[Princess210]

I'm a big girl, I know I am. I've slowly been losing weight, down almost 55 pounds now. What I've noticed is I'm losing weight in my face/neck, upper torso, hips and some in the legs. What I want to know though, is how have you guys had success in getting rid of the big belly and "thunder thighs?" My tummy is like a huge egg, starting to purtrude from just under my breasts and rounds out like a perfect egg right at my pelvis. Also, my inner thighs are flabby and "heavy," and my butt seems to not want to shrink. How did you guys lose the weight in these places? My weight is really bad on my knees so squats and lunges are almost impossible as well as sit ups and/or crunches are hard on my back. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

[learningtoliveagain]

Hi Princes,
First of all congratulations on the weight loss, your doing great. I have arthritis in my knees and the issues with my back are too long to get into. I exercise every day in the pool. I have an above ground 24' round and start out with 45 minutes of walking. I could never walk that long on hard ground. After walking I hold myself up with either a noodle or foam dumbbells and do leg kicks for almost 15 minutes. To help with my big belly I do stomach crunches while floating in a Swimways: Spring Float Papasan. Here is they're website...
www.swimways.com/spring-float-papasan-p-65.aspx
What I do is sit more upright then the people in the picture, hold onto my foam dumbbells and using my stomach muscles I draw my knees up towards my chest. I do this while leisurely floating around the pool. Believe it or not I do 400 crunches and it doesn't hurt my back. I can't do one on the hard floor without excrusiating pain. I have lost 2" in my waist in the last 3 months.
Oh and by the way I bought mine in Walmart for $15.00

So if you have access to water it's great for exercising without hurting your joints.
Good luck to you.

Learn

[Lovely]

Hi there =)

Congratulations on your success! It's great to see ^^

Sadly, there's no real way to spot reduce. As we lose fat, our bodies choose where it will leave from next. Exercising can ensure that underneath we're building muscle for when the fat finally does decide to leave, but in the meantime... can't make the fat leave from one specific place.

[Princess210]

@Lovely: Thank you! Yeah, I've read that and was hoping it wasen't true, lol. Hopefully my tummy decides it's tired of pulling my middle torso down and will drop the fat that's sitting there.

@Learning to live again: Thank you! I'll look into that spring float. I do have access to a pool, however it's a community pool for our apartment complex and restricts the use or any and all inflatables =/ If I go early enough before school, maybe no one will have a problem with them. If all else fails, I'll get a note from my doctor to use the rehab pool. She wants me to do the weightloss surgery, but at 28, I don't want to do that yet. If I tell her I can't use our pool, she'll find one for me to continue the weight loss. Even she's impressed on what I've done on my own.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll definitely look into them, weights and floaties

[josey]

I don't know about the belly (still have one too) but thighs are shrinking since I started the C25k running program! I just thought I mention that :-)

[goodnuff]

I absolutely agree with Learning. Water is the way to go. Walking alone will help tone things up. I have rheumatoid arthritis and all of my lower body joints have issues and at 316 pounds I could do lunges and squats in the water. There are plenty of water exercises both strength and aerobic that don't require any equipment. We have a rehab pool here that offers classes that are roughly $5 and the pool is kept nice and warm, maybe you couldfind something by you? Good luck!