Advice for stubborn stomach / belly?

joannalouise92
joannalouise92 Posts: 49 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've always been a calorie counter and cardio keen to lose weight in the past, but the first time was easy as I was 85kg (female, and 5ft6) but this year I've been trying to shift a few pounds from my average 71kg.. I wasn't getting anywhere st the start of the year so kind folks on here suggested weight training.. so I've been forking out for a personal trainer, doing three weight training sessions with her per week and another five hours of cardio on top. My diet has been hit and miss I have to admit.. 60% stuck to and 40% indulging (though I try to indulge in natural foods not processed).

So I've been doing this for a few months now and my weight hasn't really changed though my arms legs butt all look more toned.. but my stomach will not shift!! All I ever wanted from this process was to no longer look 6 months pregnant every day but we're not getting anywhere.. sometimes I think it looks visually better but when I measure weekly it hasn't changed even 1cm.. In fact this morning I feel worse than ever! Now that I'm looking more slimmed down elsewhere on my body it seems even more noticeable!!

Anyone any tips on what to do here?? It's pretty demotivational as I feel like I'm really wasting hours and time on something that isn't making much difference..
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Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    Stick to your deficit. Fat is lost by eating fewer calories than you burn.

    You expect to lose fat when you aren't sticking with it.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,964 Member
    You're still consuming too much if you're not losing body fat. Cut back 250 calories a day and see what happens.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    Can't expect to.

    Sorry typo and for some reason won't let me edit.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Eat less
  • joannalouise92
    joannalouise92 Posts: 49 Member
    First of all can I say that telling me blindly to eat less is bad and dangerous advice.. if I wasn't confident in myself and my progress I could be starving myself as a result..

    So here my last week.. tell me if you think I'm still eating too many calories

    Sun: 1100
    Mon: 1450
    Tue: 1600
    Wed: 2150
    Thu: 1700
    Fri: 1250
    Sat: 1350

    Given my BMR (female 24yo 5'6 and 71kg) is 1450, sure I'm eating more than that too many days I can see that. BUT. On top of that I go to the gym maybe 6 times a week, for 1-2hr at a time with a mix of weights and cardio each time.

    Additional Calorie burn from these sessions this last week..

    Mon: 800
    Tue: 650
    Wed: 800
    Thu: 800
    Fri: 750
    Sat: 850

    So tell me.. do you still think I'm eating too much? Despite all this excersise you're saying the maths doesn't work and I'm not actually in a deficit? Also the fact I am losing fat from my thighs/waist suggests the process is right.. I just want to know tips on the stomach area..
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited August 2017
    Sad to say the stomach is often the last to go, even with weight training. If you are losing elsewhere, keep it up and the stomach will eventually come off. You do have to actually lose weight, though! I feel your pain, sometimes I feel like a tick - big bloated belly with little arms and legs.

    In my case I had a giant ovarian tumor (benign) which was pumping out hormones making me gain weight in my belly, and when it was removed the weight started to come off. It's slow but it's happening. There are other medical situations such as Cushing's which cause disproportionate weight gain in the stomach. But looking at your picture I don't see anything that bad - you look good, even if you aren't satisfied yet!

    Inches can come off very slowly. I made a post asking how often other people measure and the responses seemed like most people were not seeing real differences in less than about a month.

    Does your stomach seem more muscular, with fat on top, or is your core weak with the muscles not holding your belly in? Because that you can work on. I love my abs roller, it really improved my abs more than anything else I've tried.
  • skymningen
    skymningen Posts: 532 Member
    edited August 2017
    I just did an 1 1/2 h gym session today with a mix of cardio and weight lifting and my estimated burn is around 220. I would maybe be able to get to 800 cals burn if I did an hour of very intense cardio, but that would be so intense that I am definitely not going to do any lifting after that.
    I am around 5ft4 and might be burning less because I weight less, but generally I would say you might be overestimating your burn by up to the double amount. And in eating back calories that is a full meal.

    While your exercise can help you build up muscle in your tights and generally "tone", what we are trying to tell you is, that you are probably not in enough of a deficit to finally burn the more stubborn fat depots of your body. Or you might be eating a lot of stuff that makes you bloated.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited August 2017
    If your weight hasn't changed for months then you are eating very close to maintenance calories whether you think you are or not.

    You say yourself that the exercise is working and that will be true of your stomach area too - you just can't see it under a covering of fat. It's a calorie deficit and the resulting loss of fat that will eventually reveal your progress.

    Tighten up your food logging as that's the prime suspect when the numbers don't add up. Your food diary doesn't look particularly accurate to me.

    Your exercise calories also are high - how are you getting those estimates?
  • joannalouise92
    joannalouise92 Posts: 49 Member
    For example I run for 5km which takes me 28mins and that burns 360cals..

