Tips for losing the 'pooch'? HELP!
 

I have 2 kids under 2 so I'm in the process of trying to lose some weight. My biggest problem is the extra skin I have around my abdomen/pelvic region. Any tips on how to target that area specifically?

Hate to burst your bubble, but there is nothing you can do. Its possible that within aobut 6 months of losing weight the elasticity can change, but if it's loose now its going to stay loose most likely. You can build your abdominal muscles to make it look better. If you aren't one for plastic surgery I suggest shape wear. I wear a shape wear tank top daily to "smooth" out the extra skin. They have some really comfortable optionss

oh no, you burst my bubble too! how do you explain the women that have amazing stomachs and have 4 kids? did they just lost the weight within the first few months of having the baby?

I mean if you have loose skin now you probably always will. Some women are geneticly blessed with skin that bounces back. I read recently that there are a lot of factors (age, amount of time at the higher weight, lifestyle and if you were a smoker) that come into play. Unfortunately for me I do not have that skin elasticity. I have 4 kids and have the battle scars to prove it! I'm not happy with it, but it is what it is and no lotion is going to fix that. I do intend to do abdominal exercises to "improve" the look, but unless I get a tummy tuck I'll always have excess skin there.

I post on another forum (not sure if I can mention it here) and this topic is such a hot one there is a sticky for it.

thanks guttergirl. i can't imagine that we would be breaking a rule by putting a link to another site on this site. if they cared they would just delete the post, but I dont think the admin people really check these discussions.

Slight Tummy
 

Hey guys, long time reader first time poster.

So I guess I'll start with a quick self-intro.
Found this site sometime late last summer through a reference from the book The Primal Blueprint (which is how I did my diet in the earlier stages of training but have since modified somewhat for my own fitness purposes). Since then, through my own training circuit, I've lost slightly under 60 pounds. It's been enjoyable watching the weight bar on the webpage go from obese to healthy weight. I literally can not remember a point in my life when I was in this good shape.

Anyway, here's the thing. At this point I'm starting to actually see some definition to my abs. I'm quite happy as I've been working towards this goal for quite some time. However, I still have the tiniest bit of loose flab hanging off my lower abs section. Now, maybe it's just me, but I would think all flab would be gone from your stomach area before you start to see ab definition.

I'm just curious what other people's thoughts/comments/etc. are on this subject?

I don't really have an answer for you since I am far from my goal weight. I have an extra question for you and this is because I know one person who lost a large amount of weight (100 lbs)....and still has jiggly in the lower belly....it really appears to be skin. Could this be the case for you? If not, sure you are aware that toning the lower belly is hard for everyone.

I've been going through a rough patch and haven't been able to exercise much, so I'm losing the hard fought definition I was getting to my abs. But, even after losing over 40 lbs, I still had flab in the lower ab area, below the belly button. The muscle under it was starting to firm up, but still soft pudge a good inch thick over that. My obliques were rockin' though, and they still look pretty good. As long as I wear pants that cut across the pudge (waist about an inch below the navel), I look fine. Anything "low rise" cuts right under the pudge, and it looks like I'm spilling out of my pants, not attractive. It's the first place I gain weight and the last place I lose it, and I think that's something a lot of us have in common.

The body operates on a continuum, so it's likely it will hang on to a little fat in all your stubborn areas even if your abs are starting to show. Remember that even during competition, figure competitors are still around 5-6% body fat, so you can never eliminate it completely (and you'd be dead if you tried/did). That little bit of fat has to sit somewhere. From an aesthetic perspective, if you just concentrate on your abs, as well as the rest of your muscles to increase their size by just a little bit, you will appear slimmer and no one will be the wiser. :)

Thanks guys, I appreciate all your responses!

Stacey, I'm not sure if I'd call it loose skin. There is substance to it, although there's very little to hold onto anymore. I also lost the weight gradually over several months and I'm only 25 so I wouldn't expect to have that kind of problem.

