So you want a nice stomach
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You want to lose belly fat and have a nice flat toned mid section? We see that a lot on this site. Hell, that was my goal for my birthday last year. We all want to be able to take our shirt off at the pool or beach and look great, but how do we do it?
1. Slight calorie deficit. Eating 800 calories and killing yourself in the gym is not going to get you there any faster. You need to fuel your body appropriately. I suggest the TDEE-20% method. www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc (If you have questions please feel free to ask them here). Make sure to weigh everything you eat! Guessing could put you well over your calories.
2. Strength training. If you want that toned mid section look you have to put some muscle there. If you just want a nice flat stomach muscle will still help it look tight. You can begin with Strong Lifts, a hypertrophy routine or a strength program from bodybuilding.com (free!). One that includes compound lifts like deadlift, squat, bench press and pull ups will help. Work on increasing the amount of weight you use. When the weight gets heavier you engage your core more and it builds the muscle.
3. Muscle insurance. There are a variety of studies done on the amount of protein the body needs. I like to think of higher protein as muscle insurance. My suggestion is about 1gram of protein per pound of lean mass. Make sure to get fat in your diet to help joints and metabolic processes. Make sure to get carbs in your diet to fuel workouts.
4. Cardio. I like cardio once or twice a week for 30 minutes. It's good for the heart and lungs. It doesn't add much to the calorie burn for the week, but it helps even things out in case you haven't been completely accurate weighing food.
5. Patience! It is not going to happen overnight. If you stick with it you could lose around 1% body fat a month. We aren't going to be perfect all the time. Enjoy birthdays and holidays. It is life and things will happen. Don't stress, learn to love the process.
FINALLY: Losing fat is like trying to dry out a sponge. You can't dry a corner while the rest of it is still wet. You won't magically lose belly fat or thigh fat or any other fat. It will come off where it wants to. Keep working at it! It is possible!
Do you need to involve weights in your exercises or can you just do basic home workouts involving plank,crunches etc?
@00mid You can start with body weight exercises (which is a great starting point for many people who haven't exercised in a while). Eventually it's a good idea to increase resistance or add weight. You can look into You Are Your Own Gym. I believe they give you some ideas on how to progressively make the exercises harder.0 -
What body weight exercises would you recommended,I have two Dumbells aswell. Will I see much progress with these body weight exercises?You want to lose belly fat and have a nice flat toned mid section? We see that a lot on this site. Hell, that was my goal for my birthday last year. We all want to be able to take our shirt off at the pool or beach and look great, but how do we do it?
1. Slight calorie deficit. Eating 800 calories and killing yourself in the gym is not going to get you there any faster. You need to fuel your body appropriately. I suggest the TDEE-20% method. www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc (If you have questions please feel free to ask them here). Make sure to weigh everything you eat! Guessing could put you well over your calories.
2. Strength training. If you want that toned mid section look you have to put some muscle there. If you just want a nice flat stomach muscle will still help it look tight. You can begin with Strong Lifts, a hypertrophy routine or a strength program from bodybuilding.com (free!). One that includes compound lifts like deadlift, squat, bench press and pull ups will help. Work on increasing the amount of weight you use. When the weight gets heavier you engage your core more and it builds the muscle.
3. Muscle insurance. There are a variety of studies done on the amount of protein the body needs. I like to think of higher protein as muscle insurance. My suggestion is about 1gram of protein per pound of lean mass. Make sure to get fat in your diet to help joints and metabolic processes. Make sure to get carbs in your diet to fuel workouts.
4. Cardio. I like cardio once or twice a week for 30 minutes. It's good for the heart and lungs. It doesn't add much to the calorie burn for the week, but it helps even things out in case you haven't been completely accurate weighing food.
5. Patience! It is not going to happen overnight. If you stick with it you could lose around 1% body fat a month. We aren't going to be perfect all the time. Enjoy birthdays and holidays. It is life and things will happen. Don't stress, learn to love the process.
