The Truth About Ab Belts They Don’t Want You to Know
The promise of the Flex Belt is both intriguing and enticing. The system promises to allow anyone to tone their abdominal muscles while doing just about anything else, anywhere including lounging on the couch, sitting at work, or even sleeping. This lazy multitasking is obviously appealing, but unfortunately, is largely grounded in wishful thinking.
Primarily, the FlexBelt constitutes a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of visibly toned ab muscles. Abdominals tone based on two factors, ab strength (the size of the muscle) and body fat percentage (the quantity of fat between the muscles and the skin). Because the contractions of this device are not as dramatic as those required for movement, under the prescribed thirty minutes a day using the Flexbelt it is unlikely that the strength gains would equal those of even a small number of well executed crunches.
This is in part due to the common misunderstanding that fat can be turned into muscle. But if that was true, then you have 3 inches of fat between your ab muscles and your skin, you would get abdominal muscles about 3 inches thick. Even bodybuilders, with their intense training programs and extreme diets, are seldom able to achieve an abdominal muscle, or even a bicep, that is 3 inches thick. It’s just not how human beings are designed. It certainly cannot be achieved with zero effort like the Flex Belt would have you believe. EMS contractions are simply not strong enough to achieve this.
Electronic Muscle Stimulation is also known as the EMS mentioned in the last paragraph. It contracts the muscles by simulating them gently with electricity. This may, in fact, strengthen the underlying muscles, but it does absolutely nothing about decreasing the amount of body fat above them.
If you really want toned, sexy abs, then there is no fancy substitute for plain old exercising and diet. Once you begin exercising, you’ll start to use up more calories than you consume. Then, you can’t help but lose weight. If you do exercises that concentrate on the abdominal muscles, then an attractive flat stomach isn’t far behind.
Lastly, the promotion of “cleared by the FDA” is misleading. FDA clearance constitutes a recognition of safety, not effectiveness. So while you won’t likely harm yourself using this device, you will also not see any major benefits
