Losing a belly at 40

emm10scott

Hi, I'm coming up for 40 in December and want to lose my belly. Any tips for exercises? I've been doing a lot of Spinning which I have lost weight but not my stomach size.

Ray1177

Could be worse Emm, you could be trying to lose a belly at 55 I have lost most with crunches and medicine ball.

jemhh

Nobody loses weight proportionally and we all tend to have a spot or two that like to hold onto fat longer than other areas of our bodies. It sounds like yours is your stomach, which is pretty common in men. The best thing to do is stick with losing fat. Ab/core exercises will make your muscles stronger but until you lose the layer of fat, you'll still have the belly. You can't really spot reduce fat.

hill8570

If you're like a lot of us guys, belly fat is the first to show up and the last to go. I'm down to ~20% body fat and still have more belly pudge than I want. Just keep losing. In additional to the spinning, might want to do some weights, too -- hanging onto the muscle you've got beats having to build it back later.

middlehaitch

I lost mine when I was going through menopause, so you can do it at almost 40
Eat at a maintainance or reasonable calorie deficit while incorporating a progressive strength training regime.

This can be body weight, dumbbell, or barbell. The emphasis is you lift things that are heavy for you, or with the body weight, for example, once you can plank for 60 sec, start adding side planks.
Just keep increasing the difficulty level.

As your abs are engaged in all exercises a good well rounded routine will help retaine your LBM and strengthen your abs. Specific ab exercises aren't necessary.

Fat loss is needed, and unfortunately for a lot of us the abdomen holds on to it longest

Cheers, h.

mike_bold

It can be done! I'm 43 and have gone from 112 kgs to 107kgs in about 6 weeks. Persistence! Keep to your calorie totals, lift weights and hang in there.

Ftw37

In my experience, weight loss happens through diet modification. Exercise builds strength and endurance. Unfortunately, you can't target where the weight will come off. It comes off everywhere.

flatlndr

I'm in my 50s and lost 100+ lbs in less than a year (gained some back over Christmas, so sitting at -97 presently).
How did I get there: 1) calorie deficit, 2) exercise.
Exercise started with just walking ... all I could do given a bad knee at the time.
Over time, I walked farther and faster.
After about 5-6 months, I joined a gym, and did cardio on the elliptical, and started hitting the weights.
Full story here.
I think you need to start some weight training as well, to get some muscle mass. Cardio alone is good, but cardio+strength is way better.

emm10scott

Thanks guys. All good tips. Good luck to you all too.

AllanMisner

Just keep cutting fat and add heavy weight lifting, compound movements (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull ups and overhead press). You can’t spot reduce, so losing fat overall is all you can do to get smaller abs. The weights will help in tightening up the core musculature.