FINALLY: Losing fat is like trying to dry out a sponge. You can't dry a corner while the rest of it is still wet. You won't magically lose belly fat or thigh fat or any other fat. It will come off where it wants to. Keep working at it! It is possible!
Do you need to involve weights in your exercises or can you just do basic home workouts involving plank,crunches etc?
@00mid You can start with body weight exercises (which is a great starting point for many people who haven't exercised in a while). Eventually it's a good idea to increase resistance or add weight. You can look into You Are Your Own Gym. I believe they give you some ideas on how to progressively make the exercises harder.
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What body weight exercises would you recommended,I have two Dumbells aswell. Will I see much progress with these body weight exercises?You want to lose belly fat and have a nice flat toned mid section? We see that a lot on this site. Hell, that was my goal for my birthday last year. We all want to be able to take our shirt off at the pool or beach and look great, but how do we do it?
1. Slight calorie deficit. Eating 800 calories and killing yourself in the gym is not going to get you there any faster. You need to fuel your body appropriately. I suggest the TDEE-20% method. www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc (If you have questions please feel free to ask them here). Make sure to weigh everything you eat! Guessing could put you well over your calories.
2. Strength training. If you want that toned mid section look you have to put some muscle there. If you just want a nice flat stomach muscle will still help it look tight. You can begin with Strong Lifts, a hypertrophy routine or a strength program from bodybuilding.com (free!). One that includes compound lifts like deadlift, squat, bench press and pull ups will help. Work on increasing the amount of weight you use. When the weight gets heavier you engage your core more and it builds the muscle.
3. Muscle insurance. There are a variety of studies done on the amount of protein the body needs. I like to think of higher protein as muscle insurance. My suggestion is about 1gram of protein per pound of lean mass. Make sure to get fat in your diet to help joints and metabolic processes. Make sure to get carbs in your diet to fuel workouts.
4. Cardio. I like cardio once or twice a week for 30 minutes. It's good for the heart and lungs. It doesn't add much to the calorie burn for the week, but it helps even things out in case you haven't been completely accurate weighing food.
5. Patience! It is not going to happen overnight. If you stick with it you could lose around 1% body fat a month. We aren't going to be perfect all the time. Enjoy birthdays and holidays. It is life and things will happen. Don't stress, learn to love the process.
FINALLY: Losing fat is like trying to dry out a sponge. You can't dry a corner while the rest of it is still wet. You won't magically lose belly fat or thigh fat or any other fat. It will come off where it wants to. Keep working at it! It is possible!
Do you need to involve weights in your exercises or can you just do basic home workouts involving plank,crunches etc?
@00mid You can start with body weight exercises (which is a great starting point for many people who haven't exercised in a while). Eventually it's a good idea to increase resistance or add weight. You can look into You Are Your Own Gym. I believe they give you some ideas on how to progressively make the exercises harder.
I suggest looking up full body routines that use body weight. Like the one in my last post. I don't know how much progress you'll make because I don't know your starting point or your goals (other than fat loss). The exercise portion is meant to help you preserve lean mass and the calorie deficit is what you need for weight loss.0 -
Great post! I love running but need to incorporate more weight lifting for sure. Im not a member of a gym but did have a personal trainer that taught me quite a few ways to use things around the house (i.e: stairs, the floor for things like pushups and situps and crunches, i have 5 & 10 pound weights that she showed me a few things i can do at home with them. Im still trying to flatten my tummy after 2 kids. And im impatient and want results now! Especially when you see those moms that lose it like 4 months after they've had a kid. I have to keep telling myself that type of weight loss isnt for all of us. :0/0
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3. Muscle insurance. There are a variety of studies done on the amount of protein the body needs. I like to think of higher protein as muscle insurance. My suggestion is about 1gram of protein per pound of lean mass. Make sure to get fat in your diet to help joints and metabolic processes. Make sure to get carbs in your diet to fuel workouts.
