How to lose belly fat?

Messi2

Hi guys would appreciate some help.

Am fairly fit after two months in the gym and would like to target belly fat and tone up a lot, I lost weight but it isn't 'toned' yet.

Apart from sit-ups and running, are there any other main exercises to target the stomach?

Am a bit of a novice, thanks.

Oryx

You cant spot reduce fat from problem areas. If you lose it off your tum, you will lose it everywhere else as well. There are all kinds of core exercises you can do to strengthen the whole area, and you should ask at your gym about them, but they wont reduce the fat from there.

pachey100

You cant spot reduce fat from your abs. It has to come of from all over the body. I would look into HIIT or kettlebell training both are fantastic for burning fat.
Whats your diet like?

We must have posted at the same time ^

Messi2

My diet is pretty decent.

Morning: Special K and yogurt.
Lunch: Crackers & Cheese / small sandwich / sometimes just an ice pop.
Dinner: Eggs in some space or form but not fried, waffles/hashbrowns/chicken/pasta - change it up every day.

gymsoldier

Messi2 wrote: »

My diet is pretty decent.

Morning: Special K and yogurt.
Lunch: Crackers & Cheese / small sandwich / sometimes just an ice pop.
Dinner: Eggs in some space or form but not fried, waffles/hashbrowns/chicken/pasta - change it up every day.

Im just back from a jog so too tired to type out diet ideas for you.
But, as I have in bold, I hope you change it everyday from what you just posted.
Not to be mean or harsh, but in short, your diet is pretty terrible. Check the Stickies for ideas.

Oryx

Messi2 wrote: »

My diet is pretty decent.

Morning: Special K and yogurt.
Lunch: Crackers & Cheese / small sandwich / sometimes just an ice pop.
Dinner: Eggs in some space or form but not fried, waffles/hashbrowns/chicken/pasta - change it up every day.

Im no dietician, but even I can see your diet is poor. The highlighted items would be a problem as I see it, junk nutrition that could be swapped for something much better.

No fruit or veg mentioned there at all.

sf80

cut out the pasta as well, or you might as well be eating sugar

pachey100

Messi2 wrote: »

My diet is pretty decent.

Morning: Special K and yogurt.
Lunch: Crackers & Cheese / small sandwich / sometimes just an ice pop.
Dinner: Eggs in some space or form but not fried, waffles/hashbrowns/chicken/pasta - change it up every day.

That is not what I would call pretty decent.

Ok scrap that diet and start something like this. This is what I was eating a while back to cut some fat after I came back from abroad.

Breakfast.
2 eggs poached one slice spelt toast or oatmeal porridge with flax seeds and banana.

Morning Snack.
Grapefruit,nuts or protein shake.

Lunch.
Chicken with brown rice and plenty of veg or a tin of tuna with brown rice and veg.

Post Workout Meal.
Oatmeal and a protein shake.

Dinner.
Often fish with brown rice and veg or something like chick pea casa role.

These are just some of the meals I was eating.

Keep your diet clean do cardio and weights and you cannot fail to lose fat.
Just always keep in mind what worked for me might not work you.
I also do kick boxing as well as weight training so I was burning most of what I was eating.

Do you drink?

gymsoldier

pachey100 wrote: »

Morning Snack.
Grapefruit,nuts or protein shake.

Were you using youre nuts as a protein source? Generaly Id say use nuts as a source of fats.

stratowide

Fat is indiscriminate..It's very PC.Goes on all over and burn's off the same.:D

Transform

Messi2 wrote: »

My diet is pretty decent.

Morning: Special K and yogurt.
Lunch: Crackers & Cheese / small sandwich / sometimes just an ice pop.
Dinner: Eggs in some space or form but not fried, waffles/hashbrowns/chicken/pasta - change it up every day.

man your diet is farr from good - just look at working on better food quality as point one and move on from there.

pachey100

gymsoldier wrote: »

Were you using youre nuts as a protein source? Generaly Id say use nuts as a source of fats.

Sorry should have been more specific almond were the nuts in question which I was using just as a generally nutritious food. I find when your cutting you can take away foods that your body needs to function at its very best. Almonds are a great source of a huge range of great stuff take a look at this site.

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/almonds.html

jive

sf80 wrote: »

cut out the pasta as well, or you might as well be eating sugar

ಠ_ಠ


Ignore this advice. Pasta is fine but for weight loss you may want to limit your pasta intake as carbs aren't necessary and pasta is fairly calorie dense. Wholewheat pasta is better but normal pasta is grand.

pachey100

jive wrote: »

ಠ_ಠ


Ignore this advice. Pasta is fine but for weight loss you may want to limit your pasta intake as carbs aren't necessary and pasta is fairly calorie dense. Wholewheat pasta is better but normal pasta is grand.

