Help with the dreaded muffin top!

jnjd

Hi

I'm looking for some advice. I have a muffin top which I just cannot get rid of, I had my third baby exactly a year ago and while i have generally lost all the weight elsewhere I just cannot shift the weight on the top of my hips at the back and my lower stomach area.

Help! I walk 6km about three to four times a week and would take me 45-50mins and I also do 300 sit ups four to five times a week. My diet is generally quite good but I do like my chocolate/crisps/wine occassionally. I try to live by the 80/20 rule.

Any advise would be appreciated.

jugger0

Stop the situps and never do them again! useless exercise. You just need to lose fat, you cant spot reduce fat with situps! take in less calories and exercise, walking is... meh. Can you run? start doing bodyweight exercises too, squats, lunges, pushups etc.

Frogdog

Hey OP,

Well if you're living by the 80/20 rule and not seeing any changes you might need to change to the 90/10 rule for a short while.

First off, all the sit-ups and walking in the world won't do much good if your diet isn't up to scratch. Post it up here to see if we can make some small changes. What you think is healthy may not be too healthy in reality.

Secondly, sit-ups aren't a great exercise in my opinion. There's much better ones out there. Do you lift any weights? You'll burn plenty of calories, look good and feel good all at the same time. Have a look at the "Women and Weights" thread here on this forum for some inspirational stories.

Thirdly, if you could mix up the walking with a few short sprints in between, just to get you breathing harder and burn more calories.

So, in essence, you need to do/sort out 3 things in my opinion (in terms of importance) to burn fat.

1. Diet
2. Lift heavy weights
3. Short, fast bursts of cardio

Also, have a read of the stickies here and in the Nutrition and Diet subforum.

Best of luck!

jnjd

jnjd wrote: »

Hi

I'm looking for some advice. I have a muffin top which I just cannot get rid of, I had my third baby exactly a year ago and while i have generally lost all the weight elsewhere I just cannot shift the weight on the top of my hips at the back and my lower stomach area.

Help! I walk 6km about three to four times a week and would take me 45-50mins and I also do 300 sit ups four to five times a week. My diet is generally quite good but I do like my chocolate/crisps/wine occassionally. I try to live by the 80/20 rule.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Do cardio kickboxing maybe? Great for burning fat and toning muscle.
Stop the sit-ups that's for sure.

jnjd

Thanks for the replies. I thought I was doing good with sit ups obviously not!

My diet would generally be:
Breakfast: bowl of cereal and a cup of tea
Lunch: Sandwich with ham cheese tomato etc, apple, yoghurt and a soft drink
Mid afternoon: cup of tea
Dinner: either meat and 3 veg, pasta with chicken
After dinner: if i'm good just a cup of tea, if i'm bad a chocolate bar with it.

I don't really snack, but on the odd day I could.

Will try to add in a few short sprints into the walk,try some lunches and look into the women and weights thread.

Thanks again

Frogdog

jnjd wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I thought I was doing good with sit ups obviously not!

My diet would generally be:
Breakfast: bowl of cereal and a cup of tea
Lunch: Sandwich with ham cheese tomato etc, apple, yoghurt and a soft drink
Mid afternoon: cup of tea
Dinner: either meat and 3 veg, pasta with chicken
After dinner: if i'm good just a cup of tea, if i'm bad a chocolate bar with it.

I don't really snack, but on the odd day I could.

Will try to add in a few short sprints into the walk,try some lunches and look into the women and weights thread.

Thanks again

Well to be honest OP, your diet is all that great. Particularly so if you want to lose fat.

I've highlighted the above foods that need to go and should be replaced by something healthy.

First off, the bowl of cereal. Whether it's Special K, Bran Flakes, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies etc. - they're all full of sugar and more or less devoid of nutrition. If you have to have a cereal porridge or no-added sugar muesli would be much healthier alternatives. I would recommend having some form of eggs for breakfast however. Boiled, scrambled, poached, omelettes etc. Throw in some form of veg and you couldn't have a healthier breakfast.

Lunch - the sandwich. Bread is again nearly devoid of nutrition. And in my opinion has no place in a diet for someone looking to lose weight/fat. It is very calorie heavy and is usually made up of a lot of processed ingredients. A salad with plenty of different ingredients would be far, far better. The soft drink is a pretty obvious one. Replace with water, milk etc.

Dinner seems fine, just go easy on the portions of pasta, potatoes, rice etc. No more than a quarter of your plate. The rest should be made up of veg and meat/fish.

After dinner, again the chocolate bar is a no-brainer. Having that chocolate bar could be the difference between you losing weight that day or not. Have something else as a snack - an apple, a small handful of nuts, a boiled egg or two, a tub of cottage cheese or greek yoghurt etc.

And like I said in my previous post, if you don't sort out your diet first and foremost, then the exercise you're doing won't do you much good. You cannot out-train a bad diet.

And don't forget to read the stickies too!

Frogdog

Frogdog wrote: »

After dinner, again the chocolate bar is a no-brainer. Having that chocolate bar could be the difference between you losing weight that day or not. Have something else as a snack - an apple, a small handful of nuts, a boiled egg or two, a tub of cottage cheese or greek yoghurt etc.

The nuts are healthier but way easier to go overboard on calories with...

Frogdog

bluewolf wrote: »

The nuts are healthier but way easier to go overboard on calories with...

Oh I know, that's why I added in the "small"!