Apple shape tummy taming advice

queanmum
queanmum Posts: 28 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The scale is down 8 pounds, but my belly measurement hasn't budged. I'm hoping another apple shaped lady can tell me what she did to tone her tummy so I can try a new exercise.

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    Sadly, spot reduction is not a thing. My abdomen is one of the places I hold fat the longest, too. I'm at BMI 20-point-something right now, and still have some clinging on there, probably always will, because I don't need to be much thinner IMO. 🤷‍♀️ Meh.

    Appearance-wise, a couple of things that *might* help are posture improvements, or exercises that improve the core musculature overall (but those don't remove the fat, just maybe improve the look).

    On the posture front, two issues are common these days. These are things you can look up, for better descriptions, and there are exercises to improve them (look for videos by credentialed physical therapists on YouTube).

    One of these is "kyphotic posture", rounded upper back, known casually by ruder names like "nerd neck". Lots of us have this from all of our habits scrunching over screens, but there can be other causes. It tends to press the upper body down onto the belly area, pushing out any fullness (fat, skin, even organs!) that are in there, making the area more protruding or prominent. The other is "lordotic posture", an inward curve of the low back, at an extreme it might be called "swayback". There are various causes of that that apply at all ages, but I think it's become more commons in young women these days because they're trying to emphasis their booty. This will push the abdominal area outward, again making it more prominent or protruding. It's possible, fairly common even, to have both these things going on to some extent, conspiring to cause more belly prominence.

    For clarity, these are not necessarily full "kyphosis" or "lordosis" which can be more profound structural skeletal problems, for which medical insights and perhaps in-person physical therapy would be more useful. These posture issues are less major things that look a little similar to the structural issues, but that are more about habits and muscular imbalances.

    The other thing is exercise that may improve the appearance of that area, if a lack of muscle engagement is part of creating prominence (beyond the posture issues, which have their own exercises). All the core-working classics could help, the bird-dogs, airplanes, planks, roll-outs, pallof presses, dead bugs, hollow holds, etc. A recent thread about another one is here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10824708/what-you-may-not-be-doing-to-get-a-flatter-stomach

    None of this stuff is magical, won't target fat in the abdominal area, etc. But it's stuff you could consider, as maybe helping improve appearance.
  • yweight2020
    yweight2020 Posts: 591 Member
    wunderkindking wrote: »
    And, while I am not all about fat positivity or health at every size, there's something to be said for body positivity.

    4dHatNpL4oRfdnMqjlxsqQ.jpg

    Where's all my weight? My boobs and belly. Am I ever going to really hide it well? Nope. May as well make peace with it. Even if there wasn't FAT there (and there always will be for me probably) there will certainly continue to be a lot of SKIN there.

    Looks like my Body, same place I carry my weight I've lost 30 lbs and my belly went down some boobs not so much. Maybe by the time I lose the next 20 lbs they'll go some.

    Keep up the good work, you look nice love the dress.
  • yweight2020
    yweight2020 Posts: 591 Member
    I do cardio, cardio, cardio learning to add planks since I can hold my weight up now and add hand weight and toning bands for all over strength and toning. And keep track of CICO
  • g2renew
    g2renew Posts: 155 Member
    Sigh. Another 'apple' here. The tape measure has moved only enough for me to notice (lost 1inch waist, 2 inch tummy)and I am hoping to see better shrinkage with more pounds lost. So far, Have lost about 10 pounds since my first measurement 40 days ago. For some reason, I thought I would lose a whole dress size by now. But, I am continuing on this path and will see where it leads! I really want to see a waist! A flat belly would be nice, but there is so much there, I am not holding my breath. Week by week and day by day, right? Besides food intake, I am doing some breathing exercises in hopes that tummy muscles will start working again. I think lack of muscle tone as well as excess fat is creating my round tummy.

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