Losing the Tummy Excess

Cotta

Hi All,


I've changed my routine a little to combat my expanding waistline. One thing I have started to do is walk home from work (Monday to Friday), walking at a reasonable pace this takes around 50 minutes.


I have also began at least one workout at the gym per week and I am going to up this to two shortly. The workout is about 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 10 minutes of the cross trainer and the rest of my time (around twenty minutes) on various weights and pulley weights.


I know I'm only three weeks in but I haven't seen any real progress in terms of shedding belly fat, what else should I be doing?

choyaa

Does walking reduce stomach fat? I wouldn't have thought so.

thriftylass

Have you also changed your eating? There are so many factors. How "big" did you start or what was your waistline? I would definitely up the number of gym trips. Just keep at it.

Try a plank challenge like http://www.ironman.today/30-day-plank-challenge/, this will tighten your core muscles and help further.

I think brisk walking for 50 min definitely helps as it is cardiovascular exercise and burns calories.

Gloomendoom

Cotta wrote: »

What else should I be doing?

Quite simply; eating less.

Retrogamer

choyaa wrote: »

Does walking reduce stomach fat? I wouldn't have thought so.

Kind of.
Walking burns calories and there are approx 3500 calories in 1lb of fat.

So if you do some walks that total up to around 3500 calories burned per week and eat the same as before then assuming your weight was steady before, you should lose 1lb a week.

You can't target what area on your body the fat is burned from, your genes decide that.
Normally stomach fat is the last of fat to go

UKTigerlily

I agree with stomachs maybe being the last to go! Mine still hasn't gone and i'm over a year in, tho it has reduced a huge amount.

Eating is most important, no 1200 calories a day rubbish or fad diets. Then why not try the free weights? Deadlifts, bench press etc (but of course get properly shown how and a program so you know what you're doing is effective) .. any activity beats sitting watching tv tho so well done!

indiepanda

Are you sure you aren't inadvertently eating more to compensate? Walking has many benefits, but it can just make you hungrier and so you eat the extra calories back.

I recall seeing a program on TV about weight loss and they monitored a bunch of people and also found that when they upped their formal exercise they often partially offset by being a bit less active in the rest of their life so they didn't get the full benefit.

As others have said, it's more about diet than exercise when it comes to fat burning. You may well be better off spending some of the time walking on preparing healthy meals and doing some short sessions of high intensity interval training to burn off the fat.

Artytarty

I totally get where you are coming from ! I have lost a bit of weight lately, eating slightly less and dong loads of swimming ,I'm more toned all over and my stomach muscles are firmer but they are still lying under a little soft wedge of belly fat that I can't seem to shift!

jenniewb

Sadly you can't spot reduce body fat. Your body lays down fat where it chooses and this is mostly down to a mixture of hormones and genetics. You can try messing with your hormones by looking and certain foods which will boost some hormones more than others, but bare in mind that some hormones will also come from your body and some hormones come from the water we drink as things like the hormonal pill and antibiotics end up in our water (and so food which is grown or fed with water) and cannot be totally filtered out so we end up consuming it.


Exercise can help increase muscle mass which can help to lose overall body weight, but you can't turn fat into muscle just the same as you cannot turn bone into muscle- fat and muscle are two totally different parts of our body. If you build up your stamina through cardiovascular exercise (stuff that makes you out of breath) and longevity (eg exercise that takes longer than 20 or 30 minutes a time) this helps your heart and if you work on resistance (eg weights or using your body mass as it's own weight -things like press-ups, chin-ups and so on or even some types of yoga) you can help your body require more energy to maintain itself and will likely have a knock-on effect in terms of your weight but trust me (because I've been there) using exercise alone as a weight loss option really only works so far.


Best thing you can do is to eat well and always think whenever you cut back or opt for whatever diet; "can I do this long term?" because things only work whilst you continue to do them. Once you take a step back you can very quickly lose what you had.

chuckley

fixing your diet. you won't lose anything until you adjust this.

flossiea

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Quite simply; eating less.

^^ this ^^