Belly Fat - Stuck

[Jijarine]

I'm 33, male 5' 9", 160lbs and having a heck of a time getting rid of the old beer gut and the extra pounds that seem to want to stick to the face and belly area. I follow a work out routine that is 4 days on, 1 day off, 1 day on, 1 day off, repeat. Each day focuses on a specific body section; legs, chest, abs, etc. It's a great routine and I enjoy it, sense I've started I feel better for it; been doing it a couple of months now.

My diet is average, in the morning I take Men's A-Z Vitamin along with fish oil, Vitamin D & a Vitamin B complex. I have 1 can of Dr Pepper, 1 Cup of Coffee, and a special K Protein bar, lunch is usually a salad; leaf lettuce, light ranch, pinch of cheese or half a package of ramen noodle. Dinner varies; salad, steak, a burrito, we only usually eat out maybe once a week and I try to keep is small and simple.

I run / walk a mile on the treadmill every day along with walking my dog for extra exercise.

I admit in the evening I will have a few Heinekens; sometimes 1, most the time 2-3 before bed.

My job is in web development, so I spend a large portion of my day sitting at the computer.

I'm stuck at 160lbs; I could care less about my weight, 145lb, 180lb, I just want to get rid of the fat, my work out is working because I feel my leg muscles growing and my chest, arms, etc, I can feel the hard ab muscles under the belly fat so I am building muscle, but the fat won't go away!

What can I do? Stop drinking beer, no soda, go to a zero carb diet? Any ideas? Opinions? Maybe I need to include some sort of weight loss pill into my routine?

 

[Jrahien]

A soda a day is actually quite detrimental. Just one can covers your entire day's sugar intake. The beer doesn't help either. Alcohol causes your carbohydrate and fat intakes to divert to fat stores instead of utilizing it as energy. (Thus, the beer belly.)

You should really eat a better breakfast as well. Such a small meal first thing in the morning can cause your metabolism to drop.

Exercising in a fasted state (in other words, waiting to eat until after exercise) burns more fat as well. Less blood glucose available means dipping into your fat stores for energy sooner into the workout. However, under those lines, you should NOT attempt a low-carb diet. People tend to see benefits right away with low carb, but in the long run, it does more harm than good, and it's not possible to keep off the weight after coming off of low-carb.

And..weight loss pill? Those are awful. Just awful. I really don't understand how they're even legal. No matter which active ingredient they use in weight loss pills, there doesn't exist one that doesn't cause some sort of metabolic or cardiovascular problems.

You should cut down on the vitamin supplements as well. The all in one, A-Z vitamin will be pretty useless, as many vitamins and minerals compete with each other for absorption from your digestive tract. That, combined with the other vitamin supplements, will see very little utilization of some nutrients as well as toxic upper intakes of others, as those are a LOT of nutritional supplementation to be taking in a day. Try to get your vitamins and minerals from whole foods. Whole food sources are more biologically available within your body anyway and will be optimally managed. (Also, try going outside and getting some sun instead of taking the Vitamin D supplement. Sunlight-manufactured vitamin D is a lot more useful to your body anyway.)

Since you work at a computer all day, you should also take regular breaks to move around. One thing that people don't realize is that, even when you're active at other times of the day, there are metabolic changes that occur when you sit idle for too long that causes increased diversion of fat to storage form and can also affect your heart health.

 

[Albert Smith]

While products/diet pills/supplements and trainers often promise they can help you get rid of your belly fat quickly and easily, you don't need them. You can slim your waistline all by yourself.

Just give up your all bad habits and follow simple steps that will help you successfully flatten your stomach:

• Make eating breakfast a priority. Breakfast is the most essential meal of the day because it kicks starts your metabolism. Once you eat a meal in the morning, your metabolism starts burning calories--this means your body can burn more calories throughout the day. Eat a meal filled with protein, such as yogurt, granola and eggs.

• Move your body. Start exercising if you want to get rid of your belly fat. Make this part of your daily routine. Walk up stairs instead of taking the elevator. Park far away from your office and walk into work. Take a power walk during your lunch hour. Exercise about an hour a day, however, if you want to get rid of your belly fat quickly.

• Stop adding salt to your food. Too much sodium in your diet will make you feel sluggish and bloat your stomach. Salt also hinders your ability to exercise at an optimal rate. Avoid consuming more than 2,400 mg of sodium a day. Read nutrition labels so you can track your sodium intake--foods often contain plenty of salt.

• Plan a healthy diet. Give up high-fat foods in favor of nutritious, low-calorie meals. Provide your body with plenty of water. Your body will retain water if you get dehydrated, which may bloat your stomach. Drink at least eight 8 oz. glasses of water a day. Eat foods high in water and fiber. For example, grapefruit, which is 90 percent water, has just 38 calories for a half serving. Eat veggies and whole grains, which will help you, feel satisfied and full for a longer period of time.

• Make sleep a priority. Get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night. When you're sleep-deprived, you feel less alert, irritable and fatigued. Lack of sleep also affects you energy level, making it more difficult to find the energy you need to exercise.

• Give up alcohol. It damages your liver and is high in empty calories, which means they don't provide any nutritional value. Alcohol also makes it harder for you to get rid of your belly fat quickly. For instance, one beer has about 100 calories--the more you drink, the harder you have to work to achieve your goal.

I believe you got all of my point. You need to change those things along with your current workout plan if you want to see the result.