what workouts can I do at the gym to slim down my waist?

baileyrrobinson11

i.e. what machines, how often, how many reps? I'm sick of being built like a cylinder:)

Xo,

Red🎸🔥

sollyn23l2

What kind of exercise? Look at yourself in the mirror. Real carefully. Then remind yourself that this is your body. While you can lose weight or gain weight, in my experience (as someone who has done regular weightlifting and weighed anywhere from 80 to 120 pounds) your shape will remain mostly the same. Unless you have a very, very large amount of weight to lose. In which case, it's losing a bunch of weight that may change your shape.

yirara

Depends. Do you have weight to lose or are you slim already? Is there sufficient space between your lowermost ribs and your pelvis to actually have a slim waist? If not it might be worth it building muscles on your bum and shoulders. It's not a fast thing though, building muscles takes a lot of time. Other ideas: are your trousers well fitted and not too tight at the waist, resulting in a muffin top? How good is your posture? Can you lay on your back with your lower back pressed against the ground? If not working on your posture can help.

baileyrrobinson11

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48709107#Comment_48709107

I am 5'6 and 160lbs (cubbier than the average gal) and I have immaculate posture due to my mom being a chiropractor haha. I'd like to slim down the fat on my stomach:)

nossmf

Slimming down the fat on your stomach is a matter of losing fat all over the body. No amount of exercise is going to do that for you, that's a product of reducing calories eaten during the day. As you lose bodyfat, your body will decide where the fat is removed first: a little here, or a little there, or a little all over, each person's body is unique. But eventually, after losing enough fat, everybody's stomach fat will disappear. For some it's early in the process; for others, it's the end of the process. But for everybody, it's a matter of food eaten, NOT exercises performed.

elisa123gal

I know exactly what you mean.. I am the same. I do get a waist.. at the every end of my weight loss. Go ahead and do side bends.. I do. But .. simply losing all your weight will give you more shape. I don't agree with the person who said your basic fat shape will be your goal weight shape. not so with me. But right now I look like I have an inter tube around my waist. haha. I have to laugh.. it is the only way to get through it all. That ..and dressing to hide it as I lose.

Good luck keep at it…it will happen.

AnnPT77

I sort of agree with parts of what others said.

Spot reduction - exercising away fat in a particular self-chosen part of the body - isn't possible.

But wherever a person has fat, losing enough fat overall will eventually trigger fat loss in a particular area. Depending on genetics, though, that might or might not result in the preferred body shape, for several reasons.

Not because I fret about it, but just as an example of what I mean: My upper body looks reasonably lean, but I still carry some fat in my waist, hips, and upper thighs. It's not a distressingly-to-me large amount of fat, but my upper body is thinner-looking than some people would prefer aesthetically, while my lower body still has a little extra when I'm at a healthy level of body fat as a totality. In addition, my lowest rib is maybe three inches above the top of my pelvic bones, and that might be generous. I'm never going to lose enough fat to get an hourglass shape because of fat loss, because there's not enough space between those skeletal points to let that happen. If I wanted to be more hourglass-looking - which I don't - I'd need to do it by adding muscle to my shoulders/back and my glutes.

We have the hand that genetics deals us. We can always work to improve the body we have, but IMO the best way to do that is to love the shape our body wants to be and optimize that . . . not chase whatever's trendy now.

In another thread, you mention being in high school. For one, if you're under 18, you're not supposed to join here at all, because calorie and nutrition needs are different for young people who are still potentially maturing physically, compared to fully-matured adults.

For two, you haven't had the visceral experience of learning that supposedly-ideal body types change every few years just like other kinds of fashion. Women who pine for the ideal pretty much never win, unless they won the genetic lottery for their own particular time during maybe their teens/twenties when most women are most likely to do that kind of pining. The real power, though, is in discovering who we're supposed to be, what our own unique personal best is, then loving and nurturing that . . . whether it's the trend or not. Lucky women - smart women - figure that out.

I'm only a jot shorter than you, at 5'5". You're possibly more muscular than I am, because your other thread sounds like you're pretty active, and you're definitely way younger than I am. But the height similarity helps me understand that you may even so have a bit of fat you could reasonably chose to reduce.

Given your goals for "toning", to use the words of your other post, and the fact that you don't have huge amount to lose, very slow loss would be best. Stay active, lose fat very gradually, add a good progressive weight lifting routine if you don't already practice one, get overall reasonable nutrition (especially but not exclusively adequate protein). That's what I'd recommend. It will take patient persistence, but that will pay off.

"Toning" is just a word used for reaching a desired level of muscularity, with the right remaining amount of subcutaneous fat over that to yield the look you personally prefer. That's why I'm suggesting lifting plus slow fat loss. Fast fat loss would limit progress on the muscle side of things, and you're at an ideal age to make excellent progress on that front. As you lose fat, if you find your basic skeletal configuration leaves you still looking more cylindrical than you'd prefer, that's a reason to prioritize the shoulders and hips in your lifting routine for mass gain, to balance out whatever waist narrowing your skeleton is going to accomplish.

You're at an age and in a position to start forming habits that will set you on a path toward lifelong health, attractiveness, strength, and other accomplishments. Please think and plan in those terms, rather than going for some theoretical (but impossible) quick fix. Your future self will thank you for getting this right.

Best wishes!

baileyrrobinson11

Thank you so much for your insight, it is very helpful and much appreciated:)

csplatt

You actually cannot spot reduce fat (pick a specific area). I'm also about the same size all over. If I wanted some curves, I'd need to first slim down a little then focus on building my glutes and shoulders, perhaps. But I'm never going to have an hourglass. It's not in the cards for me!