Getting rid of my little belly

MooseJam

I still have a little belly and I'm pretty pissed off,

I don't eat much - bowl of cereal for brekkie , standard size dinner, slice of toast for supper,

have been doing 50 mins on a bike a day up a hill - 15.2 killometers, thats about my limit, legs just can't do much more

now a bike obviously isn't the best but with what i eat i thought id lose a bit but i haven't,

so i'm going to up it to 3*50 mins a day - one morning one afternoon one evening, I would imagine I'm going to have to ease off a bit so I'm just wondering if 3 sessions is still better than 1 even if you have to ease off a bit,
thanks.

corkcomp

can you post up a typical (honest!) days diet, include everything ... also your stats, weight + height etc ..

OctavarIan

3*50 mins a day sounds to me like far too much, especially considering how little you eat. Have you tried any HIIT yet?

MrPain

Personally i found a crossramp in the gym the best for losing belly and butt flab. I was never fat but it seriously toned me up. I do 10 minutes every second day at a high intensity (sweating heavily after 3 minutes).

MooseJam

corkcomp wrote: »

can you post up a typical (honest!) days diet, include everything ... also your stats, weight + height etc ..

sure I'm 5'8 and 160 lbs , I have a bowl of cereal in the morning - muesli - bowl is about the same size as a desert bowl

have a standard size dinner - not big not small - meat 2 veg spuds three days a week. A fry one day - beans rashers fried spuds , pudding , egg . Have chicken and white rice two days a week. Have beef stew one day.

Have a slice of white toast for supper.

I tend to dip into the cookie jar on and off I'd say an average of 3 a day.
Have a slice of cake the odd time maybe once every 2 weeks

I drink a lot of coke but always coke zero and pepsi max - it says on the label zero sugar zero calories but I'm beginning to wonder, might switch to water.

I can't cook so I just eat what I'm given

I did 2*50 mins today, I actually didn't have to ease up any the second time so I'll start 3*50 tomorrow, only thing is I'm hungry now, I'm usually not hungry now, hopefully it's a one off. Anyway going to do 3*50 for a month and see what happens, I swear if there is no improvement I'm going to RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE

O out of work at the mo, recession and all that so have lots of time to kill
also I sleep lots - like up to 12 hours a day, don't know if that means anything

unreggd

NOTE: You cant target fat loss. You'll lose it overall
And the little belly is your emergency fat
Its the last place you lose fat, and the first place you gain it

MooseJam wrote: »

have a standard size dinner - not big not small - meat 2 veg spuds three days a week. A fry one day - beans rashers fried spuds , pudding , egg . Have chicken and white rice two days a week. Have beef stew one day.

Have a slice of white toast for supper.

I tend to dip into the cookie jar on and off I'd say an average of 3 a day
Have a slice of cake the odd time maybe once every 2 weeks

Lots of sugar and crap carbs in there

I drink a lot of coke but always coke zero and pepsi max - it says on the label zero sugar zero calories but I'm beginning to wonder, might switch to water

Because it has no sugar, its packed with a long list of chemicals that do lots of harm to you. Its actually much healthier to drink the normal versions. And they dehydrate you. SO many idiots think soft drinks hydrate you. makes me cringe. Water all the way!!!

I can't cook so I just eat what I'm given

Well learn!

I did 2*50 mins today, I actually didn't have to ease up any the second time so I'll start 3*50 tomorrow, only thing is I'm hungry now, I'm usually not hungry now, hopefully it's a one off. Anyway going to do 3*50 for a month and see what happens, I swear if there is no improvement I'm going to RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE

You'd be better doin less, but at a higher intensity
And mix it up, maybe 3 days hi-int cardio, 2 days long walking

O out of work at the mo, recession and all that so have lots of time to kill
also I sleep lots - like up to 12 hours a day, don't know if that means anything

Lots is good, but 12 hours seem a little too much. Maybe from all the exercise you do

celestial

unreggd wrote: »

NOTE: You cant target fat loss. You'll lose it overall
And the little belly is your emergency fat
Its the last place you lose fat, and the first place you gain it


Lots of sugar and crap carbs in there



Because it has no sugar, its packed with a long list of chemicals that do lots of harm to you. Its actually much healthier to drink the normal versions. And they dehydrate you. SO many idiots think soft drinks hydrate you. makes me cringe. Water all the way!!!


Well learn!


