadmill? 

  1. Taking a Walk
  2. Choosing a Workout Routine
  3. Strength Training
  4. Aerobic Exercise
  5. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
  6. Hiring a Physical Trainer

How To Burn Belly Fat By Running On A Treadmill?

The best way to maintain a healthy level of exercise in your life is to start slow and make it something that you enjoy and look forward to. One way to do this is to vary your exercise routine. There are many different ways to walk or jog on a treadmill if you’re interested in losing weight.

A few popular styles of treadmill exercise:

Taking A Walk

how to use treadmill to lose belly fat
Taking things slow by walking for 30 minutes before your main running session

Sometimes, even on a treadmill, it’s best to take things slow and at your own pace. Long-term fitness is a game of stamina; some of us might need to warm up at a comfortable pace before hitting it for real. If you need to get yourself up to speed before actually running every day, a slow and steady walk for thirty minutes with a good book is one example of a treadmill workout that anybody can commit to.

Choosing a Workout Routine

Much like spin classes at the gym, you’ll be able to find plenty of fun exercise routines for treadmills online. Some let you walk your way to a healthier body; others are based on jogging or sprinting, or perhaps incline work set to music. 

Strength Training

Power-walking with weights or weighted bands will increase the number of calories and the amount of visceral fat that you burn with each treadmill workout. Adding weight and perhaps an incline to your treadmill routine is another way to get your heart rate up and to increase your cardiovascular health..

Aerobic Exercise

If body fat is your main concern, aerobic exercise gets your entire body moving. Losing belly fat is totally possible through a cardio routine alone. Improving muscle tone and your health overall is made much easier through the inclusion of these whole-body workouts, however. Many of these routines target deep belly fat specifically. 

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT is perfect for individuals who want to lose weight

HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training; it’s a more involved form of aerobic exercise that’s actually perfect for those who want to lose weight and burn belly fat. If weight loss is your goal, these high-speed, high-paced workout routines will take you straight there. 

When you first begin, walking on an incline is the best way to ramp up to a high-intensity exercise. After spending some time walking, you’ll be ready to take on any type of treadmill workout.

Hiring A Physical Trainer

If you’re struggling to burn calories and belly fat on your own, enlisting the help of a professional with a personal trainer certification might give you the edge that you need. 

Services like these help you both on the treadmill and off. Are you one to forget to measure your portions? A personal trainer can even help you create a healthy diet. Sometimes, the problem isn’t in our workout, but, rather, in our nutrition and in what we eat daily

Personal trainers keep you accountable and help you eliminate belly fat and manage other things like your total cholesterol by ensuring that your entire lifestyle is in alignment with your goals. 

Sometimes, the professional touch is quite necessary. Your personal trainer might even have supplements that they can recommend in support of your desire to lose weight and burn stubborn belly fat. Nowadays, CBD oil is also well-used as it may boost metabolism and result in weight loss.

Benefits Of Running On A Treadmill

Those who use treadmills regularly at a moderate intensity will likely speak very positively about all of the benefits that this habit confers. Aside from the calories that the body burns when walking on a treadmill, there are also many health-related benefits that treadmill users enjoy additionally. 

Some studies show that there are even cognitive gains to be made by frequently walking or jogging on the treadmills.

Does Treadmill Burn Belly Fat?

Just like with any other type of physical activity, the simple answer is that exercising on a treadmill burns calories. When your calorie expenditure is greater than your calorie intake, also known as creating a calorie deficit, you end up losing[4] weight rather than gaining it.

To get the most out of your treadmill workouts, aim to achieve your maximum heart rate. Pushing yourself in this way[5] sends your metabolism into overdrive and helps your body burn calories more aggressively. 

How Long Does It Takes To Lose Belly Fat?

There really is no “how long” when exercising to lose weight. Weight loss is a matter of calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure. 

Ask yourself not “How long do I need to run for?”, but, rather, “How am I feeling? What have I been eating? Am I tired? Am I full of energy?”.

Your body will tell you when it’s had enough, so we recommend that you stretch, warm up, and go for as long as you can comfortably. You can add periods of walking to cool down between sprints if you would like to extend your workout. 

When you’re feeling ragged, however, it’s time to take a break, or perhaps to focus on another area of the body for the rest of your session. 

It is a holistic effort. Every bit of work counts toward your goal. Listen to your body and give it what it’s asking for.

Final Thoughts

Little can compare to the healthy feeling of returning home after a long jog or afternoon at the gym. Whether you’re already up and running or still walking at your own pace, the best time to begin your warm-up is now. If burning belly fat and body fat, in general, is your goal, high-intensity interval-based cardio is certainly one way to make it there in good health. A healthy lifestyle doesn’t always mean going too far out of your way; a treadmill routine is one extremely convenient way to exercise at any time and under all possible weather conditions, walking, running, or otherwise.


+ 5 sources

Health Canal avoids using tertiary references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and rely on peer-reviewed studies, academic researches from medical associations and institutions. To ensure the accuracy of articles in Health Canal, you can read more about the editorial process here

  1. Viña, J., Sanchis-Gomar, F., Martínez-Bello, V.E. and Mari Carmen Gomez-Cabrera (2012). Exercise acts as a drug; the pharmacological benefits of exercise. [online] 167(1), pp.1–12. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2012.01970.x.
  2. ‌Craft, L.L. and Perna, F.M. (2004). The Benefits of Exercise for the Clinically Depressed. [online] 6(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.4088/pcc.v06n0301.
  3. ‌Agarwal, S.K. (2012). Cardiovascular benefits of exercise. [online] pp.541–541. doi:https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.s30113.
  4. ‌Catenacci, V.A. and Wyatt, H.R. (2007). The role of physical activity in producing and maintaining weight loss. [online] 3(7), pp.518–529. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpendmet0554.
  5. ‌Journal of the American College of Nutrition. (2013). The effects of exercise intensity on body composition, weight loss, and dietary composition in women. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.1997.10718651 [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].
Emma

Medically reviewed by:

Kimberly Langdon

Emma Garofalo is a writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. A lover of science, art, and all things culinary, few things excite her more than the opportunity to learn about something new." It is now in the sheet in the onboarding paperwork, apologies!!

Medically reviewed by:

Kimberly Langdon

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