Skinny Beer Bellied Lad seeks guidance!

Kone

Hi all,

Can I first say that I am a gym newbie and I am only on my 2nd week (I am being patient!)

My gym have given me a routine to follow (very basic and nice and easy for a beginner like me), it's a mixture of weights and cardio.

However I want to focus on shifting my belly first, I have a good diet so I am just going easy on the beer and I go to the gym 3 times a week. Is this too little?

Should I concentrate on the running/skiing/cycling machines more to shift the tummy?

I really would appreciate any advice?

/Kone

casper-

imho, and I've seen this a few places, losing weight is like peeling an onion -- it comes off in layers as opposed to just one place. If you keep with a decent diet and exercise, your belly will eventually go down. BFL over 12 weeks will get you there too .. and it's diet + an exercise plan that works for any skill level.

If you just want to drop pounds from your belly right now, you can try South Beach; the first two weeks are somewhat like Atkins but lower in fat .. I don't know of any guy who's tried it and didn't come out of it saying their pants felt looser, etc. I will say, though, that doing it might not (probably not) give you enough energy to go to the gym during that time.

Good luck!

(btw, I am exactly the same .. skinny with a beer belly, heh - lost it once, got it back over two years, am getting rid of it _once and for all now_ )

dudara

Going easy on the beer (and the associated snacking) is good. Beer is often called "bread in a glass" because of all the sugar and carbs it contains. Your exercise regime seems fine for a beginner. Just be patient. If you really want to kickstart the weight-loss, go on a hig-protein, low-carb diet for a while. Losing some weight fast will give you great motivation to keep going.

Stark

When removing carbs from your diet, start with alchohol, then sugar, then white foods (white bread, white rice, white pasta, skinless potatoes etc.). If you're really keen on losing weight, shift from brown foods (like skinned potatoes, brown bread, brown rice, brown pasta etc.) to green foods (veggies). Don't take green foods out of your diet as these are the good carbohydrates and totally essential to health. Eat lots of protein (with every meal). Before you go to bed have a carbohydrate snack without protein to get the protein moving to your muscles and the tryptophan to your brain to make serotonin (something that gets quickly depleted if you do something like the Atkins diet).

Long period, low intensity training is great for burning fat. Also building muscle is good as having muscle means you burn more calories even when you're idle.

Kone

Thanx guys, I really do appreciate the advice.

Has anyone heard/used of Sida Cordifolia? It's supposed to be a fatburner although I am skeptical!

<edit> Just did a little research on Sida Cordifolia, might give it a miss!</edit>

I forgot to mention I am vegetarian, so carbs make up a fairly sizeable part of my diet, do any fellow veggies have any advice on what to do with regards to an alternate diet?

Duckjob

If you've eased back off the beer and you're getting in 3-4 sessions of 20-30 mins running per week you should see results in no time. Once you do, that'll motivate you to keep going....

When you've trimmed the belly you can then cut back on cardio and start working on buiding up....

Good luck.

tunney

Just under two and a half years ago I was 15 stone plus, with a body fat percentage of 30-35%. I couldn't walk to the bus.

Now I'm 11st 6 (ish) with a body fat percentage of 12% and a vo2max of 63.2.

All down to slow gradual changes in my lifestyle and diet. Forget about south beach, atkins, Sida Cordifolia and other fads and do things slowly but do them right.

casper-

Originally posted by tunney
All down to slow gradual changes in my lifestyle and diet. Forget about south beach, atkins, Sida Cordifolia and other fads and do things slowly but do them right.

Have you actually read south beach? I certainly wouldn't lump it in under 'fad'. It's an extremely sensible eating plan; the first two weeks may be atkins-like, but it's a temporary measure used to kick-start the weightloss. After that it's very good advice (less highly-refined foods, etc.).

It may not be for everyone, especially if you're trying to put on a lot of muscle, but the maintenance "phase" is certainly a solid set of guidelines for most people.

tunney

Have I read south beach? No caught me on that one - I just lumped it in with atkins

casper-

Originally posted by tunney
Have I read south beach? No caught me on that one - I just lumped it in with atkins

Heh fair enough then I definitely agree with your general statement, though; fad diets, for the most part (like Suzanne Somers, grapefruit diet, etc) are indeed a waste of time and don't have any lasting effects on the individual, their eating habits, or their waistline.

Kone

Thanx for all the advice lads, I really appreciate it all.

trotter_inc

In my case the only way I find to loose weight from my belly is jogging - it take time but it really does work and the effects can be seen!

rs

Certainly cardio and diet is the way to shift the fat. Unfortunatly, being vegetarian will not help much because your diet will always include a lot of carbs.

You should try to incorporate a little more protein in your diet using quorn and other meat substitutes and remove some of the carbs.

I would also stick with the weights. They won't do a whole lot in directly getting rid of the fat, but they will help indirectly for the following 2 reasons.

1. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you are doing nothing. This is because muscles constantly require energy to maintain themselves. (fat does not) So, as your muscles get bigger, your ability to burn fat increases.

Think about it for a minute. Two people eat the same are the same height, have the same amount of fat but one weighs 11 stone and one weighs 13 stone. If they both run a mile at the same speed the 13 stone guy has burned more calories than the 11 stone guy. The reason. He has had to use more energy to fuel larger muscles to move a heavier object (himself) over the same distance.

2. Muscle hides fat It doesn't really, but if you increase the size of your shoulders, chest and back and legs by adding muscle to them, it appears to that your waist is smaller even if it's exactly the same size. A more muscular man can carry substantially more fat without seeming fat than a slimmer man because of the relative proportions of the rest of his body.

Good luck

Kone

Thanx rs,

that all makes sense to me!

Back to the gym tomorrow so!