Who is healthy BMI but stuck with belly fat?

Is it normal to never seem to be able to rid of belly fat....Im a BMI of 23%
My belly is the only place that bothers me.
Do I need to eat way less to get rid of it? Ive currently been at 1400cals and going over once or twice a week. I have lost some weight since Sept due to clothes fitting loser. I won't weigh myself. It can wreck me mentally!
I lift heavy 2-3 times a week. Walk 30min 5 days a week. Sit at at desk all day...clean every evening at home. Skating once a week for 45min.
Question: what can a person due to blast belly fat?
«1

Replies

  • tosi1312
    tosi1312 Posts: 78 Member
    No way to target fat in specific places unless one wants to pay ;). BMI is an alright indicator to be used for a population, but for an individual it's best to use your eyes to see if you have to much fat on your body. For your information the BMI calculation does to some extent underestimate. You can have a BMI of 23 & be obese by the amount of fat you have on your body, for females expecially this phenomena has a higher occurrence.
  • GuessIgottalog
    GuessIgottalog Posts: 65 Member
    tosi1312 wrote: »
    No way to target fat in specific places unless one wants to pay ;). BMI is an alright indicator to be used for a population, but for an individual it's best to use your eyes to see if you have to much fat on your body. For your information the BMI calculation does to some extent underestimate. You can have a BMI of 23 & be obese by the amount of fat you have on your body, for females expecially this phenomena has a higher occurrence.

    Well this just isnt fair!
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    If you don't weigh yourself, how do you know what your bmi even is? Or are you referring to body fat percentage? How did you determine that number?

    I will say that a bmi of 23 (if that is what yours is) is in the top half of "normal". Depending on gender, bone structure, and muscle mass, you may be better off at the lower end of normal weight for your height. Also, people carry their weight differently - "Apple shaped" people retain belly fat longer than "pear" or "hourglass" shaped people. The belly may simply be the last place you tend to lose... Unfair as that is :(.
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Since I just posted this in another thread, I'll copy it here:
    ...No food, exercise, supplement or magic spell selectively targets belly fat, or fat in any particular place on your body. As has been said over and over again in this thread, your fat distribution pattern is established by your genetics. When you lose weight, it will come off in accordance to how your genetics dictate you lose weight. There's nothing you can do to change that. Nothing. Ab-so-lutel-ly nothing.

    Fat is inert. It has no contractile properties (like a muscle does), it just lays there. It can't be exercised, it can't be "shredded" or "blasted" or "melted" or "zapped". When you exercise the muscles underneath the fat in a particular area of the body, you're exercising the muscles - not the fat itself. The fat is just laying there doing what fat does, which is being fat. As has been repeatedly said (in this thread and every other of the thousands of "belly fat" threads on MFP), the only way you'll lose fat is through a caloric deficit - and you'll lose it in the order your genetics dictate, and you can't change that. Keep at it and eventually your belly fat will come off, but there's no way to hurry the process along or make it go away there before everywhere else.

    This^^

    Also, here is a good thread for you to take a gander at, OP: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Is it normal to never seem to be able to rid of belly fat....Im a BMI of 23%
    My belly is the only place that bothers me.
    Do I need to eat way less to get rid of it? Ive currently been at 1400cals and going over once or twice a week. I have lost some weight since Sept due to clothes fitting loser. I won't weigh myself. It can wreck me mentally!
    I lift heavy 2-3 times a week. Walk 30min 5 days a week. Sit at at desk all day...clean every evening at home. Skating once a week for 45min.
    Question: what can a person due to blast belly fat?

    How do you know your bmi if you don't weigh yourself?

    Also, BMI isn't expressed as a percentage, it's just a number. Body fat is usually expressed as a percentage, but doesn't have any direct correlation to BMI.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Also, BMI isn't expressed as a percentage, it's just a number. Body fat is usually expressed as a percentage, but doesn't have any direct correlation to BMI.

    It actually has units of kg/m^2, but I'm not sure that matters.
  • mandibland
    mandibland Posts: 4 Member
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    Know how we know you didn't read the thread?
  • mandibland
    mandibland Posts: 4 Member
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    Fast weight loss does not result in excess skin. At its worst, it results in fat loss outpacing skin shrinkage. At its best, it decreases the risk of permanently loose skin since it cuts down on the time the skin is stretched.

    That has to be one of the most irritating diet myths I read on this board.
  • mandibland
    mandibland Posts: 4 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    Know how we know you didn't read the thread?

    Where in the thread does it say she is working on her core? She says she is having difficulty losing belly fat and that she works out and lifts. Glad you were so insightful. Just because you said it doesn't eliminate the question.
  • mandibland
    mandibland Posts: 4 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    Fast weight loss does not result in excess skin. At its worst, it results in fat loss outpacing skin shrinkage. At its best, it decreases the risk of permanently loose skin since it cuts down on the time the skin is stretched.

    That has to be one of the most irritating diet myths I read on this board.

    You've obviously never had a large friend get small very fast. Check any number of weight loss sites and there are horror stories of these results.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    mandibland wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.

    It is difficult for most people to lose stomach fat, regardless of age. The fact that a person stores more there doesn't actually mean it is harder to lose.

    (Speaking as a 40 year old woman with a lot of stomach fat.)
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
    mandibland wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.

    I've never heard of this, interesting. OP and I are both in our 30s, looks like we only have a few more good years left in us :(
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.

    I've never heard of this, interesting. OP and I are both in our 30s, looks like we only have a few more good years left in us :(

    Don't worry. Once you're a 40 year old woman you're invisible anyway so the extra stomach fat doesn't matter.

    (Kidding!)

    This seriously made me laugh out loud :D
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    mandibland wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.

    I've never heard of this, interesting. OP and I are both in our 30s, looks like we only have a few more good years left in us :(

    I'm well into my 40's and I don't have a bunch of excess belly fat. It's not necessarily a woman thing (check out all those dudes with beer bellies all over the place) or a 40 plus thing (plenty of young people with bellies these days.) It's more of a weight/body fat thing. If you want to look lean and get rid of extra pudge, you have to get your body fat down and your lean mass up. I will agree that it seems more likely for older people to have more belly fat. That might be because people tend get more sedentary/less active as they age... :)
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Fast weight loss does not result in excess skin. At its worst, it results in fat loss outpacing skin shrinkage.

    Since that's what people generally mean when they complain about "excess skin"...
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    ccsernica wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    Fast weight loss does not result in excess skin. At its worst, it results in fat loss outpacing skin shrinkage.

    Since that's what people generally mean when they complain about "excess skin"...

    Truly excess skin is a permanent condition, barring surgery. Skin that has not been given time to shrink as much as possible is not the same thing.
  • ummijaaz560
    ummijaaz560 Posts: 228 Member
    edited December 2016
    I wish I could reverse my crappy apple shaped genetics. I dont care what anyone says, pears and hour glass women are lucky.

    Lmao! I see many pears complain about thighs and booty!

    I wish that a had a booty to speak of.
    That vanished as soon as my crappy genetics found out I was eating less. How can you lose five pounds of a $ $ overnight

    Edit: mfp cut me off mid rant!
    I'm getting lipo if it doesn't go away in a year, good luck.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    mandibland wrote: »
    If you're retaining weight in your belly area, are you doing exercises that directly target the core? Past a certain age it is difficult to lose belly fat and if you lose weight too fast it results in excess skin. I usually lose weight in my mid-section last as well.

    You can't spot reduce fat. And at what age does it become difficult to lose belly fat? I've never heard that one before :p

    Women over 40 are more likely to store fat in their stomach area.

    I've never heard of this, interesting. OP and I are both in our 30s, looks like we only have a few more good years left in us :(

    Don't worry. Once you're a 40 year old woman you're invisible anyway so the extra stomach fat doesn't matter.

    (Kidding!)

    This seriously made me laugh out loud :D

    It had me silently giggling with my belly jiggling :)

    Re the over 40 and excess abdominal fat. This is related to the hormonal changes leading to and during menopause. The levels in testosterone increase as the levels in eostrogen etc decrease, this leads to more visceral fat (men's beer bellies) and less subcutaneous fat. Because of this women over 40 who put on weight tend to do it in a more 'masculine' pattern- around the organs.

    Visceral fat is one of the first fats to be lost when restricting calories and exercising (notice how a guy can drop his beer belly relatively fast). But there is still the abdominal subcutaneous fat to be lost. A calorie deficit deals with this too. It just takes longer.

    For an apple shape it is difficult. Personally, as an apple, I have decided to accept that I will never have a flat stomach, but work on having the best one I can. I am in maintenance and am working on a very slow recomp.

    Im over 60 anyway so absolutely no one cares, hahaha.

    Cheers, h.
  • LyiannaTameka
    LyiannaTameka Posts: 34 Member
    Hey OP, I would just recommend more cardio. I learned to jog/run through the Couch 2 5 K running program and it has really efficiently made me lose fat, including my belly fat. Unfortunately, walking is not got exactly gonna melt the fat really fast. I recommend more intense cardio. & a little bit of strength training (1-2 times a week), just to help you increase your metabolism & burn calories more efficiently. Also don't forget about your diet. Ever heard the saying "Abs are made in the kitchen"? Well, they are. So also make sure you're eating at least 80% of clean nutritious wholesome food. If you do all this, I see no reason why you won't melt that belly fat & body fat overall. Good luck.
  • GuessIgottalog
    GuessIgottalog Posts: 65 Member
    For all of you asking how I know my BMI - I am 5'9" tall and I used 155lbs to get a BMI of 23. I could actually be 150 or 160lbs though..shouldn't make much diff in the bmi i result right?
  • GuessIgottalog
    GuessIgottalog Posts: 65 Member
    No idea what you call my shape. My measurements are 36-29-42 (bust, waist, hips) Im guess on the hips though...I will measure later
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    For all of you asking how I know my BMI - I am 5'9" tall and I used 155lbs to get a BMI of 23. I could actually be 150 or 160lbs though..shouldn't make much diff in the bmi i result right?

    150 = 22.2 BMI
    155 = 22.9 BMI
    160 = 23.6 BMI

    It makes a difference but you're in the normal BMI range either way. If your clothes are getting progressively looser at this point, it is safe to assume that your BMI is not increasing.