Tips of Encouragement.

Best tip I received- read the stickies! They’re full of insight.

As far as belly fat, unfortunately we can’t spot reduce, your body will lose where it wants. But keep at it and eventually you’ll arrive at a good place in those pesky areas.

The tip I have is you just have to lose the weight to lose the belly.. It will go.. but maybe not as fast as you'd like.

I find the last place I gained, is the last place I lose.. and yes..it is my midsection. Being tall..when my waist gets big.. that's the point I realize my clothes don't fit and I need to start losing again.

As I lose.. it is every other place and my belly is just there reminding me to keep on going. The fat off my stomach is actually almost gone right now.. boy did that take a a few months to get done!

there is no focused fat loss, anyone who tells you so is lying, we are all different and we all loose weight differently, the belly area for males is the last part to come off, I am not making this up but repeating what the world's leading body builder has said, you can't get rid of fat where you want it doesn't work that way

we know that males carry their fat in different areas than ladies, but what I recently learned is that some men, (the lucky ones really) carry their fat like ladies do, meaning they carry their fat in their thighs and butts, that is a good thing because it makes them appear lean up top, nice firm chests and defined abs, I have seen men with 16 to 18% body fat with abs, they kept getting tested and re tested cause they couldn't believe they had such high body fat content

but for most of us men love handles and lower belly is where we like to store the last of our fat

as far as diet, simple protein and green veggies no carbs unless it's from veggies, but you're not going to do that for ever just while you're cutting ie getting shredded, week, two weeks, think in terms of weeks then go back to eating carbs, but not too many

for each gram of carbs that you eat your body stores something like 4 grams of water, so when you eat 10 grams of bread you are storing 10 grams of carbs plus another 40 grams of water, that's why you gain weight on the scale after pizza night, hence the name carboHYDRATES

you cant spot reduce.

and because life is unfair, where we WANT the weight to come off, is usually the LAST place it comes off.

PSA: there is no tarring and feathering on MFP.

Springlering62, you made me laugh.

No spot reduction, as nearly everyone else has said.

Someone posted elsewhere in the forums that you may not be happy with the way your body looks as you are losing weight (face may look gaunt for awhile, stubborn love handles may stick around to the bitter end, etc). Adjusting to that mindset has really helped me on this weight loss journey.