Spare Tyre Won't Do One!

[essexplumber]

Since last March I have lost 4 stone, I'm really happy with it. My diet is really good and I am at the gym 5-6 days a week. I am starting to look very muscular from the ribs up but I cannot shift the ring of flab around my waist.

I know it's a long and hard road but I am starting to worry that it may never go. It's only really noticeable when I sit down and its feels like its mostly skin.

Is there anything I could do to speed the proccess up a little. I'm hoping to form some kind of six pack by the end of the year and I can feel the muscles in my abdominal region develop but what good are they if they are covered by a layer of blamange.

Any tips?

[Ordinary_Chap]

Want to post a pic so we can see what it looks like? Do you have love handles or is it predominately a frontal overhang?

Regardless, the fat around the stomach area is often the last place us men lose weight so I'd expect to see it disappear last.

Are you still losing weight?

[mcelliott]

Agree with OC in that the fat around your waist area is always the last and most stubborn to leave. If you've already lost 4 stone (fantastic effort by the way) it sounds like you know what the drill is anyway. It's probably just a case of time and patience - I'm sure another few months of continuing what you're doing and you'll notice a big difference.

[Hoofy]

It must have shrunk since you started training?

Are you continuing to lose weight?

Also, what do you do in the gym?

PS Why is OC always asking us to post up photos of ourselves?

[Ordinary_Chap]

Hoofy said:

It must have shrunk since you started training?

Are you continuing to lose weight?

Also, what do you do in the gym?

PS Why is OC always asking us to post up photos of ourselves?

Heh, its much easier to make an assessment from a picture and is the norm on other such like forums.

Also people generally have different views of themselves to others.

[Hoofy]

Ordinary_Chap said:

Heh, its much easier to make an assessment from a picture and is the norm on other such like forums.

Also people generally have different views of themselves to others.

I know. Your secret is safe with me.

[Ordinary_Chap]

Hoofy said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

Heh, its much easier to make an assessment from a picture and is the norm on other such like forums.

Also people generally have different views of themselves to others.

I know. Your secret is safe with me.

Which secret by the way? There's a fair few!

[essexplumber]

Apologies

I do a good and varied mix of free weights, machine weights and CV. My weight has leveled out at 13.5 stone but as I am trying to bulid muscle that isn't a concern. I've gone from a 40" waist to a 32" and XL-XXL to M.

I just want to firm up now.

Edited by essexplumber on Tuesday 5th February 22:08

Edited by essexplumber on Tuesday 5th February 22:10

[Efbe]

on blokes, the stomach is the first place weight gain shows, and the last place weight lost shows.
on women it's their arse, so it could be worse.

You just need to lose more weight imo. Also i'm sure you know, but in case you don't, spot reduction doesn't work, so building your abs, does not reduce belly muscle...

on the other hand, an old and not so often used exercise that can help bring your stomach in quite a bit is the 'Stomach vacuum' google it, i'm pretty sure this is the one.

[Ordinary_Chap]

Your shape is looking fairly decent and it appears you carry fat fairly evenly around your body.

I think if you keep pushing on with your exercise and if the weight loss continues as it has then you should be fine.

Are you re-assessing your need for calories given you have lost a lot of weight. So for instance lots of folk start at a certain calorie count but then they do not reduce it with the weight loss which eventually causes a plateau as the body finds a equilibrium between the number of calories taken in and used.

Are you happy with the speed of your weight loss or do you want to accelerate it? For me when I want to lose more weight, I simply raise CV/reduce calories (usually carbs first) and hey presto!

Lee

[essexplumber]

Ordinary_Chap said:

Your shape is looking fairly decent and it appears you carry fat fairly evenly around your body.

I think if you keep pushing on with your exercise and if the weight loss continues as it has then you should be fine.

Are you re-assessing your need for calories given you have lost a lot of weight. So for instance lots of folk start at a certain calorie count but then they do not reduce it with the weight loss which eventually causes a plateau as the body finds a equilibrium between the number of calories taken in and used.

Are you happy with the speed of your weight loss or do you want to accelerate it? For me when I want to lose more weight, I simply raise CV/reduce calories (usually carbs first) and hey presto!

Lee

I've cut out all white carbs since day one, the only carbs I have now are breakfast and lunch, jacket patato and wholemeal bread or a wrap. My evening meals consist of meat and veg only. 0 alchohol, couple of cans of diet coke a day, 3-5 coffees (white with sweetner).

Do you think I should spend more time on CV and less on building muscle? Would a month of hard CV and strict calories see a cut in the remaining fat? See, I can't work out wether its excess skin or actual fat.

[Ordinary_Chap]

essexplumber said:

Ordinary_Chap said:

Your shape is looking fairly decent and it appears you carry fat fairly evenly around your body.

I think if you keep pushing on with your exercise and if the weight loss continues as it has then you should be fine.

Are you re-assessing your need for calories given you have lost a lot of weight. So for instance lots of folk start at a certain calorie count but then they do not reduce it with the weight loss which eventually causes a plateau as the body finds a equilibrium between the number of calories taken in and used.

Are you happy with the speed of your weight loss or do you want to accelerate it? For me when I want to lose more weight, I simply raise CV/reduce calories (usually carbs first) and hey presto!

