Ok.. Im 5'5. Up until i was 18 i weighed 195 (overweight). Im 22 now and i went down to 160 just eating right. I still had alot of belly fat and i wanted my stomach flat and tone, So i went on a strict diet and did all kinds of ab workouts and running. I weigh 145 now but i still have a pooch of fat on my belly that wont go away. Can some one help please? thanx.
I tried everything to lose my belly fat.. ahhh!
- Thread starter spiral44
- Start date
how old are you now ?
I'm just guessing, but it's that thing that happens to your butt when you sit on the edge of a couch watching other people exercising on tv?
Don't mind FF, he's just too sassy for this forum
Fat is stored energy. You can't spot-reduce. Eat less, exercise more....if you burn more calories then you consume, you will lose fat and eventually that bothersome pooch you made reference to.
I'm just guessing, but it's that thing that happens to your butt when you sit on the edge of a couch watching other people exercising on tv?
Don't mind FF, he's just too sassy for this forum
Fat is stored energy. You can't spot-reduce. Eat less, exercise more....if you burn more calories then you consume, you will lose fat and eventually that bothersome pooch you made reference to.
Well i guess ill try to keep losing fat but im small as it is if i go down to 130-135 i might be to small.. but at least i wont have any belly fat i guess.. Ill try to post some pics later.
I've learned that ab exercises include alot more than crunches and sit ups. I'm getting rid of my belly by focusing mainly on core work via Pilates. This includes Bicycles, 'Planking' on my forearms for minutes at a time...ect. I would look into core exercises; that and patience....if you keep your diet clean & lean those muscles will start to show nicely!
At your height, a weight range of 111-149 lbs. puts you into an ideal BMI range. Although BMI is an "inaccurate" way to determine if you are necessarily overweight regarding people with freakish amounts of muscle or very low body fat -- think athletes and body-builders -- it is an alright starting point for the average person trying to get in shape.
Since you are already in an ideal BMI range, I would start with the average of the range as a goal -- 130 lbs. You may very well find that tweaking your nutrition and exercise routine a little may help you lose that extra weight -- the majority of which can be fat if done correctly -- and find that you are happy at before you ever even get to 130 lbs. In fact, you could theoretically lose fat and gain muscle mass and stay around 145 and just have a nice lean body all around.
This is one of the most common misconceptions that doing abs exercises makes your stomach flat. Like stated above, you can't spot reduce fat, you have to reduce your body fat percentage on your whole body. Humans tend to add fat first to their mid-section (waist, tummy, thighs, butt) and therefore will also lose it from there LAST.
Make sure you are getting plenty of protein -- 115-145 grams per day so you don't lose muscle mass. Muscle is very important to maintaining your metabolism and you want to keep as much as possible while losing primarily weight from fat. To do so, figure out your BMR --
That's the amount of calories you burn just while laying there doing nothing but breathing. Using the numbers you posted here (23y.o., 145lbs, 5'5") yields a BMR of about 1485 calories per day. That is not hard to exceed at all with our wonderful American way of eating. It's actually preferred to exceed that amount significantly if you remain active, after all you need additional calories to fuel activities other than breathing.
BUT...to lose weight and fat, using your BMR as a starting point, try dividing that into 5-6 small meals per day -- 20-30 grams of protein per meal. Eat breakfast within 1 hour of getting up. Stay away from starchy foods after lunch and the starchy foods you do eat should be whole-grain, low glycemic-index foods. Avoid foods high in saturated fat and sodium. Eat lots of fruit, vegetables, fiber, and drink about 2.5 liters of water a day.
Realistically, your body can only take such a low caloric amount along with exercise for 2-3 weeks before you start to depress your immune system, so maybe consider "calorie cycling" -- 2 weeks at the lower caloric intake, and 1 week at your normal intake to maintain your weight with your activity level -- probably about 2300 calories.
If you don't lose the excess fat weight doing that, consider dropping your caloric intake to about 90% of your BMR. Remember to keep your protein intake up, lots of water, and definitely supplement with a multi-vitamin.
Don't keep lowering your calories or starve yourself. Once you get near the 1200 calorie mark your body goes into survival mode and will start utilizing muscle as a fuel source which is counterproductive to lowering your % of body fat.
As far as exercise goes, consider starting to do more resistance/strength training than just abs exercises. In fact, only do abs exercises maybe once or twice per week with a couple rest days between them. Otherwise, concentrate on strengthening your other major muscle groups -- legs, arms, chest, back, shoulders. Again, building/maintaining muscle is vital to burning fat.
You can break that up into individual body parts -- common groupings are back/biceps, chest/triceps/shoulders, and legs -- or do a full body workout.
Maybe for your goals consider a full-body circuit workout where you go from exercise to exercise with little to no rest, performing 12-15 reps of each, and repeating the whole circuit 2-3 times. Just a few suggested exercises:
Bench Press
Tricep Extensions
Lat Pulldowns
Bicep Curls
Overhead or Military Press
Squats or Leg Press
Leg Extensions
Leg Curls
Calf Raises
Back Extensions
You could do that twice a week in about 30-45 minutes -- remember you're moving with little to no rest between each exercise set, doing one set of each before starting over with the first exercise. Start out doing the circuit twice. When you are done with the circuit, go do 15-30 minutes of Steady-State cardio staying in your "fat-burning" target heart rate zone.
Maybe do that on Tuesday and Friday.
On Monday and Wednesday, do some light abs exercises -- only 2-3 different exercises -- followed by 25-30 minutes of Interval cardio staying between your "fat-burning" and "cardiovascular" zones. I make it kind of a game, dropping my HR to the bottom of and then kicking it up to the top and repeating.
If you want to add an additional cardio session on say Thursday, go ahead, but consider doing some kind of fun "play" like getting a bunch of friends together and playing flag football, soccer, kickball or whatever other sport you like.
Don't worry about "bulking up" doing weight workouts. The set and rep range you are staying in will just foster/maintain nice lean muscle. Oh, and DON'T forgo the leg workouts...most people hate them because it's like walking on noodles afterwards, but they are some of the largest areas of muscle tissue in the body and thus basically fat-burning machines.
Last edited: