Friday, 09 March 2012
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I Need Help Getting Rid of Belly Fat!
I need your help!
As a part of getting my life on track and becoming healthy in my mind, spirit, and body, I'm starting to go to the gym and work out regularly. I'm not fat by any means, but I could afford to lose a couple of pounds, mainly in my mid-section (my stomach, sides, and back). I'm trying to eat healthier (for Lent, I gave up the cookies I used to get once or twice a day from the dining hall) and I want to work out, aiming specifically at my mid-section.
I know the typical crunches and planking that I can do to burn fat and increase muscle in my core, but are there other things I can do? We have an amazing rec center on campus and it's absolutely free for me to use almost 24/7 so I want to take advantage of it. The thing is, I just don't know where to start. I've never gone to a gym regularly for working out, so I don't know what I can take advantage of to start burning belly fat.
Any suggestions or helpful hints are more than welcome! Thanks a ton :)
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About the Author
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- From: staystrongandcarryon@xanga
- About Me: trying to figure out myself, my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions, and trying to keep myself on track. looking to strengthen my relationship with God through first understanding my relationship with myself.
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Comments (30)
Cardio! Running, biking, etc; get that heart rate up & burn fat.
Weights and cardio. Diet is very important too.
You have to lose over all body fat to really see abs. It depends on your body where the fat loss will start but don't give up if it is not your belly! High intensity intervals will scorch calories in minimal time. Build as much muscle as you can all over your body so that you'll burn more calories doing nothing....and remember: you can't out exercise a bad diet. Abs start in the kitchen!
cardio and eating right. Just keep running!!!! and do your ab works of course. Weights, but cardio for sure....
eat better.
Swimming works the fastest for me
try the paleo diet. google it. and go on a 30 day challenge. be amazed by the changed in your body!
It's 80% diet, 10% exercise & 10% genetics!
You need to check out this link right here: http://gigieatscelebrities.com/the-way-to-a-taut-tush/
(That link is where I detailed what you should and should not eat in order to get a toned and fit, healthy body!)
You can also check out my web series:
http://youtu.be/JHttdp6_JZM
http://youtu.be/_UHQQ2KX3Ys
http://gigieatscelebrities.com
What they said.
Also, see if your gym offers personal trainers or classes for cheap; even a few sessions can teach you some good exercises you can then do on your own.
The most important thing is to stick with it; which means getting back to that routine when you (inevitably) get off track.
Good luck.
exercise and eating healthy foooood!
For weights, try this....
Have one day per week for 3 sets of 5 reps of....
Deadlift
Military Press
Pullup
And one other day per week for 3 sets of 5 reps of....
Bench Press
Squat
Bent-over Row
Afterwards, you can do cardio. THAT is all the weightlifting you need for starting out (like the first 2-6 months.) Later on, you may want to try some specialized programming with routines like Bill Starr's 5x5 or Jim Wendler's 5/3/1. But to start out, just try to do more weight each week, or at least a few more reps. But try not to exceed 10 reps per set. Aim to get it as close to 3 sets of 5 reps (with 30-120 seconds of rest in between), with a weight that's challenging enough to do that with good form.
I just ran 10 miles...we'll see if running 25 miles a week will help my situation. Have a feeling it will. Also, doing pilates for abs and 100 situps each night. I guess eat healthy, too, but that's the worst worst worst part
There are 2 things that are working very well for me. Zumba classes and KettleBell training. I swear these two classes really work your core, and combined with eating good, healthy food things are going really great.
Hey,
I'm currently a fitness instructor and working on becoming a personal trainer. I'm studying exercise and nutrition in college.
The thing about fat is that you cannot specifically target one area of the body. Doing the crunches and planks will, yes, work and strengthen your core, however, they will not cause you to specifically lose the fat on your midsection. You will basically just need to work on in general losing fat and then your body will lose the belly fat.
Just as a brief overview from what you've said, i would suggest a combination of cardio and weights. Cardio is a great calorie burner and lifting weights will increase/strengthen muscle which will increase your metabolism.
Cardio is the easy part, you can run, swim, elliptical, ect. If your gym offers fitness classes those are a great thing to take advantage of as well. Both kick boxing and Zumba will really work the core. I'm not sure where your level of fitness is at right now but I would say if you haven't been working out all that much try for 3-4 days a week maybe 30-60 minutes. The key is not to burn yourself out right off the bat. And make sure that heart rate is getting up there!!
It's hard to lay out a lifting routine over the internet. Personally, I would say to lift 2-3 days a week focusing on the legs, chest, and back. I know it sounds odd not to have times for the abs or the arms, however, if you lift right and your form is correct you will work the arms and the abs when you lift these other parts of your body. Of course you are more than welcome to still do your ab work in addition to this.
My favorite tool to keep track of how i'm doing is sparkpeople.com. they can help you with meal plans, work out plans (even lifting plans), as well as providing places to track your meals and work outs, they also have a great support group and have a huge data base of articles that may help you as well. I'm not trying to promote, but using that site helped me lose 55 pounds, and yes, get some nice abs.
