BellyFat

Today at my aerobics class, I looked in the mirror and noticed that my legs, arms and general body was a bit slimmer, however, my stomach was still bulging out like a big jellyroll! My back hurts when I do situps. Any suggestions on how to lose the weight in that area? That is my problem area! 

Sorry I don't have any ideas because that's my big problem too.  I'm losing weight from everywhere but it doesn't seem to go from my belly.  I still have this sad sack of blubber hanging round my middle.  I have back problems so I can't do sit ups either.  Someone told me that if you breathe in and hold it as often as you can this tightens up the muscles.  Can anyone confirm this?

i wouldn't worry about doing sit ups. they are affective however you'll have to lose the fat before you see how they help because they work the abs underneath the layer of fat that is pissing a lot of people off, including me. what i try to do is hold in my stomach..all the time. you have to make it a habit which takes a while. eventually you'll just do it even when you're not thinking about it. helps a lot.

The only way to burn that fat away is through diet and cardio.  Sit ups will only pull your weakened abs back into 'alignment'.  When I was really out of shape I could barely do 10 sit ups and my stomach stuck out about 5 inches from my waste when I'd sit down. Yes, I measured.  I was also a size 38.  After about 9 months of Tae Kwon Doe and 4 months of dieting and more excercise my stomach is down to 2 inches and I'm back to wearing size 36 but could squeeze into a 34 but die in the process.  I've also lost around 20 pounds since May.

I noticed my stomach looked tighter after getting up to 50 real sit ups at a time.  Eventually I would do up to 100 that way and if I was up for it do another 50-100 variations.  Honestly I rarely had the stomach strength to do more than a 100 but it just took time.  Now my abs do look tighter but I still have another 20-25 pounds of body fat to lose.

Unfortunately there's absolutely no way to spot reduce...if there was, i wouldn't be walking around on these legs!

All you can do is continue to burn all over fat.  And please don't do crunches without also doing hyper-extensions for your lower back!  That's kinda like only working the bicep and never the tricep!

And there's no need to do a million situps unless you're trying to development some kind of abdominal endurance.  The ab is a muscle not different from any other muscle...there is no added benefit from doing a gazillion situps!

I have the exact same problem!

I swim daily, training, not just doing laps, and am fairly thin (aside from muscle mass) everwhere else. But my stomach just does not want to go down!

As for the sit ups, they will not burn the fat on your stomach.. just work the abdominal muscles underneath it.

Good luck :]

I am glad others relate  (no big surprise).  I heard cutting carbs will reduce stomach fat? Is that true? Or is it just calorie deprivation in disguise? 

I have lost many pounds from my upper body but not from my dear belly:)) it just so hard to get rid of the fat in this area. I heard that cutting sugar and carbs will do it.

"Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym"
    -Old Bodybuilder Saying

Yup, calorie counting in disguise.

 There's absolutely nothing whatsoever you can do to control where your bodyfat comes off. In most cases you will need to get down to below 12% bodyfat to have a visible ab outline - the ripped 6-pack abs you see in modelling photo shoots comes from having bodyfat percentages below 8, not from any specific exercise or anything else.

 

Original Post by phenixrising:

The only way to burn that fat away is through diet and cardio.  Sit ups will only pull your weakened abs back into 'alignment'.  When I was really out of shape I could barely do 10 sit ups and my stomach stuck out about 5 inches from my waste when I'd sit down. Yes, I measured.  I was also a size 38.  After about 9 months of Tae Kwon Doe and 4 months of dieting and more excercise my stomach is down to 2 inches and I'm back to wearing size 36 but could squeeze into a 34 but die in the process.  I've also lost around 20 pounds since May.

I noticed my stomach looked tighter after getting up to 50 real sit ups at a time.  Eventually I would do up to 100 that way and if I was up for it do another 50-100 variations.  Honestly I rarely had the stomach strength to do more than a 100 but it just took time.  Now my abs do look tighter but I still have another 20-25 pounds of body fat to lose.

I had a personal trainer tell me the same thing a couple of years ago.  He said the ONLY way to lose belly fat is cardio, cardio, cardio.  Darn.

as other people have said, you burn fat from all around your body. there is no way to isolate an area and burn fat. since your legs have so much more muscle than your abs, they will burn fat so much faster. my advice is to stick with it, and you will make it!

Cinnamon is the key to reducing belly fat. This is already working for me- it is cool. I tried to include the link below, you may need to cut and paste in explorer.

 Gist: 1/4-1tsp a day will reduce belly fat.

Cinnamon:http://thyroid.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.h tm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=thyroid&cdn=health& ;tm=35&gps=348_590_1276_845&f=21& su=p247.3.140.ip_p726.2.152.ip_p284.8.150.ip_ &tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A// www.thyroid-info.com/articles/cinnamon.htm

The link took me to a thyroid page

in the tae bo DVD I have he says the way to trim the waist is twist back and forth to trim the waist down. 

I am sure that some of your are just apple or pear shapes but let me tell you a trick my mother taught me.  SUCK IT IN.   All our bellys will protrude when the muscles are relaxed.  Even if you are thin.  Your internal organs alone cause your belly to poof out a bit.  With a relaxed gut my waist would probably be in 35 inches or more when I suck it in like my mom told me I have a 26 inch waist.  I am not obese or even all that overweight but when I don't suck it in it looks like I am 4-5 months pregnant.

 I experimented with this once and didn't suck it in one day and actually had a women ask me how far along I was!!!   I thought it was hilarious.  Later that same day after sucking it all back in, another woman asked me how I kept in shape.

 

 The link is supposed to be  http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/cinnamon .htm - reasonably interesting, and hey, flavouring your coffee or oatmeal with some cinnamon can't hurt...