How to tell if it is stomach fat or stretched out ab muscles?

rox5

Ever since I was little even before I put on weight during my teen years, I have always had a bit of a flabby stomach. It got worse when I put on lots of weights, it gave my stomach stretch marks.

Now I lost a stone about two years ago, and have been not only struggling to lose more, but struggling with this stomach of mine as it is still flabby.

I do all the things necessary to give me a flat stomach, but is is hard to keep it up when it can sometimes show no results. That and the fact that like in my title, I cannot tell if it is just stomach fat, or the muscles themselves, as I have never had flat abs at all in my life. It be hard to tell as well that if I need muscle-strengethening exercises or surgery to tighten them.

Can someone help me out? Thanks.

Mellor

Your muscles aren't stretched out. If you stomach is flabby, then its because of flab/fat. Nothing else.

I do all the things necessary to give me a flat stomach

What are these "necessary" things you are doing? It's likely that they aren't going to help remove any stomach fat. All the ab exercises in the world won't help burn stomach fat.

rox5

Mellor wrote: »

Your muscles aren't stretched out. If you stomach is flabby, then its because of flab/fat. Nothing else.


What are these "necessary" things you are doing? It's likely that they aren't going to help remove any stomach fat. All the ab exercises in the world won't help burn stomach fat.

Well as well as doing ab exerices, I try walking or running, and eating the foods that they say burns stomach fat, but I suppose its my own fault, I find it hard to keep it going.

hidinginthebush

rox5 wrote: »

Well as well as doing ab exerices, I try walking or running, and eating the foods that they say burns stomach fat, but I suppose its my own fault, I find it hard to keep it going.

There aren't any foods that "burn stomach fat". It's actually quite hard to isolate an area for fat loss. It all boils down to the fact that if you want to burn fat / lose weight, you need to use more calories than you consume. Maybe try to keep a diary of what you eat (and be honest, you'd be surprised how much calories there is in a single biscuit, for example), I'm sure if you post up your daily diet people here will be helpful to you.

Having a read of the nutrition 101 sticky in the nutrition and diet sub-forum is a great place to start reading! Best of luck! I know it's hard to keep it going, I have that problem myself, but I just have to try to tell myself that:
(a) cooking a healthy meal will take just as long as an unhealthy meal
(b) cooking a healthy meal will generally cost less than an unhealthy meal
(c) cooking a healthy meal from fresh ingredients will taste nicer than some over-salted, over-sweetened sauce from a jar
(d) I won't feel as bloated and lethargic after a healthy meal
(e) I won't have any guilt or remorse after filling myself on something fresh and homemade that I know is healthy compared to if I gorged myself on a takeaway

It started off as a bit of a mantra I had to tell myself everyday, but after a short period of adjustment, it really wasn't that hard to lean towards the better option every time.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I know what the op is getting at. Some people are more barrel stomached with prominent upper abs while other lucky feckers are narrow hipped with slender abs.......however this difference only comes into play at extremely low body fat percentages.

Having visible abs is all diet, a fact I know but find hard to put into practice myself. Most trainers I know dont do any specific ab exercises as most free weight movements (standing > sitting > lying down) have enough stabilisation via the core to work the abs enough. Some planks and their variations are good for strength and building endurance in the core.

There are lot of types of being fat, I think personally built in this photo is a bit much but hey I would take it...