[Brendalee]

Hi all. I have recently started using an Ab Lounge (about 3 weeks ago) and I also do Curves 3x a week. I have lost a few pounds but my stomach has gotten bigger. I wonder if this is because of the situps, I'm putting on muscle beneath all the fat that is pushing my stomach out more??? Maybe I'm totally off but that is all I can think of...

[2CMEAGAIN]

I've heard somewhere that if you don't rid yourself of the fat first your muscle will just grow over it!

[lppennington]

Brenda, I know that fat is larger than muscle, so when the fat is turning to muscle it will at first appear larger, and then as you gain muscle - your fat burns off quicker. So the moral is: Dont loose heart, your stomach should start to loose the inches.

Lisa

[not2fat2bpretty]

I know what you mean! I got frustrated when that happened to me. It seems like all your hard work was for nothing. Because if you are like most of us your belly is one of the things you want gone the most. I was going to a gym where a personal trainer told me that you have to lose the weight with cardio first then slowly work on muscle tone. I'm still working on that darn cardio part LOL! In the mean time I think my muscles are on vacation!

[kierr]

I guess it's worth looking up. I know if you don't hold your abs in tight when you work them, that they can build out instead of concave. I got that right from a trainer last week, and heard it before from another trainer.

I do not know about losing the fat first, that doesn't seem to make sense to me. I would see no harm in trying to tone up WHILE you lose the weight, just hold your abs in tight when you use that thing.

I am trying to tone up while I lose the weight and now I am starting to see definition in my arms and abs. It is a huge motivator for me.

[carolshmarol]

Fat does not turn into muscle because they are two completely different types of tissues. If you gain muscle, you're not actually adding more or new muscle but expanding the existing muscle. The more muscle you have, the more fat you can burn. It's necessary to lift weights to increase muscle density which will in turn burn more fat. It is also essential to do cardio. If your stomach is getting bigger, then there is more information I need like what do you eat and how frequent? What types of exercise are you doing and how frequent? How long you've been doing this. If you like, send me a pm because I'll probably have a hard time finding this thread again.