Slight Layer of Stomach Fat

DMBandit

Hello fitness gurus, looking for some advice here.

I'm 29, 5'11 and 78kgs. I'm quite fit and healthy, but I have a slight layer of fat over my abs that I can't get rid of. I'm assuming it's actually overall body fat % that's the problem and not that it's isolated to that location?

I've been trying to get rid of it recently by cutting out carbs but it doesn't seem to be working.

I do cardio every single day consisting of soccer, running and swiming. I'm fit as a fiddle really, play competitive soccer so I definately get more than enough cardio.

Gym 3 times a week lifting weights (no cardio there other than the swimming). I lift heavy weights to failure, not doing light weights+high reps. For example I bench 70kg 3 x 8reps so almost my own body weight.

My diet is pretty good, example:

Breakfast: porridge, two boiled eggs, slice of soda bread+butter, bowl of fruit.

Lunch: Regular dinner, say, bowl of homemade soup, chicken breast, veg + just one scoop of mash since i've been cutting down the carbs..would usually be two. Pint of full fat milk.

Later on after the gym I would have either a large can of tuna or else a pot of cottage cheese. Then usually a filled pitta later on again. Pint of skimmed milk,

I eat practically no junk food, maybe once a month. Also drink at least 2lts of water a day.

Can anyone see anything plainfully wrong with what i'm doing coz it just won't shift! Maybe I need to totally cut carbs altogether?
Thanks

token

That's not what would I call a low carb diet. There's still alot carbs there. For me low carb is getting the over whelming majority of carbs from just fruit & veg. EileenG is the resident low carb expert so hopefully she see's this post.

corkcomp

based on how active you are I wouldnt say drop carbs too low. do keep in mind the calories that two pints of milk contain though, and also the carb content.. do you know how many calories you are taking in? i would say drop the pint of full fat milk and see what happens after 5 - 6 weeks .. you are creating a slight deficit here so something ahould happen

Chet Zar

Looks like there could be a fair few calories in your daily intake there. Go and add them all up and see what it comes out as. Two pints of milk per day...?!

You need to get more scientific and it's about two things at the end of the day - getting the calories right and patience! You do need time - your body will shed the fat at the pace it's comfortable with - not at the pace you want it to happen.

DMBandit

Thanks for all the replies, some good suggestions. The thing is, I don't actually want to get any lighter, so cutting down the calories a lot isn't really an option. All i'm trying to do is get rid of a slight (and I mean slight) layer of fat that has kinda always been there even though I do a LOT of training. I want more visable abs basically and to be totally lean. I'm drinking the milk for added protein in my diet basically but its a good suggestion, I think i'll cut it out for a while and see what happens. Any other suggestions?

beegirl

DMBandit wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, some good suggestions. The thing is, I don't actually want to get any lighter, so cutting down the calories a lot isn't really an option. All i'm trying to do is get rid of a slight (and I mean slight) layer of fat that has kinda always been there even though I do a LOT of training. I want more visable abs basically and to be totally lean. I'm drinking the milk for added protein in my diet basically but its a good suggestion, I think i'll cut it out for a while and see what happens. Any other suggestions?

Well if you want to lose fat you kind of have to lose weight! So really what you need is to lose fat and gain muscle, if you want to stay the same weight. As far as I know (and I don't know much by the way :P ) you probably need to do a phase of cutting (losing fat/weight) and then bulking (gaining muscle). Supposedly it's very hard to both at the same time! Although I read this lately, where a guy gained 7lbs muscle and lost 7lbs fat at the same time... using the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program.

http://www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/public/Burn_The_Fat_Holiday_Challenge_2009_Overall_Winners.cfm

Chet Zar

DMBandit wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, some good suggestions. The thing is, I don't actually want to get any lighter, so cutting down the calories a lot isn't really an option. All i'm trying to do is get rid of a slight (and I mean slight) layer of fat that has kinda always been there even though I do a LOT of training. I want more visable abs basically and to be totally lean. I'm drinking the milk for added protein in my diet basically but its a good suggestion, I think i'll cut it out for a while and see what happens. Any other suggestions?

Well now that's an interesting one - I'd love to see how you're gonna get lighter without losing any weight. When you're at it let me know how you can make a bottle of water lighter without pouring out any of the water

I jest. In simple terms - if you want to lose the fat from your belly, you need to reduce your overall bodyfat percentage. Your body will only burn off what it needs, so you need to do one or more of a few things:

1) Reduce calories - fewer calories means your body needs to go into its fat stores to make up the deficit. You are training with weights so muscle loss is not really a concern.

2) Train harder - more intensity/duration etc means more overall calories burned.

So, in other words, you might only need to reduce your weight by a kilo or two to see your abs - maybe more maybe less but you won't know till you do the things listed above (time is also a factor).

You don't mention if you drink?

DMBandit

Ok I realise how stupid that sounds now..but I really don't have that much weight to lose. I'm well toned everywhere else, just that annoying little bit in the stomach that hides my abs slightly and my abs push against. I hear ya though, gonna cut down on the calories and keep the same amount of training up. I drink one night a week by the way, I guess 7 or 8 pints?

Chet Zar

DMBandit wrote: »

Ok I realise how stupid that sounds now..but I really don't have that much weight to lose. I'm well toned everywhere else, just that annoying little bit in the stomach that hides my abs slightly and my abs push against. I hear ya though, gonna cut down on the calories and keep the same amount of training up. I drink one night a week by the way, I guess 7 or 8 pints?

