Help for male family member with big stomach

fussyonion

Hello

I am posting this on behalf of a family member and I hope someone can help.
Let's call him Mike.

Mike is overweight. Most of his weight is his belly, which is quite firm to the touch. That might sound an odd thing to say, but he hasn't got a big floppy wobbly belly. His is quite firm.
His legs are slim and everywhere else is pretty normal, except for his stomach.

He has medical problems which means the only real exercise he can do is swimming, and he swims every day.

He also walks in the pool, brisk walks in the water which are hard going but he does it, along with 20 laps of the pool.

His diet isn't bad; he eats 30g of porridge in the morning with a glass water.

For lunch he'll have a mixed salad (lettuce, peppers, onions, cucumbers, rocket, radishes,) with grilled chicken OR a ham salad sandwich on brown bread with a cup of low cal soup OR home-made fat-free soup.

Dinner would be a small portion of home made Spaghetti Bolognese made with carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, peppers, tinned tomatoes, very little amount of lean minced beef, served with brown pasta.

Snacks are apples/oranges/pears/cups of home made fat free soup and he drinks a lot of water a day.

He has maybe two small bottles of lager at the weekend.

His problem is he can't get the weight down from his belly.
He is getting frustrated that no matter how hard he tries, his belly stays the same and it's a nightmare for him to find clothes to fit him.
Is there anything he can do to help?

runawaybishop

If Mike is gaining weight or maintaining it then he needs to eat less and/or move more if he wants to lose some.

There is nothing wrong with fat by the way. Fat free products tend to just substitute in sugar.

smcgiff

There is no such thing as spot reduction. You cannot just target weight in one area. And yes, that's where men put on weight. We put it on around our middle. So that's why you'll see a big belly and love handles going around the back above the hips.

It's all about portions. What you describe is not unhealthy.

But, it really is as simple as eat less calories than you require in a day to lose weight.

He should work out his BMR (google - this will guide how many calories he currently needs) and if he consumes less than this he will eventually lose weight. It is a long process though.

He should keep a food diary and add up the calories for what he eats. Calorieking is a good website to give estimated calories for food.

Snakeweasel

I'm currently in the weightloss boat myself and whilst I carried/carry it all over, my stomach was the worst, as is the case with most men. Can't agree enough with smcgiff about portion size, I cant tell you the amount of people who ask me how I have been losing weight whilst eating similar food to them, but when they see my portion size I get the usual "Jaysus, I'd be starving if that's all I had", truth is you dont notice much of a difference, I found switching to a smaller plate helped. I'm easily confused so thought I was getting a bigger meal than I was!