I agree but you could go one better and buy spelt pasta you can get it in any health food shop.It has a far better energy release time than wheat its much slower.

jive

pachey100 wrote: »

I agree but you could go one better and buy spelt pasta you can get it in any health food shop.It has a far better energy release time than wheat its much slower.

Fair enough but your average joe doesn't have to worry all that much about this stuff!! If OP simply cuts calories it'd be a good start. No point in getting into nutrient timing and the GI of foods unless he comes in complaining he cant get passed 9% body fat or something :pac:

K09

I have been told to increase my claorie intake hugely - to 3500 calories a day - as I want to put on weight and have been working in gym and doing running.

Don't I need to take in carbs for energy? Especially for running/sports?

belle2e

I have belly fat too,i cycle alot but i also eat what i like.
Anyone got any good trainging programme to get me fit

metamorphosis

The problem is what you eat - you will have a very very very hard time getting the belly you want eating what you want

Yeah Buddy

pachey100 wrote: »

Do you drink?

After a summer of eating crap all day, along with the occasional workout, I came in at 13.5% body fat last week. My diet can be easily remedied, that was 100% down to the boredom of the summer holidays. I'll be working out 4 or 5 times a week come September too. Ideally I'd like to get below 10%, there's just one obstacle - drinking, college drinking at that. Is it possible?

Laisurg

Your diet sucks a bit, if you want to lose fat stay well away from pasta, eat lean meats, eggs are not really great for losing weight as well, how much do you drink? nothing puts on belly fat like lager.

Laisurg

K09 wrote: »

I have been told to increase my claorie intake hugely - to 3500 calories a day - as I want to put on weight and have been working in gym and doing running.

Don't I need to take in carbs for energy? Especially for running/sports?

Yes if you're going to be doing a lot of cardio then carbs are a must, good carbs though such as whole wheat bread and brown rice.

casio4

I love this thread I got loads of tips from it, as I like a drink myself and read here that lager puts on the weight what alcoholic drink would have the fewest calories anyone?

Wolflikeme

jive wrote: »

ಠ_ಠ


Ignore this advice. Pasta is fine but for weight loss you may want to limit your pasta intake as carbs aren't necessary and pasta is fairly calorie dense. Wholewheat pasta is better but normal pasta is grand.

I'm no expert, but surely this is incorrect!!?

FYG

Okay, I'm looking to lose a bit of fat. I'm by no means overweight, but I would like to cut down on my bodyfat % until I can see my abs.

So, I'm looking to maintain a calorie deficit until then, and after I will allow myself to enjoy the foods I'm giving up a bit more.

I'm not in charge of the food or shopping in my house - my Mom does all that - so I'm not able to stick to such healthy diets like the ones which were recommended in this thread.

Anyway, my question is: even if I'm not eating a "decent" diet, nutrition wise, will I still lose fat if I maintain a calorie deficit?

cc87

FYG wrote: »

Okay, I'm looking to lose a bit of fat. I'm by no means overweight, but I would like to cut down on my bodyfat % until I can see my abs.

So, I'm looking to maintain a calorie deficit until then, and after I will allow myself to enjoy the foods I'm giving up a bit more.

I'm not in charge of the food or shopping in my house - my Mom does all that - so I'm not able to stick to such healthy diets like the ones which were recommended in this thread.

Anyway, my question is: even if I'm not eating a "decent" diet, nutrition wise, will I still lose fat if I maintain a calorie deficit?

Can you not talk to her? or does she force feed you?

Are you doing any form of exercise ATM?? Its all well and good being in single digit bodyfat but its pretty useless if you are just skinny and have no abzz to speak of.

Chances are if you arent in control of your diet you wont be in a calorie deficit either

FYG

cc87 wrote: »

Can you not talk to her? or does she force feed you?

Are you doing any form of exercise ATM?? Its all well and good being in single digit bodyfat but its pretty useless if you are just skinny and have no abzz to speak of.

Chances are if you arent in control of your diet you wont be in a calorie deficit either

Well, yes, I can talk to her and influence the food to some extent... but I'm not the only one in the family.

Yes, I go jogging every day and do some bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, etc.

I'm in control of my diet, outside of the cooked meals... and I've calorie counted before, and I generally have a deficit.

cc87

FYG wrote: »

Well, yes, I can talk to her and influence the food to some extent... but I'm not the only one in the family.

Yes, I go jogging every day and do some bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, etc.

I'm in control of my diet, outside of the cooked meals... and I've calorie counted before, and I generally have a deficit.

Well talk to her so, it cant be that hard to come to an agreement without offending the other family members.

