Help!

There's no such thing as burning the fat in your thighs or tummy. Fat distribution and weight loss/gain happens wherever it happens. As you continue to lose weight the excess fat cells will shrink no matter where they are.

You will probably notice that some areas seem to shrink sooner than others. There will come a time during your weight loss that you feel you're losing weigh in one area but not the other. That is normal but keep at it. Remember this: if your body is burning more calories than its taking in, your body will gather the energy it needs to function from fat stores. Eventually the excess fat stores from your belly will be "tapped" for use but you cant really control where your body chooses to access fat stores.

The best thing to do is to keep at it. Thirty minutes per day is EXCELLENT and before long your body will be forced to grab a few fa t cells from your tummy area as well as the other areas.

Here are some internet references that you can rely on:

http://weighttraining.about.com/od/fatlossweighttraining/a/weightmyths0708_2.htm

http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/05/31/fat_distribution_and_spot_reduction.php

GOOD LUCK and KEEP AT IT!

The machine you use is, I am assmuming, a cardio machine? If so, cardio will burn fat overall, you cannot target certain areas. The body chooses where it comes off from first. You can do crunches to strenthen your abdominal muscles so that they be strong and well formed when you do burn belly fat, but crunches alone won't burn away the fat. I've heard belly fat is the last to go. I can attest to that, I've lost almost 30 pounds and while I have defintely noticed some improvement in my waistline, the majority of my weight has come off elswhere. I cannot wait until the belly really starts to deflate.

As for logging your food at home, make sure to plan your meals and record what you are eating before you eat it. I plan a two week calendar for dinners so I always know what I will be having that day. You don't have to do it so far in advance, but at least knowing what you're going to make at least a day before hand will result in eating better and will lessen the temptation to just eat junk.

Logging food before hand will ensure that it gets logged, and it will also keep you from accidently eating too much or the wrong foods since you'll already know how much you can have of what foods.