For those worried about their tummys
 

This kinda goes along with the "Fatter" post. I was curious about it and I asked one of the trainers at my gym for advise on it so that I could pass it along to you guys.

She said that the best thing you can do is to do cardio. Cardio makes you lose fat all over the body. 30 minutes- a hour a day is great. BUT!!!

She said that if you have a lot of weight to lose, you need to also combine in lifting weights. This keeps you from getting saggy and it gives your body nice definition and that you should do a whole whole lot of ab exercises, she is not saying exclude them, but dont concentrate on them, cause all you will do is turn your flabby tummy into a tummy of muscle and it will still look like you have a large stomach, but it will just be muscle instead of fat. She said concentrate on the cardio and combining weights and you will be fine and dont pay attention to the scale because muscle weighs more than fat.

I hope that this helps some of you ladies out. I hope that everyone here is exercising in some way. It make such a difference. I have to put myself in the gym cause I have no will power to do it at home. I wish we all lived in the same area so that we could work out together and keep eachother motivated other then just on the computer. Good luck ladies!

-Sandra

Sandra, that's good advice and I agree. I use Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat exercise program and as a competitive bodybuilder, he advises an hour of cardio a day for those wanting to lose a lot of weight. He says any more than that is a waste of time and effort though.

He also advocates a full body weight workout which I do 20-30 minutes of a day.

But he says doing a lot of ab crunches is a waste of time too -- you can't spot reduce your body and unless you lose the fat, all you are going to do is have a muscle with a layer of fat covering it.

But...it will be pretty fat, if that makes any sense. I have very lovely cottage cheese type legs. When I get my mucles built up a bit more, and a bit more fat gone, you can actually start to see definition. Thats when I start to think, hey! my legs are starting to look really good. If I wasnt building that muscle, they wouldnt look that great.

Just a note on the fat/muscle weight ratio....a lb of fat and a lb of muscle weight the exact same, a lb is a lb. But muscle takes up alot less room than fat does. That is why it appears to weigh more.

This is very good advice. Cardio is about all I can do. My tummy is larger than I'd like, but with recurrent abdominal hernia's (3X) now, I simply can't do ab exercises. I keep thinking that with all the cardio that my tummy will naturally get smaller but mostlly what I notice is that butt and legs keep disappearing. Oh well, at least it is smaller than it was to start with.

great thread Sandra. I totally agree with you about no ab work until the weight is off or the majority. I did some crunches before and overweight, went shopping with my dress on and the sales clerk thought I was pregnant. i dont like to exercise everyday, but i do walk during the week.

Well lets go back tohistory a bit here girls. The abdomen is a great place to store fat that goes way back to neaderthal days when women were left to watch the children and men had the luxury of running out and catching the food. (not just catching but eating as well before it got home) so women had to become very eficient to store and ration energy as many were probably breast feeding as well their babies there were left with to raise. so hence the lovely last to get rid of stress induced gut. so ladies the only way to get rid of the gut is to lose the fat all oaver ahd know that eventually with eating and exercise the body will slowly let go of the soft rounded protruding gut.

I dont agree with this point at all. The last thing I want to have to work on when the weight is finally off is my belly. If I already have nice muscles under the fat, then as I loose the fat, appearing under it, will be some awesome muscles.

I think building your core and ab muscles while you are loosing weight is extremely important. I dont want to be "skinny fat" when I get to my goal weight, I want to have a nice toned and shapely figure when I get to my goal.

I will gladly take a bit of belly "buldging" while Im building the muscle, and burning the fat with cardio now, then having to pretty much start from scratch when I get to where I want to be.

I think this quote has been misunderstood a bit.....you cannot spot reduce fat, period!! But he isnt saying to not build your core muscles. Just what will happen if you try to do many many crunches to target your tummy.........you'll have muscle under there.

In my books I think thats awesome.......then just work the cardio to burn the fat so you can show off those awesome abs! ;)

^^So Robin, do you do your ab exercises now? If so how much, and how often? You don't see that bulging effect going on? I see your point, but when I actually "did" this I looked a mess, and thought I was doing something. I'm curious to know your current ab method at this point.

once a week, I work abs and core muscles. I use the stablility ball. Here is a link for the ab exercises I use on the ball http://www.askmen.com/sports/fitness...ness_list.html

I do not get the bulging effect...maybe its because I only work them once a week. I do 3 sets of 25 per exercise. When I get stronger, I'll up the repititions

Yep Robin, that's what it is, once a week. Hmmmm....I get overzealous sometimes and that's what I more than likely done. Muscle do melt fat, and once a week ain't bad at all. You're so cool for giving us the link!!! I love links with pics. I worked out once with the ball in a gym class, and it was "the best" I'm purchasing one now, thanks for the tips!!!! Now, I'm not afraid to do the work!!! Once a week, I can do that.

I think I was misunderstood. Once a week is not bad at all. I was talking about people who do abs daily and focus on doing lots of abs. Not once a week. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Pilates is another good class for abs. You find muscles in there you never knew you had.

i FINALLY got my abs toned.. however == i would not limit ab workouts
that is YOUR CORE STRENGTH.. you are not only trying to lose weight but
decrease fat AND BECOME STRONGER.-- as you become stronger your cardio will become more efficient .. therefore I would do ab workouts
i would do pushups -- i would continue to challenge myself..
the goal is to look fit and strong ... not skinny .. i was skinny as a kid..
i now am fit and 50 .. and i have competed in figure shows AT THIS AGE
HOW ABOUT THAT ONE! ..

Whoa!!! That's awesome imfirmin!!!! Whatever tips you have I'm open! Thanks.

Just out of curiousity, what kind of cardio do you guys do while on Atkins? I have no equipment, and unfortunately little time at the moment. Once I graduate though, I'll have way more time to workout, but what gives the best results?

last time i did atkins i exercised like a maniac. this time i'm lazy and walk every now and then (when I miss a bus and "need" to get there before the bus would).