What exactly does some exercise mean? Jogging is grand and all but it wont do much in terms of muscle building which if you want some abs should be your goal. Im not saying join a gym and start throwing weights around but get some kinda program going, bodyweight exercise can be a savage workout if properly put together.

Unless you are different, cooked meals tend to form the main portion of many peoples calorie intake.

How are you calorie counting?

FYG

cc87 wrote: »

What exactly does some exercise mean? Jogging is grand and all but it wont do much in terms of muscle building which if you want some abs should be your goal. Im not saying join a gym and start throwing weights around but get some kinda program going, bodyweight exercise can be a savage workout if properly put together.

How are you calorie counting?

I'm not really looking to build muscle in particular. I am fairly well-built anyway and am fairly happy with my body at the moment. I already have decent abs, I can feel them, and see them at times when tensed; however, this is a small layer of fat covering them, so I just need to lose some fat. I would hazard a guess that I am at around 12-14% body fat at the moment. That is just a guess, haven't had it measured.

How you got any links to any "savage" bodyweight workouts? Would love to follow something structured.

All the above is secondary goal mind. My main goal is to get fit and get into the running scene.

The times I calorie counted, I used the information on the packaging if there was any, or else I used the website that provides nutritional information for all different types of food.

Mellor

Wolflikeme wrote: »

I'm no expert, but surely this is incorrect!!?

No its correct, you body needs protein and fat to function. They have functions that can't be replaced.
It doesn't need carbs, it can get energy from protein and fat. Thats all carbs provide.
That doesn't mean that its optimal to eat zero carbs, there's a difference between survival and optimal functioning.
A lot of athletes need carbs to perform at their best, but eat more than is nessecery.

FYG wrote: »

Anyway, my question is: even if I'm not eating a "decent" diet, nutrition wise, will I still lose fat if I maintain a calorie deficit?

To give you a straight answer, yes its possible.
I might not be ideal, but a deficit on less than ideal food is still a deficit. What exactly are the foods?
Just don't eat biscuits and sweets as snacks and have sensible portions of dinner, these might need to be a lot smaler than the rest of the family until you've shed that last bit of fat

FYG

Mellor wrote: »

To give you a straight answer, yes its possible.
I might not be ideal, but a deficit on less than ideal food is still a deficit. What exactly are the foods?
Just don't eat biscuits and sweets as snacks and have sensible portions of dinner, these might need to be a lot smaler than the rest of the family until you've shed that last bit of fat

Thanks. I don't eat chocolate, biscuits, crisps, ice-cream, jellies, etc., or drink any fizzy drinks.

The food I'm on about is like processed foods (I think that's what they are called), like chicken and fish-fingers. I don't eat them everyday or anything, I am just wondering.

Mellor

They aren't ideal, but you know this. and they aren't really part of a healthy diet.
But in terms of weight loss, without getting too much into the minute details, it won't make a differnce to weight loss as long as you are eating the same amount of calories.

But those foods do make the calories harder to control. 100g of frozen and breadcrumbed chick or fish could be 1.5 to 2 times the calories of frech chicken or fish. Watch portion sizes

mytwocents

Laisurg wrote: »

Your diet sucks a bit, if you want to lose fat stay well away from pasta, eat lean meats, eggs are not really great for losing weight as well, how much do you drink? nothing puts on belly fat like lager.

Just want to say I'm finding this thread really interesting.

This year I put on a good bit of weight, I didn't exercise at all and had quite a bit of stress. Anyways I'm back in the gym now (going about 4 times a week). I'm doing weights every second time I go to the gym, then running approx 4 km, cycling about 8km and doing either 20 mins on the crosstrainer or 10 mins rowing.

I'm trying to improve my diet and have completely cut out all junk (by that I mean chocolate, sweets, crisps, chips, pizza etc). I don't drink that much and to be honest it wouldn't bother me going weeks without a drink. But as I'm trying to eat healthily whenever my mum is cooking a dinner that I don't think is healthy enough I have eggs of some sort...why would you not recommend eggs for losing weight? I thought because they're protein rich that they'd give me quite a lot of energy over a long period?

I'm currently 9 stone and hope to get down to just over 8 stone so I want to lose quite a bit of weight.

Mellor

mytwocents wrote: »

why would you not recommend eggs for losing weight? I thought because they're protein rich that they'd give me quite a lot of energy over a long period?

Eggs are perfectly fine. I have no idea why the previous suggested that they weren't ideal for weight loss

freckles1234

I started to make granola which is delicious. Its full of different types of nuts and dried fruit. Very good for you. Check it out

freckles1234

casio4 wrote: »

I love this thread I got loads of tips from it, as I like a drink myself and read here that lager puts on the weight what alcoholic drink would have the fewest calories anyone?

I drink bulmers. I think it s full of sugar