Tips for reducing Belly

[ramesh_fit]

I am running+walking with fitbit, daily ~4KM to 5KM for the past 30 days.

But I don't find any difference in reducing belly.  I am working as a software engineer, and this is the only workout I'm doing actually. 

My friends are suggesting to stop running, and go for floor exercise related to Belly/stomach.

I am worried, is running really helps on reducing belly.  Or it only gives stamina...

Any help will be appreciated.

[emili]

any cardio activity is going to burn through more calories which in turn burns through fat. the problem is you can't direct where the fat is burning from. It usually burns from all over, but if you have a higher fat ratio around your middle, it may seem like it isn't coming off. You also need to consider diet. weight loss starts in the kitchen. you can run all night and not out run poor food choices. in order to reduce fat- you have to be in a caloric deficit. If on the other hand you do not want to lose weight- you want to change your fat to a more toned look. You need to strength train. Again you can not spot reduce - but with the right work out of lifting, abs and cardio- you will change the way you look, but keep the same (or close to) number. This will require a different food intake as well since you want to up your protein. And please take this in the spirit that its offered- for a guy to only do cardio, in my opinion is counter productive. Cardio breaks down muscle- your distances aren't long, so it will more than likely not happen - but something to consider. You probably want to be "built" not scrawny? 

[Dominique]

As @emili said, your belly will only be reduced if you’re in a caloric deficit. You can create such a deficit by moving more (what you appear to be doing), eating less (you said nothing about your eating), or both. From a fat loss perspective, the nutrition side of the equation is usually more important than exercise. And you cannot "spot-reduce", so "floor exercises related to belly/stomach" won’t help: they may strengthen your core muscle, but not reduce fat in the area. If you wanted to do resistance training, you would be better off favoring compound movements that work larger muscle groups. Cardio training (e.g. running) and resistance training (e.g. weight lifting) do not need to be mutually exclusive, either. 

[varun03]

Excellent tip here.

Controling diet and eating right food is as important as doing excersie.

[SunsetRunner]

In addition to having a low fat and low sugar diet, spinning and elliptical will help you reduce belly fat.   

[ramesh_fit]

This is my calories chat workout done for 28 days



My last 10 days activity,


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Is this will help on for my problem?
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[ramesh_fit]

Below are the two screenshots of my activity.  Does this will help for providing solutions to my problem?

[Dominique]

You are only showing us one side of the fat loss equation: exercise. We know nothing about the other side: nutrition. Fat loss is about energy balance: burn more than you eat and you will lose fat, burn less than you eat and you will gain fat. Now that you know roughly how much you burn (estimated by your Fitbit), you need to adjust your eating accordingly. Have you ever calculated the calories in a portion of the food you most often eat?

I assume you’re a guy. How old, tall and heavy are you? The reason I’m asking is 1788 calories burned each day in average doesn’t sound much for a younger guy (unless you’re short and light). I’m probably older than you (55), not particular tall and heavy (174cm/65kg) and I burn 1000 calories more than you in average:

In order to lose fat, you either need to burn more, eat less, or both.

[ramesh_fit]

I'm 33 years old, 164cm in height with the weight of 55.3 kg.  I saw from fitbit dashboard my bmi

From your response: for instance If I burnt 1788 calorie per day, then I have to eat less than that calorie (below 1788) to reduce fat?

This is what you mean?  Sorry Im not good in english.

[Dominique]

OK, you’re 10 cm shorter and 10 kg lighter than me, that would explain why you burn less, in spite of being 22 years younger. You can play with this online calculator, which relies more or less on the same formula as Fitbit. According to it, your BMR is 1418. Your current activity level would be in between "sedentary" (1702) and "lightly active" (1950). You have a potential for improvement here: if you were "moderately active", your TDEE would be 2198, and if you were "highly active", it would be 2446. Fitbit wants you to be more active: that’s the green line on your calories chart, which is somewhere around 2400.

Increasing your activity level would allow you to eat more (and who wouldn’t want to eat more), while still being in a deficit (which is needed for fat loss). Of course, physical activity has other benefits (improving your cardio-vascular health, gaining muscle etc.), especially since you have a deskjob, which means sitting most of the day.

You do need to be in a deficit (eat less than you burn) if you want to lose your belly fat. Given that you are already quite thin (BMI: 20.6), you should go for a moderate deficit (eg. 250 to 500 calories). If you don’t count calories, you will have to adjust your eating so as to lose about 0.3-0.5 kg per week in average. Wish you success in your endeavour!

[Dominique]

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@ramesh_fit wrote:

If I burnt 1788 calorie per day, then I have to eat less than that calorie (below 1788) to reduce fat? This is what you mean?

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Yes, that’s what I mean. You need a 3500 cumulative deficit in order to lose 1 pound (0.45 kg). If you want that to happen in one week time, you need a daily deficit of 500 calories. With your current activity level, that would leave you with 1288 calories to eat. It doesn’t take many pizza slices and cans of Coca-Cola to reach that amount (sorry if I’m having a stereotypical view of the diet of a software engineer!).

As I said, increasing your activity would allow you to eat more. Making better food choices could also help (difficult to say, since we don’t know what you are currently eating). Eat minimally processed food, lots of veggies, fruits. Food that is satiating, yet low in calories (many veggies fit in that category).

[Ukase]

Here's the facts: 

 You cannot target fat on your body - unless it's through liposuction. Depending on  your genetics, fat goes on various parts of your body, collecting more in some places than others. When you lose fat, it comes off, pretty much in reverse order the way it went on. If your gut got big first - it comes off the gut last. 

I will repeat for clarity - you cannot do sit-ups and crunches and exercise stomach muscles to lose stomach fat. Yes, you will burn calories, and you may be able to build muscles in that area which helps with losing fat - but you will not reduce the size. 

If you want a smaller abdomen, that starts and ends in the kitchen. You must eat smaller portions so that the stomach organ itself will reduce in size. Have no meal where your total intake of food is larger than your fist. It is an agonizingly, lengthy process - counting calories, measuring portions, but even the most lethargic nerd can lose weight without exercise by eating very small portions throughout the day - providing the total calories consumed is fewer than what is burned throughout the day. 

Unfortunately, you do the math and you see that this takes a heck of a lot of time. We can pack on a couple of pounds of fat and water a week easily, but losing that fat is tough. So, start with small good habits. 

Eat less. Move more.