Want to lose the belly

Recon

What are good exercises to lose weight from the mid section without losing muscle from chest arms etc? I put on a bit of a belly but I still have fairly strong abs, as in I'm able to do full sit ups without anything holding my feet down. Any advice is welcome.

Mr E

Hiya Recon,

There are approximately 2,354,544 threads about weightloss in this forum (I've counted!)

The key is cardio cardio cardio. Whether its on the bike, treadmill, rower or out on the road, you'll burn fat. Don't worry about losing muscle off the arms and chest. As long as you keep up weight training, you won't lose a thing. Look for the current thread on 'Optimal Fat Burning Zone' for a good read on intensity etc.

Hope this helps.

rocky

in addition to TmB's advice:

most important in loosing the belly is imo a good diet, as has been suggested before in other threads, eat complex carbs, protein (tuna, cottage cheese, chicken), healthy fats (mixed nuts, EFAs); usually a 50/30/20 for carbs/protein/fat works well, or if you want to be hardcore , 40/40/20; aim for 1-1.5g of protein per pound of LBM; then, lose the sodas, fast foods, sweets (not saying you have those )

be consistent in your weight training, 3-4 days a week, go heavy on the lifts, prefer low rep heavy (6-12) to light high rep (over 15).

cardio in your off weight lifting days (can be same days, but if you have energy for cardio, may mean you're not intense enough in your weight training). I suggest for cardio, try HIIT, either on a row machine, or running outside, 5 min/session should be enough (not including warming up and cooling down). Again, if after 5 min of HIIT you feel you can do more, you're not training hard enough.

Ofcourse, moderation is key, so start gradually (proper form is extremely important, if you don't have it, decrease the weight), and work your way up.

hope this helps,

Corksham

Best of luck with the weight loss

Cardio and good diet, end off.

If you want to "keep" muscle then hit the weights

You cant spot reduce fat so as it starts to go from belly it'll go all round

seamus

Note that as a male, the belly is the last place you'll lose the excess, though while you train you will see a definite reduction all round, including the belly. Don't get discouraged.

Recon

hey thanks for the replies. Something I'm not sure about is 'Optimal Fat Burning Zone'. What's it mean?

Also what's HIIT?

I do a bit of canoeing/kayaking. That help?

joejoem

Recon wrote:

I do a bit of canoeing/kayaking. That help?

This is probably why you still have strenth in your abs, Ive done canoeing for years and you wont lose weight unless you are training heavily (like everything else) and racing alot. Like all the advice above, cardio is the answer.

incisor71

seamus wrote:

Note that as a male, the belly is the last place you'll lose the excess, though while you train you will see a definite reduction all round, including the belly. Don't get discouraged.

I was unemployed two years back and used the daytime to go to the gym 5/6 times weekly, but never succeeded in shifting the belly properly in spite of the intense cardio input. My eating habits were good and I wasn't boozing any more than once a month. Seems like life has to enforce a no-fun policy to get that elusive flat stomach .... or maybe it's just an inevitable part of being a male 30-something!! :mad:

Are there certain places on the body where the fat tends to be lost first? I tend to carry more weight around my legs and hips than I'd like - does every other body zone except the belly have to be drained of its wobble factor first before I get to the idyllic stage of balancing a ruler on my tum-tum.....?

Also.. I'm not hoping to spot-reduce, but surely some exercises are better than others for such holistic fat loss?

rasherboy

yeh your @ss stomach and your thighs tend to be the places that gain weight fastest and are harder to lose it off! although some people may be exceptions to this

Sangre

Yes, there is quite a bit of genetic variation with regards to places fat will come on and fall off first.

If you were training 5/6 times a week and not losing the gut you were either a) not doing it for long enough b) doing something wrong.
That something wrong could be diet or exercise style

incisor71

Sangre wrote:

If you were training 5/6 times a week and not losing the gut you were either a) not doing it for long enough b) doing something wrong.
That something wrong could be diet or exercise style

If I had responded earlier to Sangre, I would only have been able to point the finger at the two cookies I had per day at the time - I needed at least that much emotional comfort in the form of food, coz being unemployed was no fun, and I didn't have the cash to spend on good-quality food, let alone training supplements. Training hard for 5 months obviously wasn't enough without proper nutrition.

