Weight melting off but belly remains.

MyKeyG

OK short back story. I'm 30, I gave up alcohol eight weeks ago and started a diet five weeks ago. My breakfast involves a few pieces of fruit. My lunch a meat salad. And my dinner is usually veg and meat. I go to the gym 6 days a week 40 minutes jog at 10kph on the treadmill. I treat myself to sweets about three times a week but I'm a sucker for caffeine free diet coke and I drink about four litres every day (I have CAD and avoid caffeine at all costs). Any other snacks are fruit and raw veg. I don't eat bread or potatoes because I don't like them and I eat limited amounts of pasta and rice. I also don't eat eggs (I have high cholesterol) and dairy products because I actually don't like them either.

Now when I started the diet I was 16st I'm now 14st,1lbs which is not bad going in my view (I managed to get down from 17st just from kicking the grog) but my belly just doesn't seem to want to shift. My jaw line has reappeared and my neck and chin are no longer one but the belly is acting stubborn. I'm delighted with my progress but it's discouraging to still have a paunch sticking through my shirts.

It shows progress in the morning but as I type this it seems like I could balance my tea (green) on it if the mug wasn't so hot. I'm anxious about having stretched my skin or am I simply bloating during the day? Should I try changing my exercise to a different machine that might target belly fat? Am I losing the weight too quick and my belly is just taking time to catch up?

It's the first time I've broken 200lbs (I'm 5'10") since I started piling on the weight at 23 so I'm a relative stranger to getting into prime shape.

I realise Google is a fine resource but it has so many conflicting opinions I thought I'd ask here.

Mellor

The bad news is that you can't target belly fat. It will come off when it comes off. If you lose it from everywhere else, it will come off the belly eventually.

The good news is that you lost weight at a huge rate, well done. and if you keep doing what you are doing you'll keep dropping weight. Expect the rate ot weight loss to slow, this isn't because you are doing something wrong, just because you simply can't keeo going that good forever.

Mack_1111

I thought I was reading my own story there Your weight loss will slow but there will be fat loss all the same even if its not evident in the mirror or the scales. Get a measuring tape and keep a record of your mid section circumference, it will reassure you that your moving in the right direction and keep you motivated.

Degsy

Belly fat is usually the first place to go on and the last place to come off..it takes time unfortunately.

Wollwead

MyKeyG wrote: »

OK short back story. I'm 30, I gave up alcohol eight weeks ago and started a diet five weeks ago. My breakfast involves a few pieces of fruit. My lunch a meat salad. And my dinner is usually veg and meat. I go to the gym 6 days a week 40 minutes jog at 10kph on the treadmill. I treat myself to sweets about three times a week but I'm a sucker for caffeine free diet coke and I drink about four litres every day (I have CAD and avoid caffeine at all costs). Any other snacks are fruit and raw veg. I don't eat bread or potatoes because I don't like them and I eat limited amounts of pasta and rice. I also don't eat eggs (I have high cholesterol) and dairy products because I actually don't like them either.

Now when I started the diet I was 16st I'm now 14st,1lbs which is not bad going in my view (I managed to get down from 17st just from kicking the grog) but my belly just doesn't seem to want to shift. My jaw line has reappeared and my neck and chin are no longer one but the belly is acting stubborn. I'm delighted with my progress but it's discouraging to still have a paunch sticking through my shirts.

It shows progress in the morning but as I type this it seems like I could balance my tea (green) on it if the mug wasn't so hot. I'm anxious about having stretched my skin or am I simply bloating during the day? Should I try changing my exercise to a different machine that might target belly fat? Am I losing the weight too quick and my belly is just taking time to catch up?

It's the first time I've broken 200lbs (I'm 5'10") since I started piling on the weight at 23 so I'm a relative stranger to getting into prime shape.

I realise Google is a fine resource but it has so many conflicting opinions I thought I'd ask here.

Well done on the weight loss dude. You've done extremely well on dropping the weight thus far and i've been there myself and am continuing to drop small amounts of bodyfat bit by bit myself. What I feel you should be looking to do is go and see a good personal trainer, one that can give you good nutritional advice along with a good routine at the gym. You don't have to go the the PT every week, once a month-6 weeks will do the job to drill your tekkers with the exercises.

You probably need to change some things with your diet (coke) and eat more at breakfast (porridge/eggs!/steak/bacon) and do some resistance training along with your running. If it's something you'd be interested in, post up your location and someone here can reccomend a good PT. I'm glad I went to a PT as it educated me and gave a better idea of what my body is capable of. You're missing out on a lot of potential by just running on a treadmill IMO.

Best of luck:D

MyKeyG

Thanks for the support and advice guys. Yeah I was thinking about a PT once I move gyms in January. I injured my back a few weeks ago but I plan do do spinning and box-a-cise (I think that's what it's called) once I'm back to full fitness.

Onikage

Nice work so far. As above, resistance training will do you good as it will build muscle which helps burn fat. Patience is the key!

LK_Dave

Forget running and long endurance cardio. Check out Crossfit. You can do a load at home without any equipment.