[yoyomom]

I am new to this site and find it informative and fun! I have told many friends about it and I hope they pay it a visit also. I kept going up and down on the scale and have finally changed my eating habits. I went to the diet **** last year and lost weight, but gained it all back. I kept the menus and am now doing it on my own as well as walking everyday and sit-ups. But how do I lose the GUT? The "baby" weight is not an excuse any longer considering they are both in college Any suggestions would be helpful!

[BlueToBlue]

Welcome!

Losing the gut has got to biggest frustrations about weight loss. You can't control it. I've lost 30 lbs and some days, I swear it seems like none of them were from my stomach. Even at 120 lbs, I can still pinch an inch (but I guess at least it's only an inch--I used to be able to pinch a lot more).

Ultimately, you lose the gut the same way you lose the rest of it--diet and exercise. You can't spot reduce. You can firm and tone with ab exercises, but to lose fat in your stomach, you need to lose fat overall and you do that by burning more calories than you consume. I also do 15 mins of just abs on my Tues and Thurs cardio days (and I do varying amounts of ab exercises during my workouts with my trainer on Mon, Wed, and Fri). I've read that some studies have shown that running can help you lose fat in the stomach. I do a fair amount of running (it's part of my Tues/Thurs cardio and I run 6 miles on Sundays) and I really can't say one way or the other whether it's helped much with my stomach fat. But I am in great shape cardio-wise.

It looks like you are doing great; just keep at it and eventually your gut will get smaller, along with the rest of you.

[ennay]

I run a lot and I mostly carry my fat in my stomach and back.

[Ilene]

yoyomom

Ultimately, you lose the gut the same way you lose the rest of it--diet and exercise. You can't spot reduce.

I agree... There is no great secret except eat less, exercise more, you just have to be persistant and patient with food and exercise and eventually it'll come off ...

[midearthseeker]

Running does help, provided that your body shape cooperates! LOL! I started running a few years ago after loosing a lot of weight through diet and pilates and it really did take off the fat from my stomach. Unfortunately, my stomach's a quivering mass of skin, since I'm covered in stretch marks, but at least it looked smooth and tight under clothes!

There are studies showing that running burns tummy fat better than other forms of cardio. You can probably look it up on Prevention magazine's website.

[midearthseeker]

PS. I just pulled out my old Prevention "Running Fit" mini-mag, and confirmed that it was a study from Duke University that found that runners dropped 8% more belly fat than walkers in the same amount of months.

[lumifan4ever]

well...that settles it...as soon as I lose enough weight that it won't bother my knees so much...i will take up running again. I hold alot of my weight in my belly area too. Not that I probably won't end up saving up and having a tummy tuck to get rid of lose, stretched out skin, but i may have to take up running before i go down that road just to be on the safe side.

[marlu]

I'd like to lose about five pounds off my stomach, and fifteen pounds overall.