Lee

I've cut out all white carbs since day one, the only carbs I have now are breakfast and lunch, jacket patato and wholemeal bread or a wrap. My evening meals consist of meat and veg only. 0 alchohol, couple of cans of diet coke a day, 3-5 coffees (white with sweetner).

Do you think I should spend more time on CV and less on building muscle? Would a month of hard CV and strict calories see a cut in the remaining fat? See, I can't work out wether its excess skin or actual fat.

In terms of goals that is up to you, bulking makes the most sense from a low fat position because if you're carrying fat and then start bulking before to long you'll look full time fat.

In terms of the pictures, it looks like fat too me buddy, although a certain proportion could be lose skin as well. I know lots of people report having lost lots of weight skin takes a while to tighten up once more.

If it was me, I'd get more lean before trying to gain muscle and then start from that position. When it comes to gaining a little muscle you obviously need some excess calories, which means a weight gain and dependent on how many extra calories you take in and/or do CV it can be managed but you are most likely still going to gain some weight.

What do you want to do the most at this point in time?

[Hoofy]

OC's saved me the trouble of typing.

Since you've been training a while, I'd look into HIIT if you want to burn fat.

PS Amazing planche you have going there.

[Efbe]

http://www.examiner.com/article/stomach-vacuum-you...

[amare32]

If you want abs to show then you need to address the food you eat, make cardio shorter bursts rather than steady state cardio for 40mins-1hr which is boring as hell. In fact it would be even better to sub out 1 of your gym session for a game of football, basketball etc. I wouldn't cut too much carbs out of your diet as it fuels your training.

I do no more than 3/4 gym sessions a week making my weight sessions as intense as possible (mostly compounds) lasting no more than 45mins-1hr. The only cardio I do in the gym is 12mins prior to weights as warm up with a bit of stretching. It is never steady state and normally HIIT. Sometimes I even sub it for skipping which is great cardio. Any other cardio I do is outside the gym on a tennis or basketball court. I don't want to spend excess amount of time running on a treadmill like a lab rat when I can have fun playing sports.

For your abs to show, you would need to get to around 10% bodyfat or below. You can't spot reduce as per other posts. It won't happen overnight either but you need to keep at it but diet is absolute key and you have to be honest with what you put in and eat clean most of the time.

It took me 10 months to get from 16% BF to 6% and that's done with NO supplements, no bleeding ipad/phone apps, no fad diets, no fasting, no measuring food to the nth degree. Just intense training, periodization amd change my training regularly, good amount of cardio and eating clean. The only times I measured was in Aug '11 starting at 16%BF and May '12 at 6% BF. In between, I simply looked at the mirror to see my physique slowly changing for the better. How much I weight is never an issue as I wanted a better muscle to fat ratio so I don't even bother with a scale.

[Hoofy]

[essexplumber]

Thanks for all of the advise OC & Co.

Since I've been using free weights I've noticed a real difference in my chest arms and shoulders and I can feel that my core is starting to build too. I think that going by what a lot of you are saying I'm gonna increase my CV.

At present when I do my front of body workout I do a 10 minute warm up on a X trainer at level 10 then I finish the workout with 20 minutes on a treadmill which varies in speed, 2:15 walking @ 7 kph then 1;45 sprinting (for me) @ 14kph. When I do my back of body workout I start with an intense (for me) 1k row @ level 10 on a C2 machine, it usually takes 3:32 then I finish with 25 mins on one of these


which consists of 5 min intervals levels 11-12-13-14-15 with the last 2 mins at the top setting of 25.

Bear in mind that I hadn't done any exercise in 10 years prior to joing the gym last march so that may all seem quite soft-core to some.

I don't really want to massively decrease my food intake as its my only vice and its very healthy anyway. I may just fine tune certain aspects of it.


PS, what the fk is a "planche"?

[Ordinary_Chap]

If you don't want to eat less, maybe you could eat smarter.

And if you don't want to do that then the answer is to work harder more often!

Just keep focused on your progress and keep fine tuning as required!

Lee

[essexplumber]

Ordinary_Chap said:

If you don't want to eat less, maybe you could eat smarter.

And if you don't want to do that then the answer is to work harder more often!

Just keep focused on your progress and keep fine tuning as required!

Lee

Would just going a bit harder on the CV negate the need to drop calories?

I'll give you a run down of what I ate yesterday as its quite typical of my recent diet.

Breakfast: 2 brown toast (no spread) beans and 2 boiled eggs with a small latte.

Lunch: Jacket spud, beans, small amount of cheese and a piece of chicken.

Snack: Bag of cranberries and nuts.

Dinner: 2 chicken breasts fried in a little sesame oil with stir fried veg (dry, no oil) drizzled with a teaspoon of honey and two corn on the cobs.

Snack: Peanut bar.


I'm gonna run and row a bit longer for the next couple of weeks and see how that goes, if I don't feel any different I will cut down to essentials food wise.

Thanks for the advise btw, this place has been a real help during my fitness drive

[Gorilla Boy]

Interval training with your cardio will help, as will focusing on your core (should tighten you up and make you feel solid underneath while the skin tightens and the fat lessens)