The Best Exercises to Do to Cut Body Fat & Get Cut for Men

Burning fat, getting shredded and staying ripped requires a solid diet and a well thought out exercise program. Exercises that activate large muscles and lots of muscles burn more calories than exercises that do not. If your goal is to burn fat and get shredded then you should perform multi-joint exercises. Multi-joint exercises require large muscles to produce force and other muscles to stabilize the movement.

  1. Deadlift

    • Deadlifts will burn calories and shred fat.

      The deadlift should be the staple of all programs aiming to cut body fat. When you are deadlifting you are using massive amounts of musculature. Your quads, hamstrings, and glutes are firing to move the weight. Your entire back -- lats, rhomboids, lumbar muscles and abs -- are activating as stabilizers to keep you in an effective position. The sheer amount of muscle being used during this exercise means that you will be burning vast amounts of calories during and after the workout.

    Squat

    • Squats burn lots of calories throughout your entire body.

      The squat is similar to the deadlift in that it requires quite a bit of muscle activation to perform the movement. Like the deadlift, your quads, hamstrings and glutes all produce the movement while your abs and back stabilize the weight. Because the weight is now on your back and not in your hands the muscles are activated to differing degrees when compared to the deadlift. The squat activates lots of muscle mass and will burn your body fat quickly.

    Pullups

    • Pullups activate the back and arm musculature.

      Pullups are a heavy-duty exercise that targets your back, primarily the lats. This exercise is a multi-joint movement that requires the lats for the first portion of the pull and biceps for the later stages. It is more challenging and thus a better fat burner than using a pulldown machine. With pullups, you have to pull yourself up against gravity, whereas a pulldown machine uses gravity for assistance during the movement.

    Bench Press

    • The bench press activates the front musculature of the chest and back musculature of the arms.

      The exercises previously mentioned are the three best exercises for shredding fat -- but the bench press is no slouch either. The bench press requires your chest muscles as well as your triceps to activate in order to produce movement. Your shoulder girdle activates to serve as a stabilizer. Because you are lying down and not using any lower body muscle to help produce or stabilize movement, it isn't as metabolically stimulating as the other three exercises -- but it should still be a major part of your program.