Hang in there by the way, you've already gotten past the first month, so from here on out it should just be running down the path!

Lizzy, you pretty much hit it dead on the nail. I've got solid abs underneath with some nice obliques forming up, but that last little bit of pudge is keeping them from shining through. Why, oh why can't we spot burn fat!

Tandoorichicken, that seems like pretty solid advice. Right now my main circuit is the Beachbody Insanity program, but after that I want to shift focus from fat burning to muscle building. Any advice you can give? I'm especially curious about the dietary aspect, as up until now I've had it oriented more towards burning fat than anything else.

Even my skinny mini toothpick of a daughter (she's 7 and weighs all of 43 lbs) has a tiny little pooch in this area. She's built like Mowgli from The Jungle Book, nothing but arms and legs :D So I figure nothing short of liposuction is going to get rid of it completely, and that just ain't worth it. That's her artwork in my avatar : )

Hey, Zaldabus. Okay, I'm thinking of taking on one of the Beachbody programs. Have you done any other than Insanity? Did Insanity really have an impact in 60 days? Of course I can look up testimonials until my eyes fuzz over, but being able to speak with a real person is better! Did you follow the nutritional guide, or just eat healthily?

Also thinking of the P90X program as it is something my partner can do with me (his back plays up sometimes and I understand that might not be conducive to effective Insanity-ing). Have you tried that one out?

I'd really love to hear your experiences using the Beachbody programs before I go spending all his hard-earned dollars! :D

Lizzy, you may just be right. It's just that I've had the stomach ever since I was around 10 and I've always wanted to get rid of it. I want my abs!


behaze, I can't really speak for the Insanity program just yet as I'm only about two weeks into it, but I did a full round of p90x I can definitely vouch for the effectiveness of the program.

Through the program, I lost about 30 pounds and 6 inches off my waist. I also had significant size losses all over, particularly around the legs area. Plus, add all the muscles I gained from the exercise and it's literally like looking at two different people. I have before/after p90x pictures which I'd be happy to upload If I can ever figure out how to do so on this site.

In terms of all out intensity, p90x is much more friendly towards someone worried about that. I consider myself in pretty decent shape now (an online calculator has me pegged at about 11% body fat, though the reliability of such methods is doubtful) but even I feel sore in the back and knee area after some of the Insanity exercises. P90X also shows ways you can do each exercise if it's too intense for you.

The biggest downside to p90x is that you need some equipment in order to do it. At a minimum, you're going to need dumbbells and a pull-up bar. This makes it kind of hard to exercise when you're away from the house/gym for the day. This is where Insanity really shines, as you can drop down and do the exercises pretty much anywhere you have a little space.

With all that being said, which one is better really depends on what your goals are. I feel p90x is a much more balanced out program, while Insanity is more targeted towards weight loss. After I finished p90x I still had a little fat I wanted to burn off, which is why I decided to go with Insanity. After Insanity I'm thinking I'll change to p90x+.

If you want more opinions, Beachbody has their own forum which has a huge number of enthusiastic users who would be happy to tell you why there program is the best.

Oh, and I didn't follow the nutrition guide. Even before I started p90x I had been doing extensive research on nutrition and had already developed my own diet, which I continued throughout the program.

The dumbbells aren't a problem, but the chin-up bar is. We have only two doors that would hold the bar; one is the door to my 10mo's bedroom (he is usually asleep while I'm exercising) and the other is to my 8yo's bedroom. They're both a bit of a distance from the loungeroom. Aside from that, we're in a rental house, so I don't think they'd be too happy if we started putting holes in doorways. Having seen the DVDs, can you tell me if there is some other exercise alternative for the pull-ups? If not, I might have to look into some type of small, cheap free-standing one.

It would be great to see some photos once you've figured out how to upload them. :)

Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program is a solid program for anybody looking to build some muscle alongside a decent strength base, regardless of weight room experience. It's the program I'm planning on doing after I finish my current mass phase and diet down for the summer/beach (... so I'll be starting around July-ish).

