Seeking flat stomach success stories (and pics)!!!

forever28

You should talk to my friend - she looks & IS quite amazing!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/mrscates

CharlieJuliette

I can tell you from past & present experience that DIET is a huge factor! :flowerforyou:

When I exercise like crazy and eat only very healthy small portions, BELLY FAT can still be an issue. :sad: :brokenheart:

At least for me & my body type, the foods to AVOID are:

** DAIRY (NO milk, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream), eggs OK
** WHEAT/GRAINS (NO pasta, bread, muffins etc.) except small amounts of brown rice, quinoa, amaranth)
** SUGAR (NO candy, soda, pastries, cakes etc.) small amounts of good chocolate OK
** PROCESSED FOODS (anything in a package, can or bag... except veggies!)
** FRIED/FAST FOODS (fries, burgers, hot dogs etc.)
** ALCOHOL (wine, beer, mixed drinks)

So what's left??? :laugh:

Meats, veggies, fruit, nuts & seeds, healthy oils. Works for me boys & girls!
SUGAR & ALCOHOL are probably the biggest belly fat makers.

Best of luck all!!! :flowerforyou: :drinker:

I too am a COF sufferer!

Thanks for posting this info. An extremely toned MFP friend of mine summarises it as cutting out the CRAP:

Caffeine
Refined sugars
Alcohol
Processed foods

Apparently its the ONLY way to a flat tummy. I haven't been brave enough to go for it yet!

bekahjk

Loving this thread. I am a cof sufferer! Ha ha. My biggest problem is caffeine and sugar. Well there you go. I guess that will do it. I guess I need to determine how bad I really want it. Thanks for the post guys.

Kaye8395BTS

I am chiming in to "bump" I love this thread and also suffer from COF and skin :grumble:

ka_42

Bumping for later! Thanks for posting.... I have the same issue! I'm finally down to a "normal" weight but still struggling with my midsection. I'm sick of chalking it up to the fact that I'm an "apple" shape!

erisfreenici

Yep, you have to cut your body fat percentage down enough that your muscle tone will show through. It's very difficult to do especially for women, good luck Show us pics when you get there!

bltmgray

bump

chuisle

First, I am SO not there with the flat stomach. But I am working on it

For me, this hits the nail on the head so to speak: http://members.rachelcosgrove.com/public/The_Final_Nail_in_the_Cardio_Coffin.cfm

Hint: NOT cardio

Second, 10-15% BF is way too low for women. 14-17% is essential fat. and 17-20% is athletic. I am hoping that once I can get sub 20 that I will like my tummy.

Third, I refuse to believe that in order to have a nice stomach I can't eat sugar, carbs or drink alcohol. Plenty of people achieve it while being moderate with things they love (what's the point in being skinny if I can't drink?). MAYBE I'm not one of those people. In that case, I will settle for a closer to perfect stomach and enjoy my life in moderation.

ANewton401

This is a wonderful thread, I am suffering from this as well!! Im currently doing no more trouble zones and I feel my core getting tighter but I believe I need to incorporate more cardio...

chuisle

This is a wonderful thread, I am suffering from this as well!! Im currently doing no more trouble zones and I feel my core getting tighter but I believe I need to incorporate more cardio...

As long as its intervals

MelanieP_TX

I'm interested too. I have that same column of fat problem. I thought once I was in the 120s it would go away. Obviously not.

I am in the same boat, I am currently down to 129 and I feel like I am stuck in this horrible flab suit!! I had been working out from home doing various DVDS, 30 day shred, etc.. and things weren't really changing- I finally got up enough courage to join the Y and I have been there ever since, I love it- wish I would of worked out this hard right from the beginning-

anyway, I have been doing the les mills classes- body pump and body combat along with really strenuous cardio classes- I do notice my biceps are starting to look toned and I have 2 slight shadows of abs starting to poke through all the way up top but from above my belly button on down I am still a mess!!! I feel like my lower half is never going to tighten up!!! And let me not even start on my dreaded triceps!! UGGH-

So I guess there are many people in the same boat- :grumble: all we can do is keep at it! Hopefully by next summer i'll have that bathing suit body- for now it'll just be the cover up! at least it will be in a small/med and not a double xl like last year!:bigsmile:

Sweetlux

Yucky I have COF disorder also!!!! I once had a flat tummy and I achieved it the same way most of the others did. HARD WORK. Lived at the gym and really small meals. I was miserable though. The breaking point was when I passed up cake on my own birthday it was so sad! I don’t even really like cake but it was my birthday for goodness sakes. I have a lot of HARD WORK to do now to get back to skinny buy when I get there I am going to eat cake on my birthday dabnabit!

ladyviola

I can tell you from past & present experience that DIET is a huge factor! :flowerforyou:

When I exercise like crazy and eat only very healthy small portions, BELLY FAT can still be an issue. :sad: :brokenheart:

At least for me & my body type, the foods to AVOID are:

** DAIRY (NO milk, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream), eggs OK
** WHEAT/GRAINS (NO pasta, bread, muffins etc.) except small amounts of brown rice, quinoa, amaranth)
** SUGAR (NO candy, soda, pastries, cakes etc.) small amounts of good chocolate OK
** PROCESSED FOODS (anything in a package, can or bag... except veggies!)
** FRIED/FAST FOODS (fries, burgers, hot dogs etc.)
** ALCOHOL (wine, beer, mixed drinks)

So what's left??? :laugh:

Meats, veggies, fruit, nuts & seeds, healthy oils. Works for me boys & girls!
SUGAR & ALCOHOL are probably the biggest belly fat makers.