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What do you mean lean mass? How would you figure that out
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kimzy132124 wrote: »
What do you mean lean mass? How would you figure that out
@kimzy132124 If you know what your body fat percentage is you can find out how much lean mass you have. If you don't have any idea, a good starting point for most women is around 100 grams of protein.0 -
Wow lol. Ok. I've only been taking in maybe 50, and that's on a good day. I'll look into this.kimzy132124 wrote: »
What do you mean lean mass? How would you figure that out
@kimzy132124 If you know what your body fat percentage is you can find out how much lean mass you have. If you don't have any idea, a good starting point for most women is around 100 grams of protein.
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I walk 2 very active dogs for an hour daily and then proceed to head to the gym for weights for it least 30min to 1hr. The struggle is real when all i want to do when i get home is eat eat eat. Ive turned to some awesomeness called "flavor god" it makes all the normal not so tasty food taste fantastic. If you search them youll see all the contents in the spices. No sugar. No gluteen. It really makes a difference when the food tastes fantastic.
I love going to the gym and weight lifting. My boyfriend and i do it together. Get stress relief and i get to watch my hunk get sweaty.
I am going away in april so im wanting to jump start my life into better habits. I am a very active person but the scale shows me im obese. I dont feel or look that way. I played basketball my hole life until i finished college. Routines were my life. And now my lifes a tornado.
Is there any advice on getting back to my routines and a nice stomach?0 -
I walk 2 very active dogs for an hour daily and then proceed to head to the gym for weights for it least 30min to 1hr. The struggle is real when all i want to do when i get home is eat eat eat. Ive turned to some awesomeness called "flavor god" it makes all the normal not so tasty food taste fantastic. If you search them youll see all the contents in the spices. No sugar. No gluteen. It really makes a difference when the food tastes fantastic.
I love going to the gym and weight lifting. My boyfriend and i do it together. Get stress relief and i get to watch my hunk get sweaty.
I am going away in april so im wanting to jump start my life into better habits. I am a very active person but the scale shows me im obese. I dont feel or look that way. I played basketball my hole life until i finished college. Routines were my life. And now my lifes a tornado.
Is there any advice on getting back to my routines and a nice stomach?
I don't know what to tell you. The first post gives you all the advice for how to achieve a nice stomach. How you put that into action is going to depend on you. Sounds like you have the activity part down, but you need to focus on calorie intake.0 -
Great post. Thank you0
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please addx0
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Thank you for sharing all of this!!! I wish I would have known this years ago! Heading to bodybuilding.com NOW!! (& I've had 2 trainers in that time that I paid good money to mind you, in which I was trying to get info like this from, who kept putting me on 3 sets of 12. Thanks again!!0
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mwebster11 wrote: »
4. Cardio. I like cardio once or twice a week for 30 minutes. It's good for the heart and lungs. It doesn't add much to the calorie burn for the week, but it helps even things out in case you haven't been completely accurate weighing food.
Where in this post does it say that it does not aid in weight loss? The post is about building a nice stomach anyway, not increasing your calorie burn.0 -
mwebster11 wrote: »
Nope. A calorie deficit makes you lose weight. If you prefer to use cardio to help create a deficit that's great and totally personal preference. It's also not necessary to create a deficit, because you can do that through food intake alone.0 -
mwebster11 wrote: »
Cardio helps in creating a larger deficit. If you have lot to loose you may see your results a bit faster (with correct and accurate logging)
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It's far FAR easier eating 500 calories less than burning 500 calories more.mwebster11 wrote: »
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I need help. I was diagnosed with Celia's disease over 8 years who. So I eat extremely clean. Right now I eat around 1000 calories a day. Mostly veggies but some fruit in the morning and mostly chicken. Nothing processed or packaged ever! I work out for 1 1/2 hours in am and walk for 1/2 hour at night 6 days a week. I do a mix of Pilates, weights,yoga, dance. In the last month I have gained 8 lbs which I have not weighed in over two years and now I can't get it off but keep going up! I am very frustrated as my clothes are too tight now and I feel the extra weight.0
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