From a dietary stand-point, I generally eat a lot of protein and fat, but I structure simple carbs around a workout session (I do a lot of heavy lifting which drains glycogen, which if left under-supplied, slows down recovery) as well as complex carbs at the meals following my workout to help replenish glycogen. If it was a particularly grueling session I eat some complex carbs the following day as well. Controlling my carb intake helps me control fat accumulation.

You'll probably have to increase your calories by a bit over basal burn rate to build muscle. Shoot for 1g/lb lean mass of protein per day, consume the majority of your daily carbs around your workout session and don't skimp on the fat (though the obvious exception is the trans kind - stay away from this stuff - duh).

Good luck!

Alright, you've convinced me to upload some pictures. After all, a big part of my success has come from this site. Note, I'm not intentionally covering my face in the first picture, I just didn't know how to take a good shot at the time.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s/Pre-P90X.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...RoundIP90X.jpg

The post shot is a few weeks ago right after I finished P90X, you can see the stomach I'm talking about.


You can also use resistance bands to do the pull-up moves. I think you have to attach it to the ceiling somehow, I'm not sure. I have a workout bench with a pull-up bar on it that I use for those exercises. People over at Beachbody might be able to give better advice as I'm sure you're situation isn't uncommon.


Tandoorichicken, your dietary plan sounds similar to what I follow. I started adding more carbs post-exercise towards the end of my P90X circuit for resistance days, and I noticed huge jumps in muscle growth. Do you think 1g/lb of lean mass of protein per day is sufficient though? I've just started reading up on muscle hypertrophy training so I definitely don't feel qualified to give my own opinion yet, but what I've read so far suggests more towards 1.5g/lb

I'll look into Jim Wendler's Program. My biggest limit for muscle training so far has been that there is no gym where I live (currently living in the countryside out in Japan) so I have to do it all from my home. I have a workout bench with about 150kg of adjustable weights, which I've been able to make decent use of so far.

That's 1g/lb minimum. Ideally you would go higher (especially when doing a powerlifting-inspired program like 5/3/1 which rips your muscles to shreds), but at the lower limit you'd still be spared muscle breakdown and potential metabolic damage. Some fudge is okay, like .75g/lb one day, then back up the next day, but if you go any lower you will really start to feel burned out.

I'd also recommend what's known in bodybuilding circles as the "clean bulk." Muscle gain may be slower but fitness in terms of general health and vitality are improved. Powerlifting training is hard on the nervous system and can leave your immune system open to infection for a couple hours after training (although it strengthens both in the long run). Add junk food to that and you're looking at fairly frequent common cold infections. On the other hand if you stick to natural foods (by which I mean food in its original form, like salad, stew, chili, meat, veggies, etc., stuff cooked with whole ingredients), it will modulate your immunity to minimize down-time. Down-time is the enemy of progress!

You could try rows. Attach a rope to something at shoulder height, then pull it taut, lean back so your arms are straight then pull yourself back up. The more of an angle you make when you lean back, the harder the exercise.

Zaldabus, you look great! Fit. Well done. Particularly with your 'hehehe, I'm sexy now, look at me' expression :p. Actually, it looks like you've lost more than 30lbs. I would be interested in seeing a post-Insanity photo, too. So you're saying the weight loss evident is purely due to a healthy diet and that particular program? I'm really quite looking forward to getting it, now, though I'm a little daunted at the prospect of consuming 2000 calories a day. Now I'm eating healthily and have a lose-weight mindset, I'm pushing to reach 1000. Nutritious food is so much more filling. What's with that? :D And living in the Japanese countryside . . . is it as beautiful as the movies say it is? :p By the way, you look familiar . . .

Geoffers, that's a good idea, and easy to rig up on the verandah or something. Thanks for the tip.

Hey guys, just got back from a great snowboarding trip in Gifu this weekend. Had lots of fun, but it seems like I've lost my voice. Well luckily you don't need a voice to type!

