Flat (flatter?) stomach at 40+

Leopardfish1

Comments to this thread can come from anyone. Don't let the title fool you. If you have information or experiences to share then it is welcome here.

Large stomachs, "beer bellies", "Pot bellies", etc. are often the results of two things namely fat and sagging stomach muscles, from what I understand.

I realize that doing ab work will not target abdominal fat. It takes fat burning techniques to burn fat from anywhere on the body where fat is stored and I'm not sure if there is any specific order to areas that lose fat faster than others. If anyone knows anything about that then please share.

Having said that, having a flat stomach isn't only about burning off fat but also tightening the stomach muscles so that they don't sag. My question is can an over 40 person, in this case a male, tighten up sagging stomach muscles so that they are flat at all? Or even flat completely? How about having some level of a six pack as opposed to having a keg? :-P

My stomach isn't that that bad but I really would like to tighten my stomach up. Hints of a six pack would be so awesome but just flat would really make me happy.

Any information is good. If you're over even 30 and have successfully 'tamed your tummy' then tell us about it. Over 40 and brought your stomach back down towards flat then even better. What did you do to succeed? What have you read or heard about flattening your stomach at midlife?

madhatter2013

I am also curious about this bu more specifically geared toward after pregnancy tightening. I'm open for suggestions.

wolfsbayne

I'm 39 and the female in my profile pic. I have been doing Stronglifts 9(lifting heavy) since the end of November. My ab muscles are definitely tighter and stronger. I do have layer of fat that I'm trying to burn off so that I can see them, but I've never been able to feel them before now.

Leopardfish1

As far as 40+ men are concerned, I've been reading that sagging muscles can be tightened up considerably via ab workouts. Having a 6-pack or not I'm just not sure about yet but I’m still reading. Calorie burning, weight lifting in general and certainly a lot of ab work are all part of the mix. I plan on starting a daily ab work out. I found the 30 day challenge website and it looked like a pretty good deal. They have all kinds of small targeted workouts that increase over a period of, you guessed it, 30 days.

wolfsbayne

I do know that there are a lot of guys on here with flat stomachs, 6 packs, etc. that do no isolated ab exercises. Most of them just do the compound lifts and little to no cardio.

astronomicals

Lose fat, lift weights.

You need to get down to ~15% or less. Depends on your muscle mass.

Im 13% and I can move a lot of weight, but, im more strength than size, so, my abs still aren't too visible (unless I flex).

sheltrk

I'm 41. I used to have a "beer belly" ~20 lbs ago. Now I can see my abs quite clearly when flexed, and still visible when unflexed. My best estimate of my bodyfat % is the 10%-12% range. (Probably half the BF% I was at a year ago!) I got there by eating at a deficit with plenty of protein, and maintaining a workout routine. My typical weekly workout routine consists of:
Taekwondo: 3 hours,
HIIT on an elliptical: 0-40 minutes (depends on the week!),
Bodyweight circuit training (decline pushups, pullups, squats and planks): 40 minutes
Walking (varies).

One thing I have noticed is that I do still have some excess loose skin around my belly button. It's especially noticeable when I do my planks. I'm honestly not worried about it. I expect it will tighten up with time.

jwdieter

Your professional sporting window of opportunity is generally closed, but can still get ripped in 40s. And 50s. And 60s. Some 70s out there too.

elothen

Genetics plays a big role in it from what I can tell. I'm 34 and my body stores fat first in the stomach, then everywhere else. I thought I had some amount of muscle on my body but once I started losing weight my arms and legs shriveled to nothing, my face thined out, just flattened, butt flattened... and I still had/have an aggravating belly that I have to suck in to not look 3 months pregnant.

On top of that I had my BF% checked about a month ago and it came in at 12%. Now maybe it was just a bad reading or whatever but based on that I think I'm going to have to get sub 10% to have a satisfactory stomach.

Just my personal experience, YMMV

astronomicals

have an aggravating belly that I have to suck in to not look 3 months pregnant.

had my BF% checked about a month ago and it came in at 12%. Now maybe it was just a bad reading or whatever but based on that I think I'm going to have to get sub 10% to have a satisfactory stomach.

Just my personal experience, YMMV

Nail on the head. You're not 12%. I just wanna bring light to that cuz it would be depressing to think that at 12% you could still have a beer belly. That is discouraging to others. Not meant to be an attack.

ETA:
Ive had wildly inaccurate results using calipers. I did the test multiple times and grabbed the biggest pinch I could and it was like 5% off at least. That was doing a 7 point test. I tried multiple ways to make it say I was fatter and I couldnt get a realistic result. Get a DEXA scan or something or just go off the mirror. Obviously my calipers sucked. I threw em in the garbage. Too much spring maybe? I dunno

Leopardfish1

Genetics plays a big role in it from what I can tell. I'm 34 and my body stores fat first in the stomach, then everywhere else. I thought I had some amount of muscle on my body but once I started losing weight my arms and legs shriveled to nothing, my face thined out, just flattened, butt flattened... and I still had/have an aggravating belly that I have to suck in to not look 3 months pregnant.

On top of that I had my BF% checked about a month ago and it came in at 12%. Now maybe it was just a bad reading or whatever but based on that I think I'm going to have to get sub 10% to have a satisfactory stomach.

Just my personal experience, YMMV

Are you dong any weight resistance? Are you doing any ab' work outs? Muscles in the stomach also sag and can be tightened up with ab' work.

Cortelli

I turned 44 last month, and started losing weight sometime in late spring / early summer (North America) last year. Came down from a high of around 215 lbs (I am 5' 9") a big chunk of which was a beer belly that I thoroughly earned. I thought I'd get down to about 170 or maybe 165 and be as lean as I wanted to be. In reality, my belly fat and love handles were quite stubborn and still annoying at 165. I am down to around 155 right now and transitioning into maintenance before I try to add some lean mass through a few bulk / cut cycles. My stomach is not perfectly flat nor is it a chiseled 6 / 8 pack -- but it is a pretty solid 4 pack and the little bit of fat still there is well within my own personal tolerance level, so all is good. There's a photo in my collection of profile pics. I did regular strength training all through my weightloss, but only did ab-specific exercises for the last few months (heavy crunches on a machine mostly) and then only a few sets once or twice a week. FWIW I had my BF% tested via hydro on the same day as the pic was taken and it came back at 12.7%.

Genetics may play a very frustrating role - but there is certainly a lot you can control and dropping overall body fat is the most important! Being 40+ doesn't mean you can't whip that belly fat and get a much flatter stomach!

angel7472

Im going on 42 at the end of this month. Saying that Ive had 3 kids and honestly can see my muscles from just walking and keeping them taunt all the time. After a while it does it naturally. I was always told to imagine you are trying to pull your belly button back to your spine. Now for the body fat question I was on bodybuilding.com and came across this calculator. Its not as accurate as others and as what was said before calipers are usually difficult. So to get a basic idea of what fat percentage I was I went to this site. Usually its off by a couple percentage points but the unless you want a DEXA test this is pretty good for what it is.

http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy