The Best Waist Trimming Exercise Without Any Equipment

Countless people want to trim fat, fit back into their favorite pair of jeans or feel confident taking their shirt off. But trimming your waistline is more important than only these goals. Visceral fat, the fat found deep within your belly, is particularly harmful to your health.

With proper exercise, you can slim your waistline and rid yourself of this deep belly fat. And here's the best part — you don't need expensive gym equipment or that weird gadget you saw on an infomercial last night.

In addition to tracking your meals, the key to a trim waist is shedding body fat and building strength in your core with the right exercises.

Moderate-intensity, steady-state exercise, such as walking, is an excellent form of exercise that just about anyone can do. It doesn't matter your age or fitness level, steady-state exercise can help you lose fat and trim your waist. You don't have to jog either. Low-impact exercises, such as brisk walking, dancing or swimming, can all work.

But low-impact, moderate effort may not be the most efficient strategy. For years, moderate-intensity exercise over a long duration was the king of fat loss. This was based on a "fat burning zone" that has been shown to be less effective than other training modalities.

Ideally, moderate-intensity steady-state workouts should be around 45 to 60 minutes on most days of the week to budge belly fat.

‌Read more:‌ The 3 Secrets to Losing Belly Fat

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, takes aerobic exercise and fat loss to the next level. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do it is with sprinting. A sprint workout is relatively short, but it's intense. Don't neglect warming up with a few minutes of light jogging, followed by some bodyweight exercises like squats, push ups and lunges.

For the workout, sprint for 15 seconds, then rest for 45 seconds. Repeat this sprint/rest interval six to 10 times — depending on your fitness level. After your intervals, cool down and stretch for a few minutes.

HIIT is popular because it's an extremely effective strategy to shed fat. Due to the high intensity of HIIT, your body is in an oxygen deficit, triggering what's known as excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC).

According to a February 2014 article published in the journal ‌Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism‌, high-intensity interval training leaves your body exhausted and up-regulating the intake of oxygen for up to 24 hours after the completion of exercise. During this time, your metabolism stays elevated, helping you burn more body fat.

The bad news is that hundreds upon hundreds of crunches won't burn belly fat, give you a slimmer waistline or reveal a six-pack. But here's the good news: other waist exercises can help develop a stronger midsection that'll look impressive once you've lost fat.

Peter Francis from the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University ranked reverse crunches, vertical leg crunches and the bicycle maneuver as the most effective exercises for stimulating the muscles of the abdomen.

Perform 10 reps of each of these exercises in a non-stop, circuit-like fashion. After one continuous round, rest for about 90 seconds. Repeat until you've done a total of four rounds.

‌Read more:‌ How to Lose Belly Fat With These 7 Cardio Workouts

There are several different ways to trim your waistline— with or without equipment. Remember that success lies in ruthless execution of the basics. Beyond following the waist exercises listed above, it's important to eat a well balanced diet focused on creating a caloric deficit to lose fat.