Help with loosing side and belly fat

[cmr287]

 Good morning Fitbit family. I am trying to loose my love handles and belly fat. I need help with Eating right... Help Meal plans would be great. I am trying hard and loging my foods. I am loosing weight however not the fat I want to loose.

I was 205lbs and am no 191lbs.  Its cool im loosing the weight however not the fat. I am thinking of continuing my work outs as well as logging my foods and trackig everything but now I am looking at trying Hydroxicut to help burn the fat. 

What should I eat to help with loosing the fat in the targeted areas?

Any suggestions?

V/R

Chris

[Dominique]

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@cmr287 wrote:

What should I eat to help with loosing the fat in the targeted areas?

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I think it’s important you realize it’s not possible to "spot-reduce", whether via exercise or nutrition. There are no special exercises you can do that will target your love handles and no special food you can eat that will cause your belly fat to melt. What you need to do is be in a caloric deficit, include resistance training (to minimize muscle loss) and eat enough protein (again, to maintain muscle mass, or possibly add some, though it is more difficult when in a deficit). The fat loss may not start where you want it to, and the areas you mention are often described as "stubborn" fat, which often goes last.

[awood08]

@Dominique is 100% correct.

You can't spot reduce, but to work your abdominal muscles to help I do flutter kicks, russian twists, planks, and crunches every day. I work the rest of my body of course but those target my abdominal and core.

[Ryboflavin]

Where @Dominique is correct you can't necessarily target, just a specific area of fat, you can do things that will aid in losing it.  

I've been struggling with my lower belly and oblique and it been a goal of mine for the last 2 months to "get abs".  The biggest thing is lowering your body fat percentage.  This is best done via eating and exercise.  Protein, Protein, Protein. You want to feed yourself enough calories to maintain your weight and muscle while getting the body to shed the fat.  Remove complex carbs and gluten.  No alcohol. Spread meals out from 3 times a day to smaller meals 6 times a day.  Other tricks are carb cycling (loading) and fasting.  

Carb cycling is eating more carbs one day a week. I don't know the exact science behind this and I've read a lot of conflicting thoughts and research whether it actually helps. But guys that are "cut" will often tell you they do it or have done it to reach their targets.

Fasting is purposely eating less then your target calorie intake once or twice a week. Again, I don't all the science of this off the top of my head, but this something I hear consistently. Give it a google.

You can look at changing your diet to a 40-30-30 (protein, fat, carbs) split or going ketosis 60-30-10. Disclaimer: Don't make any changes unless you are sure you are healthy enough or have consulted with a doctor or nutritionist.

As far as exercise goes, you want to be sure you tone and work the muscles in your problem areas.  The more muscle mass you have in area will promote more blood flow through the area.  More blood flow through the area will allow for more enzymes that break down the fat to access that fat. Hence, a type of spot reduction.  

Look at doing weight training at lower weight, higher reps that utilizing balance props. So Yates Rows, one leg bicep curls, pistol squats, etc.  Also mutli-part body movements like KB swings, power cleans, etc.  High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a great way to shed fat. I've been doing a lot of TRX, kettlebells, pilates, HIIT, and calisthenics.

Posture is another excellent way to reduce belly fat.  I have lordosis, which means my spine is more curved then it should be.  This is caused by tight hip flexor and weak glutes/abs.  This causes my hips to rotate backwards, which means my lower abs and obliques are not being utilized in day-to-day activities. If I go for a walk, stop, and place my hand on my upper abs, then move it to my lower abs, there is a noticeable temperature difference between the areas.  Guess what part is working and burning fat and which is not.

I'm still a ways off from my goals, but since I've started doing some of the above I've seen more improvement, then when I wasn't.  I started at 18% BF 2 months ago and am now down to 12.7% according to the aria, which usually measures higher than a better body mass measuring device. I'm starting to see my abs and obliques, but still not as defined, as I'd like. 

Lastly take a look at Tim Ferriss' Four hour body.  Some of the plans don't work for everyone, but it will give you an idea on how to think and approach the problem.  The conventional knowledge about weight loss is not completely true and is often misleading.  Tim does a good job pointing a lot of this out.  He also talks about how to lose weight.  In summary there are 3 parts: exercise, food, and drugs.  Summed up they should equal 100%.  If you do less of one, than you have to do more of another to make up for the difference.  

Keep at it, and good luck.

Resources

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/posture-power-how-to-correct-your-body-alignment.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson175.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nWMYFEn_0k

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wescott4.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/10_great_ab_secrets.htm

http://fourhourbody.com/

[Dominique]

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@awood08 wrote:

You can't spot reduce, but to work your abdominal muscles to help I do flutter kicks, russian twists, planks, and crunches every day.

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Crunches were actually one of the popular "lady exercises" for which there are better alternatives (I mentioned that article in this post a few days ago). The author has another article in which he explains in more details why he doesn’t use crunches. 

[Ryboflavin]

If you want to do crunches check out

Myotatic crunch

janda sit-up

Torture twist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_16Gp01zZM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvyjFqT-co4

[OCDOC]

Love all the responses so far..wow!

Men always lose the love handles and mini-gut last. Women tend to get stuck on their hips and butt.

The main problem is that nature doesn't want us to lose those last 5-10 pounds..it's our 'rainy day' stash of energy (kept between the mattresses).

My understanding re how to lose what nature wants us to keep has been mentioned: low carbs to keep insulin low (carbs drive up insulin which basically forces calories into fat cells) with enough protein. Try less than 100g net carbs per day and drive that number down as far as you can tolerate.

Your body won't burn its precious fat reserve until your glycogen (stored carbs) are depleted. Eating less carbs creates less liver glycogen, exercise burns the muscle glycogen. The best way to burn off the glycogen in a hurry is HIIT as well as killer leg work. Once the glycogen is gone, you will start burning the last fat reserves..a good long walk or other low intensity energy burner AFTER you've torched the glycogen seems the way to go.

The problem with all this is that nature HATES having its 'insurance policy' fat depleted...those last 5-10 will come back in a hurry unless you stay vigilent.

Anyway, that's a recap of the 'science' to my understanding. Good Luck! (PS I'm trying to knock off the stubborn stuff too...wish the last ten were as easy as the first ten!!)  🙂 Rob

[emili]

everytime you lift, run, cycle, box, whatever- you are working your core. which is the area you are trying to work. it all takes time. those spots are the largest and naturally the "meatiest". although all the advice here is good, what @Dominique points out is the most accurate. Loads of sources to support. if you eat in a deficit and you mix cardio (lose fat) with strength (build muscle) you will get to where you need to be. Genetics as well as your cardio to strength ratio will determine how quick. this guy tells you how it is and offers solutions. If you have time..http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/

[emili]

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@cmr287 wrote:

I was 205lbs and am no 191lbs.  Its cool im loosing the weight however not the fat. I am thinking of continuing my work outs as well as logging my foods and trackig everything but now I am looking at trying Hydroxicut to help burn the fat. 

one other thing- if you are losing weight, but you don't think you are losing fat- then your weight loss is muscle- not good. you really want to step up your strength training. I would stop cardio except for warm up and focus on strength

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