    Also I weigh all of my food except the second meal of the day, okay maybe this is an extra 50,100,150 cals I'm underestimating but if I'm excersising so much I'd still hope to shift my belly a little. To contextualise my waist measures 27inches, but my stomach 35!

    Yes I think my core is much stronger now underneath the fat for sure! I suppose with what I'm doing now I do expect to get there slowly but surely, just if anyone has any belly specific tips it would be great!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,964 Member
    joannalouise92 wrote: »
    First of all can I say that telling me blindly to eat less is bad and dangerous advice.. if I wasn't confident in myself and my progress I could be starving myself as a result..

    So here my last week.. tell me if you think I'm still eating too many calories

    Sun: 1100
    Mon: 1450
    Tue: 1600
    Wed: 2150
    Thu: 1700
    Fri: 1250
    Sat: 1350

    Given my BMR (female 24yo 5'6 and 71kg) is 1450, sure I'm eating more than that too many days I can see that. BUT. On top of that I go to the gym maybe 6 times a week, for 1-2hr at a time with a mix of weights and cardio each time.

    Additional Calorie burn from these sessions this last week..

    Mon: 800
    Tue: 650
    Wed: 800
    Thu: 800
    Fri: 750
    Sat: 850

    So tell me.. do you still think I'm eating too much? Despite all this excersise you're saying the maths doesn't work and I'm not actually in a deficit? Also the fact I am losing fat from my thighs/waist suggests the process is right.. I just want to know tips on the stomach area..
    You're not burning as much as you think you are and are likely eating more than you think.

    Do you measure and weigh all your food? If not, then it's not accurate calorie counting.

    Are you using the machines and other devices to measure your calorie burns? An OLYMPIC athlete like Michael Phelps would have to be intense to burn 800 calories in an hour.

    Now if you're losing, but not in the ab area, then it's GENETICS. Likely the last to go on fat loss.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • RhiAndy11
    RhiAndy11 Posts: 72 Member
    i hear planking is the best way to tone your stomach?! but i dont know for sure.
    The advice i see on here since i started is just calorie deficit and be super accurate with counting. it will go eventually. good luck
  • Okiludy
    Okiludy Posts: 558 Member
    Cut what you think you are burning at least in half. The machines and the logging in MFP is off, by a lot.

    If you are not gaining or losing weight then you are consuming at maintenance. If you are lifting and doing cardio and not losing or gaining you might slowly be changing your body composition. This might eventually lead to a tighter stomach but it is going to take a long time. On the other hand if you cut back a bit on your CI and keep same training you should start to lose weight.
  • CarlydogsMom
    CarlydogsMom Posts: 645 Member
    Seems to me your estimated calorie burn is quite high. Less than a half-hour running burns 360 calories for your size? I'd say that's quite a bit much. At 5'10", 155 lbs, I would give myself maybe 60 cals/mile, so about 150 tops. Most of the apps (Map My Run, etc), wrist trackers, and even machines tend to overestimate calories, even MFP exercise estimates can be off. And, they'll take into account your "total" calorie burn, meaning your BMI + exercise, may be included; and BMI is already figured into the MFP math.

    Example, my BMI happens to equal about a calorie per minute. If my wrist tracker says I burned 60 calories in a 15 minute pickleball game, I'll subtract 15 from 60 and figure I burned 45 calories. Same goes for biking, running, walking, etc. A 90-minute walk may show 200 calories burned, but I'll only mentally estimate about 100 calories of a true burn through exercise.

    You may want to really crack down on figuring out your intake and your calorie burns. Like ninerbuff said, you're either off on one or both estimates, or if you're losing but not where you want, keep doing what you're doing and that area will be the last to go. It's my thighs for me...frustrating but ah, such is life.
  • Sp1tfire
    Sp1tfire Posts: 1,120 Member
    I have noticed when I focus on core and build muscle there it can make my stomach area appear larger, actually. It seems to 'push out' the top layer of fat. I've kinda just accepted it because I feel stronger and healthier with those muscles. I am also underweight but have stomach fat. It's just a disposition in some I guess. I do not know the sciency things behind this. I cannot and will not cut calories to try and make it go away. Some fat is necessary, and we can't spot pick where we want to lose some.

    That being said, if you are able to lose a few pounds and remain in a healthy bmi range, watching your cals, exercising, tightening your logging and having patience is all you can do.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited August 2017
    CarlydogsMom wrote: »
    Seems to me your estimated calorie burn is quite high. Less than a half-hour running burns 360 calories for your size? I'd say that's quite a bit much. At 5'10", 155 lbs, I would give myself maybe 60 cals/mile, so about 150 tops.

