Stubborn gut from years of abuse...

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mmuller1022
mmuller1022 Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone.

So... basically, my entire life I abused my body. I had a very sedentary lifestyle and ate ridiculous amounts of the worst foods you can imagine. Huge amounts of fast food and soda, cheese, pizza, tacos, etc. The list could go on forever. There were times throughout my life when I lost some weight but since I never committed to a permanent healthy lifestyle, I managed to put it back on. I am 26 years old now.

Over the last year I have made drastic dietary changes and started vigorous biking 5 times a week, with lots of incline and long distances (about 15+ miles each ride). In two years, I dropped from 295lb to 198lb - which is what I currently weigh.

For the most past, I am thin. I am thin everywhere except my stomach. Despite how much weight I have lost, my gut and love handles remain. I want nothing more than to get it off me. I can't afford a personal trainer or a gym so I started doing my research and I find mixed (and often times contradicting) opinions and methods.

Some sources say to start doing core exercises, while others tell me to focus solely on cardio because building abs under this big gut of mine will not replace the gut itself. I have also read that it is entirely diet-related.

Is there anyone out there that can give me some solid answers? Maybe someone with experience in this matter? Again, I want to emphasize that I am THIN everywhere except my mid-section.

I will close with a question: is it even possible for me to lose this gut, knowing it is the result of years and years of really severe bodily abuse?

Any help or assistance anyone can provide is very much appreciated. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this! Looking forward to whatever responses I can get!

Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Unfortunately, you can't spot reduce. Ideally, you should weight train, so if you can't afford a gym, buy some weights. Often Craig's list has them practically free.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    does this gut jiggle? if it does, then it's fat, and the way to get rid of it is to keep on losing fat - have you been tracking your food intake? WHen you have a lot to lose, lifestyle changes alone are enough for a lot of people (not everyone) to get rid of the fat without tracking food or counting calories, but for the last 10-20lb of stubborn fat, you often need a stricter approach - and also to take it more slowly (it's more difficult to ensure it's just fat you're losing when you don't have that much left to lose) .... see a thread called "your guide on the path to sexypants" for information about how to do that. If you're already doing that, then maybe reasses your calorie goals (you may need to drop your calorie goal a little) and also check that you're logging accurately - inaccurate logging is the main reason why people stall when they're doing everything else right.

    if it is firm, i.e. your abs muscles are under only a little fat but they're sticking out, then core exercises and better posture will help. If it's bad, see a physio as this could be due to muscular imbalances. If it's minor (most people exaggerate these things in their mind so it probably is minor) then strengthening your core and working on posture should help. Everyone should build core strength and sit and walk with good posture out of habit... so even if you have jiggly fat there and your abs muscles are in the right place, it's still a good idea to work on core strength and posture. And some things, e.g. heavy compound weightlifting (e.g. squats, deadlifts) will help with both goals, i.e. strengthening the core/improving posture and with losing fat (although you also need to be careful about your food intake for the latter)
  • benno1978
    benno1978 Posts: 90 Member
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    congrats on the weight loss :) Unfortunately we can't choose where we lose fat from or 'spot reduce' belly fat can be stubborn and hard to shift .

    Diet is key - need to get that right to ensure you're in calorie deficit to lose my advice would also be to avoid insulin raising foods - sugars and simple carbs (not saying avoid carbs but get them from fruit veg and complex carbs)
    Also make sure you get enough protein - helps to avoid muscle loss during wight loss, you want to lose fat not muscle, right?


    Exercise - cardio is good for burns and helping with your calorie deficit you should also add some resistance/weights exercise in there if poss to maintain muscle whist losing weight Include lifts such as the dead-lift, back squat and overhead press in your weekly programs sets of 3-5 and reps of 6-8 will be very effective. Make sure you keep progressing the weights as adaptation only comes from overload. Core exercise have their place but you're right you won't see ab muscles under fat. To really see a 'six-pack' on a male Body fat will need to 10% or less! I normally do some core exercises as part of 'cool down' after a workout - plank ab cycle crunches hanging leg raises etc

    As for your closing question - I think (and hope) it's possible I came from a similar situation to yourself was very overwight (obese) didn't exercise overate junk food I've lost 75lbs but still carry fat around my middle it does seem to be slowly shifting

    Final thought if you've lost a lot of weight there may also be loose skin this will take time 12 months+ I believe to adjust after the weight loss and in extreme cases could even require surgery

    I don't claim to be an expert but above is based on what's worked for me and advice from my trainer and 'research' online etc

    Good Luck :)
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    It seems weight training is what you need. No $10/month gyms nearby or anything? You could either attempt a body recomposition program, or do a controlled bulk where you eat at a surplus while weight training to build some muscle, and then a cut while weight training to remove hopefully mostly fat. Basically you end up at roughly the same weight you started but this time with more muscle and less fat. You can't spot reduce but if you're hitting the weights and consuming enough protein, your weight loss should be mostly fat as against muscle and fat
  • james1299
    james1299 Posts: 19 Member
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    The belly is the last and toughest part to go.
    Being a man you hold on this to the bitter end.
    It's also the reason a lot of us got into fitness.

    Just keep going and stop focusing on it. Forget about it and keep on living your healthy lifestyle.
    At some stage you will look at yourself or run your hand over your stomach and it will dawn on you that you have succeeded.
    At least that's how it happened for me.
    Glorious moment. I was so obsessed with fitness I didn't stop to appreciate my success.
    Keep going.

    My good karma for the day!
  • Nekrachael
    Nekrachael Posts: 74 Member
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    Building muscle supposedly helps burn fat better than cardio. Also, building muscle will firm up whatever is "underneath" and everything will look better.

    You don't have to do anything expensive, and I'll just put a plug in here for You Are Your Own Gym as an inexpensive way to get started on resistance training.

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