Tandoorichicken, that's what I was thinking. Right now I try and maintain at least 1g/lb on a daily basis, though sometimes it can be hard with the cost of meat out here. I always make sure to have a nice breakfast with lots of eggs, both to cut costs and because it's the healthiest, easiest things to cook ever. I actually did a test run day last week where I got in 1.5g/lb of protein. Some sort of meat with every meal, plus a protein shake, and I just managed to get there. I can't remember the last time I ever ate that much meat in my life! There's gotta be a better way to go about increasing protein intake, otherwise I'm going to get sick of meat real fast.

And I completely agree with you on the "clean-bulk". That's the first time I've ever heard it being given a name, but it just seems like common sense to me. Why would you spend all that time burning off fat only to bulk it on again? Fat? no thanks. Solid muscles, yes please :D


Geoffers, yeah that's pretty much how they do the alternative for P90X. The only difference is they use resistance bands, which you don't need to attach a weight to in order to get exercise from it.


Behaze, haha, thank you. I actually wasn't doing that face on purpose, I was concentrating more on taking a good picture while making it seem like I wasn't staring at the camera. I actually meant 30kg, which is more like 60lbs. Sorry, don't use the American system out here very often.

I would be lieing if I said it was only due to that program, though the biggest body changes happened while I was doing P90X. Last year I made it my number one priority to get in shape, and so I started doing things here and there to improve my fitness and lifestyle. Did research on nutrition, looked up new recipes, put up motivational posters and made it very easy to exercise and eat healthy. I joined two dance teams and also have begun dancing competitevly on my own, during the warmer months I enjoy hiking, which is more moutain climbing here in Japan, and this winter season I have been going snowboarding pretty much every weekend. At this point it's so ingrained in me to be physically active that I get restless when I'm at home and have nothing to do.

It is hard to eat 2000+ calories a day of healthy food. Even with all the knowledge of quick and easy healthy meals to make that I've learned, I find that if I don't do some planning it's very easy to go under my caloric requirement. And it's very important to not eat too little food. I've found that occassionally going under your caloric requirements is fine and a good way to keep your metabolism in a flexible state, but if I do it for any sustained period of time it makes me look gaunt and like I'm dieing. Two weeks ago I had a terrible stomach virus and I couldn't eat anything for 5 days. I ended up losing 6 pounds during that time, and the next day at work people kept saying I should go to the hospital because I looked like skin and bones.

Japan is a very beautiful place, especially during the spring and fall. I actually live close to where they filmed parts of the movie "The Last Samurai" which is an amazing place to visit when it's warmer. When you say familiar do you mean like in a we've met before kind of way, or a you look like a celebrity kind of way? I get the latter occassionally, though it seems like people can't agree on which celebrity it is these days.

Ah, 30kgs seems more like it. And yeah, I use kilos, too, so I have to get on a converter to post here so everyone knows what I'm talking about. It's okay with smaller numbers to give it a rough 2lbs per kg, but when you get into bigger numbers, the difference is so much more vast, hey?

What kind of dancing do you do?

And I know what you mean about getting restless now - I've only been back into the exercise for a few weeks now, but I had three days off over the weekend; by Sunday night, I was all twitchy and my muscles ached from not being used - so tired by 11pm, but full of unused energy. I probably could have removed my butt from the computer chair and done something constructive - instead, I chose to complain about it in hopes of gaining a sympathy massage. :p No, by the way, it didn't work.

Familiarity - not sure (ever been to Australia? :D). Probably the 'you look like a celebrity' choice. Although I'll join the ranks of not knowing which one.

How is your tummy coming along with Insanity, now? Is it getting a little smaller? Still too early to tell?

I've read up a fair bit on nutritional requirements for this program, and everything says you need more food, more food, more food. I guess I'll just see how it goes and, of course, up the intake because I know 1000 isn't enough and probably isn't right now with the exercise I'm currently doing. I'll have a look through the nutritional guide and see how I can tweak it - generally food guides from exercise videos contain some ingredients that are hard to get in Australia, or ridiculously expensive, where it is much more readily available/affordable in America.

