Suppose you are about 15 pounds overweight...

and suppose all of the weight you gain seems to be around your middle...and suppose you wanted to lose it NOW! What would you do? Nothing seems to work. I walk 4 miles a day. I've only been eating unsweetened cereal for breakfast and lunch and salad for dinner. I get on the scale today and I'm 2 pounds heavier and my pants fit even tighter. What the hell is going on?

Crunches... lots of crunches...

aka sit ups.. Work the muscles most closely associated with the problem area. Or liposuction.

I swear I'm about ready to do whatever it takes.

well, i mean it will if you work it enough, but burning calories isn't selective--calories are burned all throughout the body. you'll get much better results running on a treadmill than you will doing crunches, since you may tone up your abs, but you won't be able to see that under a sheet of tummy fat.

cardio with some weight work targeting your biggest muscle groups (glutes, hamstrings, pecs) to speed up your metabolism is your best bet.

just so you know. You cannot burn calories selectively. And doing crunches isn't going to do a thing for anyone if their nice ripped abs are covered in a layer of tummy fat.

At least, that's what they said on Celebrity Fit Club when that happened, LOL! Happened with a few of them for a couple weeks, and that's what the experts said.

Are you doing any middle-specific exercise? Situps, that whole deal?
That may help....I think...

No, but I'm going to start doing that.

But you might want to cut out coffee, if you drink it. Supposedly it causes fat to accumulate around the middle.

I just finished a cup of coffee. I don't know what I'll do without my coffee. I can't stand the taste of decaf.:puke:

The hell with it, I'll just get fat and old and nobody will ever love me, but at least I can still enjoy a healthy cup of Java...
:donut:

and the next day and the next day until you see results. It takes a while.

If you stop drinking the weight usually drops off pretty quickly. Of course, I personally am not willing to take that drastic of a step. I don't care that much about a little extra weight.

Since that's the only time I go out i hate to give it up, but if I have to I have to. :-(

when one's torso starts falling like a rock? That could explain the waist thing...

Weight tends to fluctuate even when you're on a diet--depends a lot on how much fluid you're retaining. Stick to the diet and exercise and the pounds will come off. :thumbsup:

I didn't think it would be this hard to get rid of!

you're in good company :-(

getting some kinda commission from these people. Try this:



28 minutes of hell - at least 4 - 5 times per week. Trust me. Those pants will be falling off of you. I tried EVERYTHING - step class, aerobics class, atkins, south beach, kick boxing - everything - and could not lose a pound. This sucker put some stuff back where it was 20 years ago.

Good luck to you. I know how hard it is to lose weight in the abdominal area. I'm not a typical female in that regard. I never gained much weight in my hips and thighs, it was all in my middle.

Thanks. :-) I don't really want to join a gym because I know how I am with those kinds of commitments.

and six weeks ought to do it for you.

Thanks. :-)

Until my body betrayed. Almost blew out me knee on it.

Now all I can do is walk.

is no impact? Not that I don't believe you but, it doesn't bother my knees at all and I've been scoped a few times. However, I will admit that it can irritate my lower back if I go too often.

I was using it at a high resistance setting. I also have a tendency to "bounce" when I'm on it thus putting tons of stress on ALL of my leg joints. Haven't gotten the hang of doing it the right way I guess. Last time I tried it, I was doing pretty well for a couple months, then the knee started to stiffen up again. Think I'll stick to walking for now.

Thanks for the visual...

:hi:

RL

You have a one track mind....and I thank you for it :D

and smoking hot...



RL

If you eat the same thing all the time, the body just stores it on the body until you stop eating it. Sounds a little like too much of a good thing.

need to cut back on the carbs to control your blood sugar and to lose weght, esp if your heading into your 40's. for alot of guy, the body doesn't process sugars like it used to, so a diet change is in order.

after i hit 40, exercise, and i got alot of it running hoops, was no longer enough to keep the wieght off, i had to cut back on the carbs before i could drop the lbs.

No matter how full you feel -- it helps. Also, eat high fiber.

:grr:..
My belly was always flat.even after 3 c-sections, and when menopause hit me, I got a buddha belly:(

warm up first and start slow, run a half block, then walk, build up to the whole block, run in the morning if you can. Get a pedometer. Check and see how many steps you take in a day. Many America's do less than a half mile, when they should be doing at lease 1 mile or more. Drink lots of water, not before bed time. Always have breakfast, nothing to heavy, and try a skip snacking, except if it's fruit or veggies. Don't do fad diets. Loosing 30 pounds can take up to six month or more. Keeping it off is a lifetime commitment. Good luck

If you don't want to take classes, there are a lot of DVDs and books out there. :hi:

do the math.

the number of calories burned by a person doing any activity is determined by a variety of different variables, including their weight, their percentage of body fat, and the volume of muscle they have that is being activated by whatever activity they are doing. This can produce wildly varying burned calories/hour. A 250 pound man is going to burn a hell of a lot more than a 100 pound woman doing the same activity at the same intensity.

i kind of figured ot a head of time neither lance armstrong nor fat albert started the thread.

Even a small difference would change the "math" pretty significantly. I mean, it's almost not even worth talking about. Change the resistance levels on the bike a little and 12 mph is a completely different amount of work.

You made your statement very authoritatively, and I'm simply providing the shades of grey.