You'd be better doin less, but at a higher intensity
And mix it up, maybe 3 days hi-int cardio, 2 days long walking


Lots is good, but 12 hours seem a little too much. Maybe from all the exercise you do

Classic, textbook case of busting your ass and seeing no results because of a few things you're not aware of:

Eating too little (most likely)
Eating the wrong things (definitely)
Plenty of exercise, but the wrong kind and the wrong amount

3 cookies a day, fried sausages and the rest once a week and Coke and you wonder why you have a belly?!!

For diet - read the stickies. More fruit, veg, no fries, no coke, no chocolate/biscuits.

LESS exercise, but MORE intense when you do exercise. Less is definitely more here- 50 mins 3 times a day is nuts - ineffective and a recipe for injury and burnout and for making yourself hungry and holding onto fat. Short but intense workouts are the name of the game.

Think about bodyweight/weight training - want to look good? Then start doing it! check out www.stumptuous.com - the lifting section.

corkcomp

I would start by making small tweaks - no need for anything drastic unless the tweaks dont work !!!

Have only ONE potato with dinner a couple of times per week, load up on different veg instead .. be careful of processed meats like sausages, ideally cut them out completely ... Have brown rice instead of white ... forget the toast for supper - your diet is lacking fruit so have an apple instead ... also ditch the cookies, 3 per day = a lot of sugar / calories ... replace with cottage cheese on ryvita or low GI fruit like apples / pears

MooseJam

Thanks guys, I'll ditch the cookies and coke, switch to water, ditch the white bread and switch to fruit, I'm actually eating no fruit at the mo so thats prolly badly needed,

going to stick to 2*50 min , I'll try to up the intensity, I have also started walking 90 mins a day - not power walking mind, I like a nice stroll, probably won't help much but I'm sure it won't do any harm either,

will also see about changing the white dinner food,

I have a pair of 20lb dumbells, will start doing a few sets with them, though from reading forums they are no use and you really need to be doing squats, well they can't do any harm I'm sure
I'll see how things are in a month, hopefully I'll see some improvement,
thanks all for the advice !

unreggd

MooseJam wrote: »

going to stick to 2*50 min , I'll try to up the intensity, I have also started walking 90 mins a day - not power walking mind, I like a nice stroll, probably won't help much but I'm sure it won't do any harm either

Seriously, you'll get better results doin less, more often

If you do, you'd burn as many calories, but your body will adapt to a new, regular stress, by increasing your metabolism = burns more fat

If you're walkin, try walking over an hour at a brisk pace, not a casual stroll, but not full on power-walking either

Also, a month may be too soon for expecting results

Maybe 6-8 weeks

and take photos

celestial

Again.....- two 50 minutes sessions a day is all of these things:

unnecessary! why exercise for nearly 2 hours a day when you can do 45 mins and then do other things!

a recipe for burnout and potentially picking up niggly aches and pains/injuries etc

ineffective for fat loss as compared to shorter harder efforts

Why not set a target - say cycle x distance in x amount of time and try to beat that week on week - far more motivating and will have much more impressive results as regards your body shape.

MooseJam

celestial wrote: »

unnecessary! why exercise for nearly 2 hours a day when you can do 45 mins and then do other things!

Well I was doing 50 mins with no result, but then diet wasn't the best so maybe it was down to that,

I've been told that I've lost some weight off my face, and thats only after 4 days, so I'll stick at it for a few weeks,

To be honest I'm really disgusted with the few pounds I've put on , just to feel the little jiggle around my waist when moving about ahh , so as much as anything I need to feel I'm putting in the effort

thanks for the advice guys

MooseJam

Well it's 2 months later, have done an hour and 40 mins a day on the bike - only missed second 50 mins once and felt very guilty

Just weighed myself for the first time and I lost 8 pounds in this time, is this win or fail, I'm thinking it's pretty fail tbh, I was hoping for at least 14 pounds

I am however happier now than then, I've lost all the fat on my face and my belly is quite a bit smaller than it was , trousers are looser too have gone from 34 inch to 32 inch waist.

The reason I've lost so little I think is I get mad sugar cravings at night, serious cravings that i've never had before and I binge on rubbish, like the other day I ate a bar of chocolate and an easter egg and a half, another time I'll wake at 3 am and eat half a pack of chocolate digestives, I think I'm binging maybe 3 out of 7 days, and I think its undoing a lot of the effort I'm putting in.

So today I bought a bag of porridge and I am going to eat another meal at maybe 10pm and I'm hoping this will end the cravings.