Sorry this got somewhat long for a comment, just wanted to make sure I covered everything, and people, please don't rip this apart, this is my knowledge from the fitness world, this is what I do for a living, and yes, I am still learning. =]
If you have any more questions or just in general need support feel free to ad or message me. My blog is fitness orientated and I'm more than happy to help people. =]
good luck to you!
The best way to lose fat is a simple low carb diet. All the while, keeping up with exercise at the gym. Doing core workouts like squats, deadlifts, and powercleans will help you to speed up the process with cardio along the way.
Best way to do so but not easy to stick to the diet.
I'm working out situps. I started with 50 and every gym session I increase the amount. I think i reached 120 now. Otherwise, work on cardio, eating healthy, and eating at least 100-200 calories less than what you need, but not starve yourself. I'm trying to also reduce my belly fat.
Well, everyone already said it. There's no such thing as targeting fat loss, you have to lose fat overall and pray it comes off the stomach first before your tits and ass lol.
Never over eat. Stop before you get full. It stretches your tummy area.
Abs were made in the kitchen...
Cut out processed foods, eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water. Crunches are good but they won't cut down fat, only cardio does that.
Count your calories!!!! And load up on the cardio and weights! If you just do core exercises, you're going to build a lot of muscle UNDERNEATH that fat and look even bigger. So, to burn that fat, get the cardio and weight lifting going! and stretch every day, evvveryday, and drink lots of water and add some healthy snacks like fruit to curb those sugar cookie cravings. limit sweets to once a week so you don't have to cut it all out! but definitely not every day.
Skip eating one day, or go low calorie (400 calories, with some fat), when you're not working out. Take a multivitamin or two (depends on if you're drinking or smoking). Vitamins are fat soluble, which means you need the fat to carry the vitamins (via the bloodstream) to the organs that need the nutrients.
it's true you can't just lose fat in one area of your body, but strengthening the underlying muscles can help you shape up quite a bit. I used to be very fit a couple years back, and I've since put on some weight, freshman 15 I guess, but even with the extra body fat I can still make out my lower and upper abs in the mirror. the muscles are still large under my gut, so I kept my shape, but I don't look like a fitness model by any means. despite not being able to target your tummy you still shouldn't skip on the ab work outs,
Cardio! Cardio! Cardio!
You honestly can't just give up cookies and do a crunch or two to see results. You need to completely change your lifestyle and eat clean foods instead of processed foods, drink water instead of soda, and work on your entire body to see the changes you want in specific areas. It will take you at LEAST 8 weeks to see a change in yourself if you are disciplined enough to not cheat on your diet and workout at least 5 or 6 days a week.
Google Michi's Ladder. Tiers 1 and 2 are considered the "perfect diet". Combine that with 80oz of water a day, and a daily 30 minute full body cardio exercise, and you'll see results fast. But you can't just stop when you get to where you want to be.
Look up high interval training routines. They make your cardio more interesting, and have been shown in studies to burn more abdominal fat.
As everyone else has stated, cardio is great. As a female, we benefit more from cardio. Also, cutting out sugars would help specifically with the belly. Don't cut them completely, but cutting down on high sugar foods (Coffees that are high in sugar, candy, soda, and even alcohol etc.) will melt BELLY fat. Fat stored in your thighs and hips are mostly from carbs, and fat stored in your belly is mostly from sugars. If you are just trying to lose weight, stick with cardio. If you are trying to lose weight AND gain muscles, add a little bit of strength training. Women mostly do better with smaller weights with more reps as opposed to body building that uses less reps with more weight. You can't just do sit ups and expect Janet Jackson abs. You HAVE to lose the weight first before the muscle can even begin to show through. You don't have to stick to running or ellipticals (although swimming and ellipticals are the best), you can do Zumba, or spin classes. Rotate different types of cardio activities and you won't get bored.
Don't completely cut any type of food from your diet. Your body needs a specific amount of fats, starches, sugars, and even salt every day to function. The amounts might not be large, but they are still needed. Five small meals instead of three big ones is a general outline for most diets. Skipping meals is actually worse for you because your body doesn't know when it will be fed again, so every meal you eat will be stored for survival. Eating small every three hours will keep your metabolism up. Also, proportions are MAJOR. If you aren't sure about how big a portion/serving should be, just measure against the palm of your hand. Most foods have serving sizes on the nutrition labels. They also have a portion plate online you could buy.
Diets are great kick starters, but the problem is, most people get bored with them or frustrated at the fact they can't eat the things they want. We follow an 80/20 rule. Eat healthy and exercise 80% of the time, and "cheat" the other 20%. For example, we eat healthy during the week, and on the weekends, we spoil ourselves and go out to eat some wings or something. That doesn't mean eat a whole tub of ice cream on the weekends. Self control is always key. You don't need all of these supplements, special diets or "systems" that promise to melt the fat away. You just need discipline and self control. Good luck with everything!