Best of luck all!!! :flowerforyou: :drinker:

^^^^^This right here!! It works.

Happyoceangirl

Wow - hi everyone! I thought this thread had died - so it's GREAT to see all of you chiming in. Well, errr... not so great that there are so many of us with this condition, but definitely good that we're figuring out what to do about it.

Since I first posted this, a fellow MFPer pointed me to Tom Venuto's ebook "Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle". I guess I was FINALLY ready to face the fact that nutrition matters. (Mostly thanks to the reality check I got on this thread). BFFM provides a convincing explanation of why nutrition matters. Until this point, I was of the "calories in-calories out" mindset. I am a sugar lovin' lady - so the thought of giving up processed sugar was unimaginable. :noway: I also have a long standing love affair with fast food. I couldn't honestly tell you if it's because I really like the fast food that much, or if it's more habitual. I swear, there's an addictive element to that stuff.

Anyway, I decided to up my calories to 1500 (up from 1400 - but NOT eat my exercise cals, as an experiment), focus on eating several small meals that include protein and complex carbs, cut back on processed sweets, ban fast food (at least until the weekend, and only then if I met my goals this week) and drink at least 64 oz of water a day. My exercise has been more focused on weight bearing / resistance activity and less on cardio. This sounds like a LOT to change all at once but it has been actually very easy. I think the mental preparation came from reading BFFM - and following through on the goal setting and affirmation exercises. That might sound hokey but I'm discovering it's EXTREMELY POWERFUL stuff. I have reviewed my goals morning and night, along with the affirmations, morning and night. I'm also tracking my "Achievements, Blessings and Successes: ABS" in a dedicated journal at the end of the day, so I'm collecting daily evidence of the ability that i CAN do this!!! (In case my doubting devil kicks in and I need a shot of "proof" that this is do-able.)

Since I have started this approach (Monday of this week) my sugar cravings have reduced SIGNIFICANTLY. I also haven't been craving the drive-through. My stomach has felt smaller / flatter and I think I can see the fat diminishing (though this could just be wishful thinking).

We're eating pizza (take and bake from the grocery store) tonight. It's a basic crust with sauce and cheese, I add the toppings (spinach, mushrooms, turkey pepperoni). I hope that this doesn't interrupt the progress I've been seeing / feeling. (Sometimes i feel bloaty after pizza). Although the weekend is here and I've "earned" my fast food, I'm not so convinced that i want to have it.... for fear of cravings it may trigger....

SORRY FOR THE RAMBLE!!!! How are you all doing? Stories welcome!!! :flowerforyou:

joolsweb

BUMP, interested if anyone else has any advice on getting rid of the pooch, photos would be grand too. Thanks

shrcpr

I think it also relies heavily on genetics and where you tend to hold on to your fat. I have no problem getting a flat stomach and have to gain quite a bit before I even get much of a stomach. For me, last thing to go is butt and thighs. I need to be practically skeletal up top before anything happens with my lower body. Basically, it seems to me that if you have a tendency to hold fat in a particular area you have to get to a pretty low body fat percentage before you see it go away. Sad, but true.

notwaitin

My before and afters are in my profile as well. I gained 60lbs with each pregnancy, got the weight off, by diet and exercise. No matter what I did I still ended up with a distended abdomen, I had to finally go in for muscle repair (there was no/very little fat to remove) and they had to pull those muscles back to their normal position (I had some big babies. That being said, I still get super bloated with the sugars/alcohols everyone is talking about.

urloved33

barbarella wrote: »

I can tell you from past & present experience that DIET is a huge factor! :flowerforyou:

When I exercise like crazy and eat only very healthy small portions, BELLY FAT can still be an issue. :sad: :brokenheart:

At least for me & my body type, the foods to AVOID are:

** DAIRY (NO milk, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream), eggs OK
** WHEAT/GRAINS (NO pasta, bread, muffins etc.) except small amounts of brown rice, quinoa, amaranth)
** SUGAR (NO candy, soda, pastries, cakes etc.) small amounts of good chocolate OK
** PROCESSED FOODS (anything in a package, can or bag... except veggies!)
** FRIED/FAST FOODS (fries, burgers, hot dogs etc.)
** ALCOHOL (wine, beer, mixed drinks)

So what's left??? :laugh:

Meats, veggies, fruit, nuts & seeds, healthy oils. Works for me boys & girls!
SUGAR & ALCOHOL are probably the biggest belly fat makers.

Best of luck all!!! :flowerforyou: :drinker:

This is the Whole30 program isn't it?

SweetTea111104

Yikes. Does the lack of stomach pics mean the likelihood for us is bleak.

VioletRojo

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach

ModernRock

shrcpr wrote: »

I think it also relies heavily on genetics and where you tend to hold on to your fat. I have no problem getting a flat stomach and have to gain quite a bit before I even get much of a stomach. For me, last thing to go is butt and thighs. I need to be practically skeletal up top before anything happens with my lower body. Basically, it seems to me that if you have a tendency to hold fat in a particular area you have to get to a pretty low body fat percentage before you see it go away. Sad, but true.

What she said. Of all the myths and misunderstandings, it does appear to be the case that there are genetic differences in where different people store fat and how proportionately they gain and lose it. The distribution and abundance of particular hormones play a role, and there's evidence that stress levels influence where fat is stored.

1mumrevolution

Very interested also. I'm working on a suite of core exercises and eating at a deficit. Am hoping this is the magic combo.

ajgordo150

Good advice