Well, an average KFC meal contains 1000 calories. I'd be happy to have a finger lickin' dinner every night if 999 of those calories weren't derived from fat . . . :D

My copy of P90X was won last night on eBay, so I'll probably have it by the end of the week. I am so very much looking forward to it. I'll have to do some before and after pics, too.

I'm part of two dance teams, hip hop and salsa, and I also do social dance competitively. While they do require a high level of flexibility and body control, compared to exercise like Insanity and P90X the physical effort necessary is very low, so these days its more of my recovery period than anything.

You're from Australia? Cheers! Never been to Australia, but we do a lot of international work with Australia over here. I had a chance to go over to Australia a few months back to work as an interpreter, but they wanted me to use my own vacation days and pay for the plane ticket. Um... I'm not going to pay a ridiculous amount of money to work, thank you very much.

I just did my monthly pictures yesterday, and it looks like I'm making progress. It's really hard to say though as February was a killer month with Valentine's celebrations, my birthday, a big conference, and getting a stomach virus which knocked me out of fitness commission for a week and a half. I just did the Insanity Fit Test though and it seems like I've made substantial progress, so we'll see how it goes from here on.

Definitely don't recommend skimping on nutrients. I'm guessing your overall goal is to look better, not simply lose body mass. At 1000 calories a day, for awhile you will be losing kilos fast, but then all that stress on your body will catch up on you and you'll start looking like a half dead skeleton, plus then you'll have to work double hard to regain all that lost muscle. I wouldn't even recommend 1000 calories for a non-exercise day unless you were like a tiny 130cm person with no metabolism. What exactly are your goals anyway?

I have the same problem with finding certain ingredients. On the plus side I can get a lot of my food from local sources which is way better than most of the food people get at big supermarkets. I didn't follow the diet plan myself. I did my own research and came up with a flexible plan where I could use easily obtainable ingredients. Also, the first month or so I nearly doubled my grocery bill by trying a bunch of new foods. I figured it was an investment in my health and that my body was more important than some money. My grocery budget has since stabilized, but I wouldn't be afraid to try some new things just because they may seem expensive.

Cheers on getting your DVD's. If you need any advice, there are plenty of people on this forum who can give you some.

Oh, I'd love to learn to salsa properly! It sounds like you're super active. When do you find time to sleep?! :D

The DVDs arrived yesterday, which I was hugely surprised with, considering the paypal payment hasn't cleared yet. I'd been asking the seller a few questions about his experience doing p90x, so his reason for sending them so quickly was because my enthusiasm to start gained his trust (and if he'd looked at our feedback, most of them say 'fast payment', anyway). So I spent yesterday reading the guides and watching the 'How to Bring It' DVD. The nutritional guide doesn't seem hard to follow, so I'll incorporate some of their dinners into our menu and see how we go with that. I've asked a few people about whether they've followed the diet plan, and very few have. I guess I'll just continue stocking the fridge and pantry with good food and say 'NO!' to junk. (As a side-note, I finally tried cottage cheese the other day, because I know lots of people on a healthy diet eat that. Eugh! Not for me.) The past few days, I've also been adding a few calories to my diet (extra veggies, a piece of toast with my breakfast poached egg, just a bit here and there) and have discovered something extraordinary . . . more energy! Who'd have guessed? Plus, I lost 1.7kgs in the last week, so it hasn't had an adverse effect.

I also went out this morning and bought some equipment (resistance bands, the push-up bars (I have girly-weak wrists), a HRM and - hold onto your hat - I found a pull-up bar which doesn't require screws for $10!), so I'm all set to go. We're starting it on Monday so the rest day falls on a Sunday - plus, it's our 10yr anniversary on Friday and I plan to have a few drinks - alcohol is being severely cut back for the 90 days of the program (oh, wine and cider, I shall miss thee).

