Belly fat-won't go away

Did you happen to go to school in Washington? You sound like an old teammate of mine.

I don't know about your case but I think that some people's fat distribution and/or body shape is such that no matter how much they work out or diet, they won't look like they have the body of a model/bodybuilder.

I remember years ago weighing what most would say is underweight yet friends making fun of my belly when we went to the beach. Fortunately, 15 years later and I've only gained a little weight while they have put on a lot of pounds. I'm sure they don't want to go back to the beach and have me make fun of them!

age? If you are over 40 , then probably yes you will always have it.

You can get rid of it by doing many many crunches, and doing leg lifts that work on the lower abs.

I know guys that are still fast with it, so don't fret, -use it to let the younger fellas feel awful about getting beat by an older fatter guy.

I notice the same thing with myself to some extent. I took a few months off from running earlier this year. I stayed in pretty good shape and remained fairly active, but I did put on a few pounds. I've been training pretty hard for the past few months and I'm nearly back in competitive shape, but the gut fat is still there. For some reason, that just seems to be the last place for the fat to come off of.

Start lifting weights. If you don't eat your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto body fat for dear life.

Eat something every 2-3 hours, lift weights, lose weight.

Alan

The reason you can't get your belly fat to go away probably has to do with two hormones: Insulin and Cortisol. Insulin is the homrone responsible for taking glucose out of your blood and into your cells (sometimes your fat cells) and cortisol is a stress hormone which promotes central obesity if its levels are too high for too long. When you go on extreme diets (eating next to nothing) your body reacts in two key ways to the extreme stress of starvation: It pumps out a bunch of stress hormones (cortisol being one) and it increases your cells' sensitivity to insulin. The overall effect is that once you DO eat, your cells are so glucose hungry that they hold on to every little calorie you give them as fat. The role of cortisol in this equation is that once insulin gives the message to store fat, cortisol makes sure that the fat is directed to your core. This equates to being able to gain weight off of VERY few calories. Good news if you are a starving cave man, bad news if you want to lose body fat.

Essentially, this is a game of blood sugar balance. You want to let your body know that it is okay to lose fat since you are not a starving cave man. To do this, you have to eat a little more. Trust me. I went from eating 1,500 calories a day and gaining weight to eating 2,500 calories a day and losing weight so fast that I couldn't believe it, especially in my stomach region.

This being said, if you want to get rid of your belly fat, try eating a little more protein and fat (yes, fat... especially olive oil which actually promotes FAT LOSS from your midsection) and less sugar, because sugar is the surest way to gain fat on your belly. A good rule of thumb is to try to eat things that are as close to their natural states as possible: non-processed meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit, oatmeal, rice, most dairy products, etc. You don't have to go completely natural, but aiming for a majority of the food you consume to be unprocessed is a good start.

Next, make sure that your blood sugar never gets too low during the day. Eat a decent breakfast (doesn't have to be huge or anything, just something, even a banana.) If you feel hungry, EAT! Just make sure that you are eating good, whole foods. A good rule of thumb here is to eat something every three hours. Not necessarily a meal, but just something. Walnuts, string cheese, yogurt, fruit, etc. are all good snacks. You want to keep you blood sugar steady so that your body uses it for fuel instead of storing it as fat.

Conversely, if you don't feel hungry, don't eat. Your body will learn to regulate itself and you won't have to starve yourself to stay trim.

Lastly, don't worry too much! Eat enough to stay comfortable most of the time and you will be surprised at how much you don't think about food. You will also be very pleased with your fat loss.

For further reading, I would suggest a book called "The Schwarzbein Principle." I learned a lot when I read it and it is not a diet book like others in that it is not some silly quick-fix weight loss tool. It tells you how to modify your nutrition and exercise in a sensible and manageable way. No cutting out entire food groups or anything.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

no, it probably won't go away. learn to like your body the way it is. you notice your imagined flaws much more than anyone else.

Try the "Master Cleanse" (also called the 10 day lemonade diet)....it worked for me!

http://therawfoodsite.com/mastercleanse.htm

good luck the natural way

MR

run. alot.

I think you should give your little buddy some respect.

He's obviously fought long and hard to be your belly, and at this point deserves his place in this world. Why keep fighting such a courageous belly.

BadweatherRner wrote:

Try the "Master Cleanse" (also called the 10 day lemonade diet)....it worked for me!

http://therawfoodsite.com/mastercleanse.htm

good luck the natural way

MR

worst idea ever! Would never work in the long run (i.e. longer than 11 days). You would actually end up gaining weight once you started eating again. Listen to ickybana. best post here!

RedsoxFAN wrote:

age? If you are over 40 , then probably yes you will always have it.

You can get rid of it by doing many many crunches, and doing leg lifts that work on the lower abs.

I know guys that are still fast with it, so don't fret, -use it to let the younger fellas feel awful about getting beat by an older fatter guy.

ummmm.... no you can't - spot fat reduction is not a reality in this world.

eat often, run enough, and if you haven't already, STOP DRINKING BEER (it goes straight to your gut)!

you could try to do about 10 minutes of abs a day, that worked for me. and run and eat to keep that metabolism going

How many chin ups can you do?

You can diet and run and even do situps/crunches but the only

thing that will really give your abdomen the proper tone is

chinups and/or pullups.

I do 4 sets of 10 chin ups every other day and it also helps

my upper body carriage when I am running.

Start with sets of 2 or 3 reps and build up.

I guarantee if you work on them religiously for 6 months or more you won't be carrying around a gut.

It is hard work and it wont happen overnight but it is well worth it.

I am 51 and I look it, but I still have a sixpack.

Um.... to all the people recommending situps: you can't spot-reduce fat.

Fat is excess calories that are being stored in your body. It's distribution on the body is due to sex, hormonal levels, genetics. Simply speaking, the way to reduce body fat % is to increase your energy expended to energy consumed ratio. The fat will dissipate uniformly. Of course, if some parts of your body have a thicker fat layer than others, those parts will take longer to become toned than the parts with a thinner fat layer.

There are better ways to lose fat than doing strictly sit-ups (unless, of course, you do thousands upon thousands of them). A better routine, in terms of muscular strength exercises, to lose fat than, say, 3 sets of 30 sit-ups, would be a full-body workout that includes power movements such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, pushups, pull-ups, explosive lifts, various olympic lifts... any exercises that recruit large amounts of muscle fibres. Sit-ups do have their place, of course, but they shouldn't be done at the expense of other, more useful exercises that burn more calories and have greater overall benefit.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to do like I said before: run. Alot.

That way you'll lose fat AND become a better runner!

It's a win-win situation!

go see a cosmetic surgeon. 2 hours and all your fat will be in a bucket. problem solved.

ickybana5 wrote:

I went from eating 1,500 calories a day and gaining weight to eating 2,500 calories a day and losing weight so fast that I couldn't believe it, especially in my stomach region.

IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only read the original post, so I don't know what others have said.

My two solutions are: 1) get the fat sucked out (probably not your first choice) and 2) do a LOT of ab work. Doing a shit load of ab work probably won't take much of the fat away, but it will greatly increase the muscle size and tone underneath which will make your stomach look more muscular and less fatty.

I can understand your problem (sort of). Until about the age of 10 I was one of the skinniest kids around but had a big pot belly. It wasn't noticeable when I had a shirt on, but it looked kinda funny when I had my shirt off (I didn't know it then, just realized it recently while looking at old photos). For some reason my body only stored fat in my belly.