My Buddha-Belly just appeared. And I just said, so what, I'm married, I'm 44, and I eat what I want, and smoke too much, Then I saw a photo of myself in profile and vanity took over.

I quit smoking.
I went from 4 Mountain Dews (179 cals) a day to one.
Switched to caffeine free, diet soda.
Dropped coffee altogether.
Stopped Ding dongs, ho hos, twinkies and hostess cupcakes for breakfast.
Switched to 2 Granola bars for breakfast.
Started taking 15 minute walks in the morning and afternoon instead of smoking.
I eat a sandwich everynight while watching the Daily Show, sort of a 4th meal, so I've cut that back.
I have a treadmill, but haven't gotten back on it yet.

I lost 5 pounds in the past 2 weeks.

But I Still feel fat around the middle, cause I am.

RL

:loveya:

Especially if you don't smell like an ashtray anymore :toast:

Now I just smell like, uhm, I'm not sure what I smell like...

Musk, sweat, mint, man...

RL

I think if you are otherwise at your proper weight except for one spot, such as the midsection, you might be a candidate. The surgeon would need to evaluate you to see if you are a candidate.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

routine to lose a few pounds, nothing happens for 2-3 weeks -- then it just melts off all of a sudden (if you stick with it).

I think our bodies fight to maintain current weight.

do you have a lot of drinks with lots of sugar and calories ? if so then all those empty calories might be what is preventing you from losing weight.

and what kind of salad do you have ? does it have stuff like lots of cheeses and meat and dressing ? that might have something to do with it.

You weren't very specific on your diet, but it sounds like you may be eating too little. Yes, diets can discourage weight loss. If your body thinks its staving, it tries its best to slow down its metabolism and store fat. Try eating 1500 - 2500 calories a day (depending on your sex and activity level), stay away from complex carbohydrates (everything has corn syrup in it nowadays -- bad stuff).

Somebody earlier mentioned crunches. That won't work. You can't lose fat by "target" workouts. In fact, crunches won't help you lose fat much at all, because the abdominals are a slow twitch muscle. They take a long time to develop. Crunches are great for strengthening the abs and making them look great when you have no fat, but they won't help you lose the fat, and the fat will always be over the muscle.

The best way to lose fat, IMHO, is to lift weights, even if you're a woman (I don't know your sex). Some women are afraid to lift weights because they think they'll turn out bulky. Not true -- women and men have different body types (men have more "white" muscle, which bulks up). Women become lean. Men don't have to bulk up either, if they don't want to. To bulk up, heavy weights, few repetitions. To get lean muscle, reps of 10 - 15 with lighter weights, but still feel tired when you're done with your sets.

Muscle takes a lot more energy for your body to maintain than fat. Building muscle increases your metabolism, and that's a 24-hour a day increase, even when you're sleeping. Cardio exercise, like running, will help take off the fat as well. I advocate lifting weights and then doing cardio exercises. Weight lifting also helps increase your bone density, helping ward of bone brittleness later in life.

Walking, like you're doing, is also a good workout. It is low-impact (good for your joints), and it actually burns fat, whereas running and such start to burn into your carb stores. Running the same distance versus walking will still burn more fat, however, has running simply requires burning more calories.

As a nurse, I usually dread reading threads like these because the BS that gets thrown out there is astounding. This, on the other hand, is solid stuff.

Just learn to eat clean.
http://forums.menshealth.com/thread.jspa?threadID=66900&tstart=0

When you cut back too much, your body thinks it's going to starve and hangs on to every last ounce. You should be eating at least 5 smaller meals each day, with protein in each one (no refined carbs). Don't go more than 3 hours without eating. And drink lots of water (soda, coffee, and alcohol don't count). Try to stay off the scale and monitor your progress by how your clothes fit. Be patient - you didn't gain the weight overnight and you won't lose it overnight either. You're better off losing it more slowly and making sure it stays off.

www.spinning.com

What's it to you??? ;-)

I sit in a chair all day, reading and writing. My muscles got flaccid and my belly grew and grew.

On April 1st I went to Target and spent $70 on a weight bench, $50 on a weight set including bar, and $30 on a set of dumbells. I have since done 100 reps a day with the barbell (60 lbs on the bar, no more than that), 50 reps a day with the leg lift thing (another 60 lbs), and 50 reps with the dumbells (20 lbs). This has been spaced out through the day.

15 days, every day, without a lot of weight and working for tone. The belly is gone, my arms look like they did when I wrestled in high school, and the love handles are melting away. In short, the results have been dramatic. Because I am not heaving hundreds of pounds, I am only a wee bit sore after each workout.

14 days. I recommend it highly.

:D

As for the two dumbells, thanks for taking those Repub neighbors off my hands....:evilgrin:

I enjoy dead-lifting JimRob and Yoyo.

:)

:7

though I'd suggest adding in a little cardio for the old ticker. Particularly for the possibility that Sheffield won't control himself so much next time. ;-)

*twitch*

in Baltimore. Yikes. I might have to move back to Boston.

They are too good a team.

Good for you. I'm glad to hear you're taking better care of yourself. :)

I *AM* 15 lbs overweight, you insensitive clod!

Scales only measure the total, not the composition. Muscle weighs twice as much as fat so if you are building muscle (walking 4 miles a day will do that), then for a while the scale will show that you are gaining because you are building muscle. That muscle, in turn, will help burn more fat. This is all part of the process. Don't let the scale sabotage you.