Cool and yep as I mentioned sometimes the secret ingredient really is time. What I mean exactly by that is that you may be doing EXACTLY the right things - it just takes time to bear fruit. So, you may not see your abs now, but that might not be the case 6-7 weeks from now for example. Plus, that last bit of flab takes longest to shift and mid-section flab can be really hard to go - it's often stubborn fat.

Based on what you are saying though, my money is on your calories. I know you do cardio every day, but you have a pretty big breakfast there and then 2 pints of milk a day is a fair bit too. Plus the 'filled' pitta - just how filled exactly?

I would lose the bread from breakfast and the pints of milk and you should see better results within a few weeks at most. If not come back to us and we can look at it again.

Transform

post up your weights program - its quite likely that can me looked at also and doing lots and lots of cardio is just going to make you look flat, slim, skinny even but certainly NOT impressive i.e. six pack, good legs, arms etc

i would have actually said that you are quite a bit on the light side and adding 3-4kg of muscle would make a massive difference to your overall look and will help your sports in every possible way.

finally, i have never seen anyone who looks really impressive that does not do squats, deadlifts, chin ups etc in some form every week, man or woman.

DMBandit

Ok, understood. Not too interested in getting 'impressive' as you put it. Just wanna get rid of this small bit of fat. I don't have a program as such but this is what I did yesterday evening:

Bench Press - 3 x 8reps 70kg
10 long arm chinups (good form) followed by another 6 later on.
10 wide arm pullups followed by 5 again later on.
50 weighted hanging situps 10kg
3 x 10 reps 22.5kg standing biceps curls on each arm(not sure what you call them actually, when the weight is fully hanging down and brought up to shoulder)
Some tricep extensions too.

To be honest I can only do squats during the off season. With the amount of soccer I play, if I do squats the nights before, my hamstrings and quads just can't handle it, and I end up hurting myself. I have never done any deadlifts.

I await the inevitable backlash on this...!

Transform

DMBandit wrote: »

Ok, understood. Not too interested in getting 'impressive' as you put it. Just wanna get rid of this small bit of fat. I don't have a program as such but this is what I did yesterday evening:

Bench Press - 3 x 8reps 70kg
10 long arm chinups (good form) followed by another 6 later on.
10 wide arm pullups followed by 5 again later on.
50 weighted hanging situps 10kg
3 x 10 reps 22.5kg standing biceps curls on each arm(not sure what you call them actually, when the weight is fully hanging down and brought up to shoulder)
Some tricep extensions too.

To be honest I can only do squats during the off season. With the amount of soccer I play, if I do squats the nights before, my hamstrings and quads just can't handle it, and I end up hurting myself. I have never done any deadlifts.

I await the inevitable backlash on this...!

your program is in no way progressive so how can you expect to get rid of the fat if you are not assessing your progress through increased strength?

BS on the leg work also - for gods sake body weight squats and swiss ball leg curls i have clients in their 50-60s doing with no ill effects for their tennis, golf hell even bridge club!

DMBandit

Sorry, when I said squats I meant heavily weighted squats. Can you give me an example of what I could do?

Transform

you could do some squats., lunges, machine leg curls even back extensions

add weight to your pull ups i.e. 5-10kg and drop the reps to no more than 5 weighted ones for 3-4 sets

at least 50 press ups in sessions break them up with the leg work if you wish

this core program and work it with heavier weights if you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTvBNEDg_oM

and all these stretches in every session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXNeFsO3TM

funny you do more work on biceps curls than any other exercise so man please get the priority right and do the stuff that is going to count.

This is very general and aimed at where you are so hope this helps and focus on getting stronger mainly rather than just body fat and i guarantee the fat will take care of itself.

All the best

legend365

DMBandit wrote: »

Bench Press - 3 x 8reps 70kg
3 x 10 reps 22.5kg standing biceps curls

That cant be right :O

Ciaran500

Transform wrote: »

and all these stretches in every session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXNeFsO3TM

Started dedicating more time to stretching last night and was using this video as a guide. At the start you mention that they're mainly lower body stretches is there anything that you would recommend adding to all these for the upper body?

Thanks ever get annoyed giving out all this info that you normally charge for? :-p

Transform

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Started dedicating more time to stretching last night and was using this video as a guide. At the start you mention that they're mainly lower body stretches is there anything that you would recommend adding to all these for the upper body?

Thanks ever get annoyed giving out all this info that you normally charge for? :-p

i will try to get another video up on upper body stretching asap.

DMBandit

legend365 wrote: »

That cant be right :O

Why not? It is right.

Transform, thanks for the much needed advice, just what I needed. I'll get right on it.

legend365

You lift a 22.5kg dumbell doing bicep curl with one arm, but only 70kg on bench?

I dont understand how your arms could be that strong and the bench not higher O_o

injured365

legend365 wrote: »

You lift a 22.5kg dumbell doing bicep curl with one arm, but only 70kg on bench?

I dont understand how your arms could be that strong and the bench not higher O_o

Considering the fact that the bench uses your chest and triceps and the bicep curl uses your bicep.

DMBandit

I can lift more on the bench but then not as many reps. To be honest whenever I bench it seems to use my arms (biceps and triceps) way more than my chest anyway. And I do use a really wide grip but it always works my arms way more. Any ideas on that? It's as if my chest just lets my arms do all the work. I've looked at loads of technique videos and I can swear i'm doing it right. Bringing the bar fully down and making sure my shoulder blades are pinched together as much as I can.