    @CarlydogsMom
    If you put your stats in here https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator you might find you are underestimating your running calorie burns.

    Distance is a better metric than time for regular paced running.
  • bendyourkneekatie
    bendyourkneekatie Posts: 696 Member
    edited August 2017
    sijomial wrote: »
    CarlydogsMom wrote: »
    Seems to me your estimated calorie burn is quite high. Less than a half-hour running burns 360 calories for your size? I'd say that's quite a bit much. At 5'10", 155 lbs, I would give myself maybe 60 cals/mile, so about 150 tops.

    @CarlydogsMom
    If you put your stats in here https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator you might find you are underestimating your running calorie burns.

    Distance is a better metric than time for regular paced running.

    Hey thanks for that. Nice to have another calculator to get an idea of how mapmyrun compares (eg the runnersworld calculator gave me 928 calories for my usual 16km run where mmr gave me 1000, which is pretty close really)

    Op you're exercise burns are crazy high. I 'burned' 1400 calories going full out on the elliptical for an hour and 40 minutes this morning. And then I halved the calories as I always do with exercise calories as I'm sure they're over the top and I also know my logging isn't perfect so I compensate.

    The scales don't lie. Measuring tapes don't lie. The numbers in the cico equation are always an estimate. There's no point obsessing over whether they're right or wrong. If you're not losing weight... eat less. I don't know if you're measuring your intake incorrectly or your expenditure incorrectly or you're tdee is different to what online calculators would suggest or what. The simple fact is: no weight loss = no deficit. So whatever it is you eat, whether it's 2300, 1500, 1200.... eat less.

    And just to add: I'm 5'5, and I started at your weight and am now 56kg and still losing and what works? Eating less.
  • CarlydogsMom
    CarlydogsMom Posts: 645 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    CarlydogsMom wrote: »
    Seems to me your estimated calorie burn is quite high. Less than a half-hour running burns 360 calories for your size? I'd say that's quite a bit much. At 5'10", 155 lbs, I would give myself maybe 60 cals/mile, so about 150 tops.

    @CarlydogsMom
    If you put your stats in here https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator you might find you are underestimating your running calorie burns.

    Distance is a better metric than time for regular paced running.

    Thanks for that. I really don't run anymore, but when I did do a bit of very slow jogging, I'd run a couple miles in a half-hour. So I entered those stats, and it was indeed higher than I estimate. Gave me 234 calories. If I used that for a particular exercise entry, I'd subtract 30 to account for my BMI (cal per minute) and would enter about 200 calories for that run. But I still think that's relatively high for me personally, after years of tracking. Like @bendyourkneekatie I'd probably downgrade it from there to 150 to take into account food logging errors and such. It's a good resource, though, and thanks, hadn't see it before!
  • alondrakayy
    alondrakayy Posts: 304 Member
    Here to let ya know that I was in the same boat. You can try a dozen different exercises but if your diet is not on point you're simply going to spin your wheels. I didn't start losing weight until I made sure to track EVERYDAY. My biggest issue before was weekends. I'd eat at a deficit Mon - Friday but then on Sat & Sun I wouldn't track and eat whatever. The only good thing was that I didn't gain... but somehow staying at maintenance was worse because in my head I was putting all this work into losing and I stayed at the same level.

    You'll have to be more consistent, but if I can do it then I know you can!! :) Good luck.
  • ISweat4This
    ISweat4This Posts: 653 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited August 2017
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    If your weight hasn't changed in months then you are not in the deficit you think you are.

    You are in maintenance.

    This^

    Are you using a digital food scale to weigh all solids and a liquid measuring cup for liquids? When you are close to goal, your logging has to be very accurate because you don't have a lot of wiggle room.

    You can't use diet or exercise for spot reduction. When you lose weight, you lose it where your body wants to. Unfortunately this is largely genetic. If we could target areas of fat storage there would be no need for liposuction.
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    One lesson I've learned: if you aren't weighing what you eat then you are likely underestimating your daily calories. I've really paid a lot of attention to my intake, I weigh everything and I log everything so I can see where my calories are and I know they are correct. For instance I used to not log my one cup of morning decaf because, why? I mean, it's brown water with a tiny amount of sugar. Nope, it was 7g of sugar each morning and if I ate to my daily sugar goal then I would be at least 7g over. Do that over and over again and you could be consuming 500 calories more a day than you think. I was.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,964 Member
    jaimeolive wrote: »
    There are factors over "calories" that impact whether your body is getting to store fat or burn it. These factors include stress hormones, sex hormones, liver function, gut bacteria, thyroid function, insulin, the nervous system and emotions.

    Check out the ATP project podcast https://atpscience.com/podcasts/ it seriously changed my life
    Broscience. Especially on a site that sells a lot of broscience products.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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