I’ve always carried my weight in my belly, and it’s SO nasty. I loathe doing crunches. So, I guess I’m destined to have a flabby belly. The Sonoma Diet promotes losing belly weight first, so I wonder if that will be enough to make me lose my tummy. I doubt it. I “know” I need to exercise, but boy do I hate it. I like riding my bike, so hopefully the cardio will help shed some belly fat. Anyone had success losing the mid section w/out doing crunches?

well, step aerobic exercise made my belly slimmer, and I've read in self-magazine that any cardio exercise (although meant for the heart's endurance) seems to burn belly fat and overall body fat. I'm naturally small and I still have a belly. It annoyss me but there's nothing I could really do about it (Sadly, surgery is the only option that I may rid my lower abdominal belly crease)

Well, the sort of "good" news here is that spot reducing is a myth. Doing crunches won't shrink your tummy, and doing leg lifts won't shrink your hips. Where your body stores fat and where it comes off when you lose it is mostly determined by genetics.

Riding your bike will help you burn calories, and the more calories out the better! Adding some strength training is also important, having more muscle helps you burn more calories, even when your body is at rest. Also, there are ways other than crunches to strengthen those core muscles, using free weights requires the help of your core muscles to stabilize your body, so they get an "indirect" workout. Doing some exercises on a stability ball makes them work even harder.

Good luck!

Doing crunches is great, but it doesn't spot reduce fat, it just builds up the muscles of the abs (which are under fat).

Women tend to carry fat in their bellies, hips and thighs. Even at 127 lbs, I have a belly and large upper thighs.

Losing body fat is mostly diet. Exercise is great, crunches are good, but you should probably look into a really great weekly program with weight training and cardio. There are some great forums here for exercise!

The most important thing is to love your body. Now that I've lost weight, I have exactly the same body I've always had, it's just smaller. I'm still short waisted, I still have bigger thighs - I don't look like a swimsuit model, I could never wear a bikini. That doesn't mean I'm not happy!

This is waht I give out any time someone asks. I do 1 cup of kefir a day and I do notice a difference in my tummy. Now my tummy is still fat and has a long way to go but I do notice it flattening out more and if i am out of kefir for a week or two, it gets rounder again and I kick myself.

Here is a link to their page and another one about kefir. The first link also has a blog with some comments on it.

http://www.lifeway.net/

http://www.kefir.net/index.htm

Here is a link to the article on the worlds healthiest foods page about yogurt/dairy.

Yogurt

Yogurt, Specifically, Significantly Increases Fat Loss

Yep, losing belly fat is just the same as losing fat in other places. Do your cardio, follow your diet plan and you'll shed some tummy fat (though maybe not all. It's hard for women to get a completely flat stomach.)

Hey! Try posting a question about abdominal exercises in the Exercise! forum and see what folks there say. I also have fat on my belly, and although abdominal exercises didn't make me lose fat there--my weight loss did that--having toned muscle there really does make a difference--not only for my appearance but also for my back! Better support.

Jay

Jasmine...i eat yogurt at least once a day most days. So, should i up it to 3 a day to help reduce my belly??? (Of course, I would work the calories in so i don't go over my limit).

Lumina4ever:

I am no expert by any means. I have found that the kefir in particular is extremely helpful for me, don't know why. More so than say the yogurt. I have done both and whenever I forget and don't get the kefir, my belly pouches back up. I don't gain any weight back just my tummy looks rounder.

Right above the belly button I have a lil pouch that won't quit, but when I start doing my cup of kefir a day where the belly button starts and down, it looks like I cut it with a knife. It's weird. I have stopped and started again a few times. It has nothing to do with how much I weigh. My tummy is just straight up flatter right there when I do the lowfat kefir. Now I have tried the whole fat version. It does nothing for me.

Maybe "why" is because the kefir has like 10 live & active coultures/probiotics that they add in. Most yogurts have 1-2.

