(Closed) Advice wanted: best way to burn off a belly

• SpecialSundae
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: April 2012

I have a similar issue with my belly after a fairly dramatic weight loss but I’m relying on time and ever heavier weight training to lean out a little more. I don’t know if I want a six pack but I hate the remaining rolls of fat.

I know you’re doing barre but how much progression is involved in that? Perhaps some weight training would help.

• babeba
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: September 2016

It sounds like you are a naturally Apple shaped bee. Unfortunately you can’t target fat loss, you can just tone underneath and diet overall! 

If it makes you feel any better, I have the same problem but with my thighs. if I lose enough weight to make me happy about my thighs not being entirely massive, then you can see my rib cage when I wear a low necked top. Yuck.  I remember I was that slender when I was living abroad, and all these blunt Indian guys I was friends with being super critical and told me to gain that five or ten pounds back!

• DaneLady
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: August 2012

Abs are made in the kitchen!  Check out MyFitnessPal to track what you’re eating- it sounds like you have a pretty balanced approach, but you could be eating more calories than you realize.

Also, I had the best results by lifting heavy weights.  I also ran and did spin classes, but weight lifting helped me build lean mass, which in turn burns more at rest than fat mass.

• lealorali
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: June 2013 - Upstate NY

DaneLady:  Agreed!

It’s aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall in what you eat.

• MsJ2theZ
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: August 2012

Belly fat is 100% connected to your diet. You can’t spot reduce with exercise and burn it off, you can only change what you put in your body. Sugar, carbs, and alcohol are all belly busters. You’d be surprised at how much sugar is in things like, flavored greek yogurt. 

• sweetchiquita12
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: April 2013

daysiee:  Try drinking more water when you feel like snacking as it will fill you up. I also think dairy gives people a bloat so try and cut out some of your greek yogurt! My stomache has always been my problem area but I have found that runing has really helped in get it down and not eating at night is also a good tip

• gpiglet
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: October 2014

daysiee

I am not a professional but I found my new diet work great on my belly area.  My tummy is noticeably almost flat (unless I ate a heavy meal) by doing the following in the past 6 months:

1) majorly cut salt (I don’t like sweet to begin with) 

2) drink lots of hot water with lemon in it (I drink 5-8 cup a dap at work) 

3) black coffee.. I know it tastes gross but I get used to it now. I used to put cream with no sugar but I started with black coffee about 6 months ago, within a week, I dropped 2 lbs

I hope that’s help 

• glasskey
• 4 years ago

While it’s true you can’t spot reduce and diet will be very important (second what the above say), but I REALLY recommend weight lifting. HEAVY weight lifting. It will change the shape of your body and give you the muscle tone so that once you lose the fat/weight, you’ll look toned. I used to be a pear, but after weight lifting for just 2 months, I became an hourglass and I have a really tight stomach.

I personally do compound movements (deadlift, squat, lunge are the lower body ones I do regularly) with VERY heavy weights (generally between 70-90lbs). I’ve never done a crunch or situp, but I still have really tight abs. (Personally, I don’t do much upper body targeted workout because I tend to gain muscle really easily in the upper body and I didn’t want linebacker shoulders, but ymmv. The compound movements give me enough of an arm/shoulder workout to still be able to do quite a few pushups)

 Good luck! You’ll be beautiful regardless of what you do!

ETA: high weight but low rep, so like 3-5 sets of 5-12. Oh yeah, and INTERVAL TRAINING. Really bust your butt when you’re sprinting, like a bear is chasing you. It will raise your heart rate and in my case, burn a ton of fat.

I workout maybe 10-30 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week. 14% body fat.

My diet is very similar to yours, but I’d consider cutting the meat. Personally, meat makes my stomach droop–maybe experiment? I eat lots of tofu, seafood, tempeh, and vegetables. Tons of vegetables. Oh yeah, and healthy fats are important to losing fat, weirdly enough–avocado, olive oil, nuts. I don’t count calories. 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by  glasskey.

• dulcevida
• 4 years ago

My stomach is my problem area too. Everywhere else stays tight and right but my tummy seems to attract fat lol. For me, lots of water, no dairy and no meat works wonders. Spinach has more protein than meat so there are definitely ways to get protein without meat. Nutrient rich green smoothies are also filling & nutritious. When I snack I eat kale chips, sweet potato chips, celery, or carrots. You got LOTS of great advice in this thread. No matter what methods you choose to use, keep in mind that abs really are made in the kitchen. I think weight loss in general is really 75 percent diet, 25 percent exercise.

A book called The Beauty Detox by Kimberly Snyder helped me a lot also. 

• SpecialSundae
• 4 years ago

• Wedding: April 2012

glasskey:  I have to disagree with you on cutting meat to get a leaner physique, if you’re lifting heavy and trying to lose weight then protein is a good friend. 

And the whole point of lifting heavy is to be progressive in your weights. Lifting 70-90lb may seem really heavy now but there will come a time when it’ll be your first warm-up after the bar (or what you curl for lolz). 

dulcevida:  Spinach does not have more protein than meat. No issue with vegetarianism, but please don’t repeat that nonsense. There are plenty of vegetarian protein sources, but you’d have to eat your bodyweight in spinach to get 150g protein a day.

• glasskey
• 4 years ago

For some people, absolutely! I am, however, under 100lbs and only about 5’3″, so I have been advised by trainers and my chiropractor not to go much heavier because of my particular build (really long torso and short scrawny limbs, SIGH, I’m weird lookin’), it could really hurt my spine and at some point will become counterproductive. I started out at around 50lbs three years back, and that certainly seemed heavy to me back then.

Also, I agree about protein, I just find that personally, I bloat with a lot of meat, especially red meat, and if the OP is trying different things to make her stomache area in particular go down, it could be worth trying (but ymmv, of course, everyone’s body is very different). There are many sources of protein in addition to meat (as I mentioned, seafood, tofu, also lentils, etc.), and I personally like a very diverse diet because I get bored easily.

Also, I find some meats are more bloaty than others–my stomache droops for steak, but white chicken meat and turkey is much less of a problem. So I’ll enjoy a nice steak if I’m out at a steakhouse, chicken or about once or twice a week, I don’t like pork anyway, seafood 2-3 days/week, and the rest of my meals vegetarian (too much meat also makes it hard for me to, ahem, go to the bathroom–but again, that’s my body.) I generally cycle to higher carbs on days I do cardio. 

My point was, it’s always worth experimenting, trying different things with both your diet and your exercise, and seeing how your body reacts, because otherwise you don’t know. I think Dulcevida was trying to make the same point about what works for her (though I won’t touch the protein in spinach argument).