Goals? Well, when I started diet and exercise seriously, I weighed just over 72kg (fortunately for me, I carry it well, except for the baby belly). That was four weeks ago. I've been doing between one and two hours five days a week of Tae Bo, New York City Ballet, Zumba (yep, love that!), Pilates and high-impact aerobics, which has seen me lose just over 5kgs in 4 weeks. I lost weight through exercise a few years ago and got down to 49-50kgs, but I think that's too skinny (though I was muscular - I remember going indoor rock climbing one day and I heard onlookers saying, while I was climbing the underneath of a horizontal wall, 'wow! look at the muscles on her back!' That was a good feeling). I just want to get down to a healthy BMI of 22, which my Wii Fit tells me is 58kgs, get rid of this tummy, get some muscle definition and mostly, strength. Currently 27yo, 163cm and 67kg.

When your bosses offer to send you over here and PAY for your ticket (the meanies! How dare they tempt you with such a trip, then say you've got to pay for it, and require you to work on your vacation days? :)), definitely come. It's a great place to live and I can see it would be a great place to visit . . . if you discount the recent rash of natural disasters.

So come on, let's see your newest pics! :p

Zaldabus, I just read last night about the quakes and the tsunami and the explosions at the power plant over in Japan. I sincerely hope you're okay, and your friends and loved ones are safe and well, too.

Thinking of you at this time.

Hey behaze (and anyone else who is concerned),

Just wanted to let you know I'm alive and well. All the stuff that happened in Japan was on the opposite side of the country, so we didn't even know anything had happened until later in the day. Things were a bit hectic for awhile but for the most part things are back to normal now.

Good luck with your exercise. It seems like you're on track and your motivation is running high! I've made a decision to cut Insanity short and will switch to a modified round of P90X for muscle hypertrophy next week. After doing Insanity for about 6 weeks, I have definitely noticed improvement in strength and endurance, but I've noticed a substantial loss in muscle definition. Plus, I've come to the conclusion that the tummy situation is loose skin, and I want to put more focus onto tightening up that area. I've put together a circuit which revolves around P90X with cardio from Insanity and core work P90X, Insanity, and P90X+. In this way I still feel I'll be able to finish up Insanity, and get the muscles I want in time for Summer :)

In addition to my whey protein powder, I've gotten some creatine, glutamine, and ribose (all in powder form). If any one has any other suggestions, supplements or otherwise, I'd love to hear them.

Oh, I missed this new insertion yesterday, so I commented on another post you made today when I saw your name on the screen.

Anyway, I'm so pleased you're okay. I was really getting worried that you hadn't posted in a while (wow, I sound like a nagging girlfriend or something :p).

Six weeks - that time went fast! We're up to the end of the second week of P90X and I gotta say, I feel great. I think I'm just about past that pain barrier. Woo! How motivating is Tony Horton?!

Good luck with your new circuit. Check in from time to time to let me know how it's working for you, and, of course, if your tummy issue improves!

:cool:

Burn belly Burn!
 

I am 1 year post-baby #2 and have no intentions of having more. My abdomen used to be pretty cute... now there's this little fat pad (as well as some extra loose skin) around my mid-section. I understand that crunches will build muscle - and I've been doing at least 100/day, but how do I burn off that fat? Will crunches help burn fat? Will daily cardio burn this off?
My diet is relatively a healthy one. My carbs are just over 50% and my fat is just over 25% (a little more than I'd like). protein meal bars, fresh fruit/veggies, hummus and veggie wraps, lean chicken (and probably a bit too much pasta) I'm trying to cut back the fat and up my protein a bit... my carbs are usually whole grains.
Any suggestions for diet or exercise to help the midsection? I know I'll never have the abs of my pre-baby body... but I'd like to be able to wear a bikini again someday.:p

You should try doing an ab work out DVD. Also try standing leg lifts. Cardio is really good too, what I do is I go and jog two laps around my neighborhood (it's a small neighborhood) and I eat well during the day.

What do you eat?