I am also going to start lifting the dumbells I have - try for an hour a day or if I can't manage that as much as possible untill I can,

I would actually like to gain some weight now but not fat, will I be able to do this eating big bowl cereal for brekkie, standard Irish dinner, big bowl of porridge at night, 1 hour 40 on bike and an hour with dumbells, they are 20k, I am currently 11 st 2 down from 11 10, 5 foot 8

any thoughts ?

southofnowhere

MooseJam wrote: »

Well it's 2 months later, have done an hour and 40 mins a day on the bike - only missed second 50 mins once and felt very guilty

Just weighed myself for the first time and I lost 8 pounds in this time, is this win or fail, I'm thinking it's pretty fail tbh, I was hoping for at least 14 pounds

I am however happier now than then, I've lost all the fat on my face and my belly is quite a bit smaller than it was , trousers are looser too have gone from 34 inch to 32 inch waist.

The reason I've lost so little I think is I get mad sugar cravings at night, serious cravings that i've never had before and I binge on rubbish, like the other day I ate a bar of chocolate and an easter egg and a half, another time I'll wake at 3 am and eat half a pack of chocolate digestives, I think I'm binging maybe 3 out of 7 days, and I think its undoing a lot of the effort I'm putting in.

So today I bought a bag of porridge and I am going to eat another meal at maybe 10pm and I'm hoping this will end the cravings.

I am also going to start lifting the dumbells I have - try for an hour a day or if I can't manage that as much as possible untill I can,

I would actually like to gain some weight now but not fat, will I be able to do this eating big bowl cereal for brekkie, standard Irish dinner, big bowl of porridge at night, 1 hour 40 on bike and an hour with dumbells, they are 20k, I am currently 11 st 2 down from 11 10, 5 foot 8

any thoughts ?

How is that a fail? Well done on your progress. And even better you know how to make even more.

celestial

If I were doing 1hr 40mins of exercise a day (esp cardio work) I would be starving too! That is why you are binging.

Well done on losing the pounds but if you had have done what we all recommended 2 months ago you wouldn't have been binging and waking up starving and would probably have lost even more fat and built more definition and shape.

corkcomp

from reading through your post i reckon the reson for the binging is that you arent eating enough / often enough during the day ... I do a lot of cardio and you REALLY do need to eat enough to compensate for this .. Also, given your stats your body might be at the correct weight / height ratio? if that is the case you cant really loose any more weight unless its muscle mass ...

chuck eastwood

At 5'10 and 80kg I'm not the biggest in the world but i was over 95kg about 2 years ago. i had played football and squash all my life but when i started a new job my training and diet went to **** piled on the pounds eating white bread every day, sugary cereal and fizzy drinks, those god dam tasty pizza's and to many spuds and pasta.

My friend you MUST count the calories in the food you eat if your any way serious about loosing weight and more so if you intend on bulking up.
I do a lot or mountain biking but to really burn you should try a rowing machine if you can afford a decent one.I built a home gym with the help of my trusty welder and over a year or 2 i got some olympic weights to add to my home made smith machine. if your any good at engineering its easy to do. I'll sell you the plans:D
>>Give up bread
>>Give up fizzy drinks
>>Less of the carbs unless your doing a proper calorie count

The late night sugar craving still gets me every night and its a battle i dont always win. God dam my gf and her sweet press.mmmmmmmm :pac:kit kat

lubie76

OP, Sounds to be like you could lay off the excessive cardio and up your weight training. From your stats given, you have a BMI of about 23 which is in the mid range of normal. Now BMI isn't everything but its a fairly good indictation of your overall look particularly if you aren't doing a whole lot of weights(which it sounds like you aren't).
Well done on your weight loss. The fact that it wasn't a huge drop was good because you are more likely to sustain it. Now you have to start defining your shape with weights (take it from a woman - its far more attractive for a guy to have a bit of shape than to be just thin)
Free weights are fine starting off- just perform exercises that use the big muscles - lunges, squats, chest exercises and back exercises. You will see the outcome and then you will be more motivated to develop your weight routine and who knows you may even prefer it to all that cardio (You will definitely see better results).

Bog Butter

Well I lost over 2 stone so far this year, thanks to this forum I might add. If you want to increase weight loss my advice would be to be very strict with your diet. You need to know how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. And you need to know how much calories are in the food you are eating. Trawl through the threads in this forum which relate to weight loss. There is a wealth of info there which will help you lose more weight.

beggars_bush

nothing wrong with some brown bread, is there?

just don't go to excess on it