However, having started colon hydrotherapy treatments mid-April of this year, I've discovered that the gut problem was largely down to internal bloating. With a strictly controlled diet, this situation is improving very rapidly, I'm delighted to say. Reduction of the bloating was an unexpected side effect, rather than the particular condition that I was hoping to eliminate (recurrent skin infections, which, as an aside, have also cleared up dramatically).

Of course, there's still a layer of fat that needs to be shed, and I'm addressing that with increasingly tough cardio sessions, but at least the gastronomic reasons for having a globular belly are gradually being taken out of the picture.

annR

Congratulations to you guys for trying to lose the belly!

Is it my imagination or are there a lot of late 20's early 30's guys around with major bellies?

Imposter

annR wrote:

Congratulations to you guys for trying to lose the belly!

Is it my imagination or are there a lot of late 20's early 30's guys around with major bellies?

No it's not your imagination. There are a lot of females with major bellies too though! :eek:

rainglow

no!!! Not another thread about Irish women/ men being fat and us all in general being ugly!

Back to the OP: there's also some scientific evidence that calories from refined grains, white sugar and alcohol are stored primarily in the fat cells on the abdomen. This article explains better than I ever could. If you google it you'll find a lot of information about this subject.

Supercell

incisor71 wrote:

However, having started colon hydrotherapy treatments mid-April of this year, I've discovered that the gut problem was largely down to internal bloating. With a strictly controlled diet, this situation is improving very rapidly, I'm delighted to say. Reduction of the bloating was an unexpected side effect, rather than the particular condition that I was hoping to eliminate (recurrent skin infections, which, as an aside, have also cleared up dramatically).

I read a bit about colon treatments for skin conditions and some people swear by colonics for clearing up skin ailments amonst other things, havent heard of "colon hydrotherapy" though, is it a type of colonic ?

incisor71

Longfield wrote:

I read a bit about colon treatments for skin conditions and some people swear by colonics for clearing up skin ailments amonst other things,

I'm now one of those people who swear by it; skin conditions that I'd suffered from for years, unaided by conventional medicine's creams, steroids etc., have improved in a matter of weeks. But I gotta warn you, the combination of diet, accompanying herbal medicine and ongoing clinical treatments is pretty hard going. And it can be expensive. But very well worth it in the long run.

Longfield wrote:

havent heard of "colon hydrotherapy" though, is it a type of colonic ?

Colon hydrotherapy is the catch-all term for all forms of medication and clinical procedures aimed at cleansing the colon, intestines, etc. of old, compacted and often very toxic (ehrm) material . A colonic is just one means of effecting colon hydrotherapy. It's much more rigorous and effective than a dietary detox alone.

PM me if you want further details on the subject.

Tar.Aldarion

im also trying to lose abit of belly wight gl!!!
are situps enough,they are all i do atm,everyday.
how many is too many,do they help,should people do crunches instead of situps or just a different exercise altogether?

Cerdito

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

im also trying to lose abit of belly wight gl!!!
are situps enough,they are all i do atm,everyday.
how many is too many,do they help,should people do crunches instead of situps or just a different exercise altogether?

Situps alone won't get rid of a belly - a belly is comprised of fat with the muscle buried underneath it. Take away the fat through a combination of diet and exercise and voila, a flat stomach should appear which can be toned by crunches. Not as easy as it sounds though, as has been pointed out a million times in this forum. You cannot spot reduce and the best way to reduce overall body fat is by eating a healthy diet, plenty of cardio, and gaining muscle mass to boost your basal metabolic rate.

As for crunches vs. situps, imo crunches are much better. With situps you normally have to use something to hold your feet down and will leverage off the bottom of your bed or whatever and use your thighs and hip flexors to pull you up instead of your abs, whereas with crunches it's all in your stomach. It's also easier to strain your neck doing full situps.

Tar.Aldarion

i thought you were right...but my bro was exactly like me,all he diid was situps for six months and jaysus it worked for him,but i suppose ill just be more active etc its not that much of a prob yet,just want to stamp out the beginning!