Stomach Bloated/Sticking Out, I Don't Think It's Fat

I

iSean

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My stomach appears to stick out no matter what I do, I eat a lot of fruit and I did a cutting phase before I started working out a few months ago. Could my body be super slow at digesting my food therefore it's holding on to it? I eat breakfast which is just a moderate bowl of cereal and an apple or something, which is at 8 AM, then when I get home for lunch at 11:50 I still feel like I have basically all of my breakfast still in my stomach, but I feel hungry.

I don't think it's visceral fat either, my stomach is very hard, and as long as I pull my stomach closer to my body my abs are fairly defined, and it doesn't seem like my stomach is casually sitting away from my body, it feels like something is pushing it, plus I'm 5'8 and weigh 125 - 135 depending on the week, lol.

For supplements I take creatine (I'm in the loading phase) and protein. What's causing this? I've attached a picture below.

20100224-ggcm792n4ddgy8csbn13tji39w.jpg

Help? =[​
 
I'm not a pro at this stuff, kinda new.
But I'm sure there's a tiniest layer of fat over your abs like all guys, but also your posture. Look how your lower back curves in, it could be pushing it out.
Try to straighten yourself out, check how it changes.
Are you purposly doing that to make it more prominent for us to see?
 
Liddy said:
I'm not a pro at this stuff, kinda new.
But I'm sure there's a tiniest layer of fat over your abs like all guys, but also your posture. Look how your lower back curves in, it could be pushing it out.
Try to straighten yourself out, check how it changes.
Are you purposly doing that to make it more prominent for us to see?
Click to expand...

I'm not purposely doing that to make it more prominent, I tried standing up straighter and it didn't seem to change much, I noticed that it's definitely worse right after I eat.
 
Ok, well I'm sure someone knows better than me. But I seen your other thread and you in the region of 120-130lbs? right? Well maybe a good clean bulk.
If you stomach becomes bigger surely it's something to do with your abdominal muscles not holding it back, maybe a clean bulk will even it out and your abs will become flatter and leaner.
But I'd wait to get a response, i'm just a kid and know nothin about this stuff.
 
Believe me- its nothing compared to mine- I look like I'm 6 months gone!

I have the same problem but much much worse, its a kick in the teeth as I used to be both anorexic and bulimic and had a stupidly low BMI of 13 at one point. Its not fair!

I also eat alot of fruit and veg. I saw a dietition about it, researched about it, read about it...no one really knew. I used to not drink anything but about 1 liter at night, now I drink 5 liters, made no difference- didn't even make it worse so I don't think its that. I do think vast amounts of fruit and veg can make a difference, mainly as they are slow to digest (hence the 'fuller for longer' ploy dieters use when chosing it over something else) but the effect if you do it in large amounts is going to be bloating.

I think your back is curved, it could be the natural line of your spine, there are those of us with it in out genes (my parents are the same) this will add to any bloating you have in your intestine and so make it look worse. I have this issue too. You cannot change it, its genetic, its your bones, only surgeory will affect that.

Another thing that a personal trainer told me was that it could be a parasite- makes you bloat, have you been on holiday to anywhere very rural? if so get a blood test to make sure you have no parasites in your stomach affecting things.

And a final thing, are you getting a good nutritional diet otherwise? poor vitamins can make your body stop working properly and cause bloating as it cannot digest certain foods properly.

If it were (and I don't think it is) body fat, you could question your stress levels. High cortisol (stress hormone) will tell your body to store fat around your middle. The reasoning behind this as hundreds of thousands of years ago, out only real stress was being chased by something that wanted to eat us, or a famine. This meant our bodies had to adjust to not having enough food or needing energy to use very quickly, and thus we stored in around our middles where it was easily obtainable for energy.
Make sure your not starving at any point, not going without food for more then 4 hours apart from at night, and make sure your dealing with stress in a way that feels productive- not bottling things up.

Hope you get somewhere with this but if its not fat and feels hard, how do you know its not your abs? is it round like a ball? it could be your pushing your stomach outwards when you exercise which will train your stomach to pout rather then to hold inwards. Pilatae type exercises where you draw your belly button to your spine and are still able to breathe normally, hold for 15 to 30 seconds, let go and repeat, can help when done over time.
 
I've had almost identical symptoms to you. My solution was to give up weights and focus on swimming. I became convinced that my stomach muscles were being affected in a negative way. Perhaps a change to the bench press might have helped. Something that left the stomach muscles alone.
 
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