Belly Battle

Shelbywoo1

does anyone have any advice on fighting the belly bulge? i was doing ok for a while and then i got a little crazed and upped my protein intake in an effort to increase my metabolism...bad choice...now i'm stuck trying to get rid of all that i've put back on. i've been going to the gym and hitting the crunches but it doesn't seem to be working. i've thought about supplements but i'm not sure which ones are really worth the effort. advice?

djwife03

Ah yes.....THIS! From what I understand you can't spot reduce. And, everyone's bodies are different and lost in different places before others! I workout regularly as well, and I haven' t lost weight in months! I keep going, but it's frustrating, to say the least! Cardio is a big help also, but I've had two kids, and although I don't look terrible, no matter what I do, the "momma pooch" remains, LOL!
also, I just had to reply because my daughter's name is Shelby!

dellaquilaa

^^ that. It's not possible to spot reduce - the only way to get rid of the belly (unfortunately) is to lose more overall body fat and add more muscle.

My old trainer used to describe muscle as glue that holds your skin to your skeleton - if you ONLY take away the fat without adding more muscle, the skin will just hang. I haven't lost enough weight to see how true that is, though

Now, I would never recommend supplements - some people live by them and swear by them, but there is absolutely ZERO empirical evidence to show that creatine, for example, helps with muscle gain. There is, however, a lot of research showing that it can do a ton of damage to your kidneys if you take too much.

You also have to keep in mind that even if you eat a high-protein diet, you're still not going to add muscle mass like a man would. There are two things you need to add muscle: dietary protein + testosterone, and ladies typically don't produce enough for the results we'd like to see

Jenny_Ren1

Eating low carb helps me lose my belly faster than anything else. I think part of it is the bloating I get when I eat processed foods, but I can definitely tell a difference if I stick to healthy meats and fresh veggies. As I'm losing it is most noticeable in my face and belly, so I'm happy!

kr1stadee

I've lost 56lbs so far.. in my face, boobs, bum and arms. I feel like my belly is as big as it was before I started here. My clothes tell me different though.

I wish I could crunch it all away, but like the others have said, the only way is to lose more body fat and up the muscle. Happy lifting!

jakesfitness

I third this, there isnt a way to reduce in just your legs, just your stomach, etc... also adding more protein doesnt change your metabolism... you want to try to get the right amount of healthy fats, and look into different kinds of food that boosts metabolism... for example, cinnamon, spicy peppers, and green tea are shown to improve your metabolism.
i also agree that getting your macros through natural food sources is deffinitely the way to go, but i dont have any problem with supplementing when you need to, as long as you do your research on the supplements. some of them are full of chemicals and everything.

P.S. @dellaquilaa... ive done extensive reseach on creatine, and found that creatine is something that your body makes naturally and you get from meat, the reason people supplement this is because you body doesnt produce nearly the full amount of creatine that your muscles can hold. and really all it does is: when you work out your body uses ATP(Adenine Tri-Phosphate) which is your bodies energy source. As you workout, your body pulls one of these Phosphate molecules off the ATP and makes it ADP(Adenine Di-Phosphate) which can no longer be used for energy... so creatine give a molecule to the ADP which turns it back into ATP which allows your body to use that energy source agian...

sorry for the long explanation, but there are a lot of misconseptions about this out there.

Shelbywoo1

Thanks Everyone for your informative comments!!! I thought that I would be counter-productive if I increase the weights, thus causing me to build muscle and to weigh more, but I'm more than willing to give that a try. My desired weight goal is about 185 - 190 and I'm currently about 230 at 6' tall. My doctor insists that I'm near obesity, but what's ironic is that she's as tall as me and FATTER!! but I digress... I want to get to my goal not because the doctor says so but because i WANT to be leaner and faster than I am. I think I'll start by increasing my fruit and veggies and increasing the weights. Hopefully I'll start seeing noticeable results (weight, energy, clothes etc) after about 2 weeks - 1 month.