Kefir Blog

I have 1 cup of kefir a day. I have 1 serving of cheese a day. (most days, mozarella is low in fat too!) I take 1 centrum multivitamin a day. (I don't really recommend trying to get all your nutrients from vitamins but right now my bottom line is cals in/cals out and eventually I would love to be able to get what I need from food and not a supplement. )

Anyhow I do eat beans/brown rice/broccoli regularily. I try to get a few vegis and some fruit in, although not as much as I know I need to and once I can increase my cals more I will go back to more fruit. The point I am getting to is do whatever you have to to get to fitdays 100% RDA for calcium. That is what I aim for.

But I do NOT do 3 servings of kefir a day. Maybe I should. lol I do 1 cup a day and 1 serving of cheese and the rest I get from the other food(calcium) my vitammin only has 16% calcium.

Someone else on that blog said it helps their tummy too. So I am not the only one.

Tummy

Superfood # 10

I carry weight in my tummy too--I'm a classic Apple body type. Cardio, cardio, cardio! It melts the fat from all over your body, but be aware that the belly fat is usually the last to go with Apples like myself, and like you may be.
Good luck!

It did seem to me that when I was on South Beach (very similar to Sonoma) I did lose belly fat somewhat faster than in the past - dunno. There are several diets and doctors who give some credence to the idea that limiting REFINED carbs will help with belly fat specifically.

Bottom line is lose body fat and your belly will reduce ...whether it is first to go or last to go is anyone's guess. Crunches are good for many things, but they wont help reduce fat on your belly. Once you remove the fat they will make your belly look better.

I agree with everyone else. I've read sooo much on belly fat, Oxygen actually has a great issue devoted to abs, and EVERYTHING talks about diet being a huge factor. Refined carbs and sugar are HORRIBLE adding to belly fat. And I see it in my stomach, if I have a few days of eating junk, my belly doubles in size. When I go back to behaving myself, it goes back to where it should be within a few days.

As well, cardio, cardio, cardio...burning the fat overall and getting your body fat percentage down low. I read somewhere that in order to have well defined abs your body fat has to be like 13% or something crazy like that. Now, I don't know if that was for men or women I can't remember, but it's still really low. Crunches will only build muscle that you won't see if you have pounds of fat covering it.

Also, hold your belly in all the time. Sucking in your tummy will strengthen it. I haven't done much work on my abs at all and it's shrinking really nicely with the cardio and the sucking it in. And I gain in my belly badly too.

I lost 10-12 lbs so far and some of it's been belly fat, my problem spot is my tummy... came from my dad's side of the family so basicly I can't gain weight without it all going there and my chest/shoulders, I'm top heavy. Last "round" of weight loss (stupid me gained it back) I was down to 150 or so and the fat was about gone. I was almost too thin in my legs so this time I'm doing weight training so I don't end up "skinny fat" again. I like a little muscle. This new mission of mine is to get back to that weight, I think everyone is right, it's lots of exercise and cutting the carbs. I bloat if I eat junk food, and even drink diet pop. I think some people react more then others to carbs. I'm not worrying about major stomach exercises right now, as I know until I lose the fat I won't see the muscles anyways. But I've read in articles if your belly is your trouble spot to try to do 10 minutes of abs every other day. Like weight train 2-3 times a week, do cardio 3-4 times a week with abs on cardio days. There's some good abs only dvd's out there - I bought the 10 minute abs one although I'll admit I haven't really done it much, I just feel like I want to lose the fat first by working out and eating right. You'll be amazed at the difference when you lose another 10 lbs even...

One other note I've read is that pilates is the best for targeting the core. There's some good pilates for abs dvds out there as well if you prefer pilates to traditional crunches. I don't like either, I like weight training and my bike so I'll never have a six pack I suppose.

I just want to echo some others and say that

-- Spot Reducing doesn't work (ab exercises aren't going to remove fat from your ab-area specifically)

-- Cardio AND Heavy lifting weights are great exercises for fat loss

-- Eating right is key

-- Finally, don't expect all your fat to be lost where you want it gone from first. If you've got 20, 30 or (like I had) 50 pounds to lose, you may see it gone from other places first. In my case, my first 20-25 pounds were lost mostly in my upper torso. I lost facial fat, a cup size and band size in my bras and went down a shirt size. It was only after that when I began to lose some more off my hips/belly and FINALLY dropped a pants size (and I'm working on another pants size). So, don't lose heart if you've still got a ways to go--your body just might not want to let go of fat there yet!