Stick thin everywhere with tons of stomach fat

Am looking for some advice here.

I’m 5’3 and 105 pounds. My arms and legs are thin. They don’t have any fat on them at all. But my stomach is huge. If someone were to see my whole body, stomach included, they would think I weigh 140-150. I have A TON of fat on my stomach and a muffin top that goes out to the sides. This isn’t how my body naturally is. Some people say how people naturally carry extra weight in their stomach. That’s not what this is. I had a super thin flat stomach that matched the rest of my body last year. This year, I have a ton of fat and a muffin top. It appeared overnight like that. It is very jiggly and goes way out.

Now when I say a muffin top, I don’t mean my pants are too tight. I mean the muffin top is visible naked. I can also wear bikini bottoms or shorts that are very loose and oversized and still see a bad muffin top. Nothing I wear hides it.

I contacted a trainer who says you can’t spot reduce and would have to lose weight everywhere. But what people don’t understand is I have no weight to lose! I am 105 pounds. I can’t lose any more weight. In fact, I’m trying to GAIN weight and build muscle. But apparently you can’t build muscle over fat. So what am I supposed to do?

My weight was extremely low at one point, 95 pounds and I still looked like I weighed 140-150 pounds with the belly fat and muffin top. And I looked very sickly because I was so thin. It doesn’t matter how low my weight goes. It will still be there. But yet everything I read says you can’t spot reduce and have to lose weight and fat everywhere. But my question is...what if you literally have NO fat anywhere on your body and are stick thin everywhere except your stomach area?
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Replies

  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    I wanted to add, based on what I’ve read online, I think I have a skinny fat body and I’m not sure what to do for it since ALL the fat is in my stomach and you can’t spot reduce.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    Can you post a picture so some of the people on here can give you the benefit of their experience? Some of the initial thoughts are that I don’t know how old you are - if you’re young it could just be your body developing (lots of women have tummies which stick out a bit - there’s a whole thread about it). It could also be your posture, weak back / abs, you might just need to build muscle elsewhere to balance your physique. Dare I say it, at your weight, you might also be overly-critical of yourself and seeing something which no one else can see?

    Yes, I will take pictures and post later tonight. I’m 28 and my body was completely different last year at 27. No, I’m not being overly critical of myself. The trainer I consulted with can clearly see it. The trainer doesn’t believe me that I’m only 105 pounds and thinks I need to lose weight. The trainer said I need to lose weight overall since you can’t spot reduce.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    I'm like this. I always have been. I will gain weight everywhere, but disproportionally around my midsection. When I lose, it mostly comes off the 'everywhere' first.

    There are other possibilities - including PCOS which makes stomach weight gain much work and can be treated. For me it's just that i'm an apple shape.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    Okay so here was last summer on vacation.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    And here’s now.iqg460uw4c8f.png
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    queanmum wrote: »
    If you haven't already, I hope you'll go to a good doctor that listens for a complete physical. I'm a retired RN and ask "What if this isn't fat?"

    Trust me, that was my first thought. But I’ve had all kinds of tests done and even had an ultrasound of the area.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    I'm like this. I always have been. I will gain weight everywhere, but disproportionally around my midsection. When I lose, it mostly comes off the 'everywhere' first.

    There are other possibilities - including PCOS which makes stomach weight gain much work and can be treated. For me it's just that i'm an apple shape.

    My doctor ruled out PCOS. What is especially concerning is the difference over a year.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    edited March 2021
    How's your digestion? Are you bloated frequently? That would be my other thought as to why you seem to carry most of your weight in your stomach. I assume your doctor took ultrasounds of your ovaries when you said they did one of that area?
  • hist_doc
    hist_doc Posts: 207 Member
    [quote
    My doctor ruled out PCOS. What is especially concerning is the difference over a year. [/quote]

    @kelliihere is there any chance your alcohol consumption has increased over the past year with covid-related quarantining? I ask because I know mine did initially before I made a point to cut back.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    hist_doc wrote: »
    [quote
    My doctor ruled out PCOS. What is especially concerning is the difference over a year.

    @kelliihere is there any chance your alcohol consumption has increased over the past year with covid-related quarantining? I ask because I know mine did initially before I made a point to cut back. [/quote]

    No, but I can see why you think that. It does look like an alcohol belly. Believe it or not, I’ve never taken one sip of alcohol my entire life.
  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    How's your digestion? Are you bloated frequently? That would be my other thought as to why you seem to carry most of your weight in your stomach. I assume your doctor took ultrasounds of your ovaries when you said they did one of that area?

    Yes, it showed a cyst on one of my ovaries, but my doctor said it was a normal cyst and wasn’t concerned.

    It does “grow” after eating sometimes so it could be bloating. Although my stomach gets worse after eating at times, I do have jiggly fat and a muffin top in the area when I first wake up before eating anything. :(

  • kelliihere
    kelliihere Posts: 28 Member
    What kind of workouts do you do and how is your posture?

    Resistance work/ weight lifting will improve your overall body composition.
    Good posture and working on your abs will improve the way your (for want of a better term ) fat drapes on your body.

    Look up vacuum exercises, an all round abs workout, and, if you have poor posture, routines to improve your posture. If you are just doing cardio, add some kind of resistance work.

    If you have spent the last year less active because of COVID, it may just be that your muscles have become flaccid.

    I have the same problem (skinny arms and legs with fat on my core) and found a more sedentary life this year was not benificial to my body composition. Once I started doing YouTube exercises at home instead of going to the gym things got back to normal.

    Cheers, h.

    Good thoughts. Prior to Covid, I wasn’t super active. I’ve never been a gym girl. But I did do a lot of walking. This past year I stopped walking and basically spent all day or most of the day in the bed. I wake up, eat breakfast, go back to bed, wake up, eat lunch, go out for a drive, come back and eat dinner, and watch a movie. The only movement I get is up and down the stairs and from my room to the bathroom and from the living room to kitchen, etc. That makes sense about losing muscle since I’ve basically laid in the bed this year, but why would it go only to the stomach area? Wouldn’t I have lost muscle in my arms and legs too? Maybe that’s just the area where it puts it since the same thing happened to you. Although it sounds as if you exercised prior to Covid. I only did walking.

    When you say resistance work, do you mean like mountain climbers, crunches, etc?

    I don’t have good posture, I don’t think I ever have. So when I slouch I’m sure it makes the appearance of it worse. I need to work on that.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    You sound like you could benefit from recomp. There is a whole long thread dedicated to it. It's basically eating at maintanence and weight lifting. The object is not to lose weight but to gain muscle and tighten up your body. Many have done it with great results. However, it takes time and patience. There are people that have posted pics. Good luck.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
    kelliihere wrote: »
    How's your digestion? Are you bloated frequently? That would be my other thought as to why you seem to carry most of your weight in your stomach. I assume your doctor took ultrasounds of your ovaries when you said they did one of that area?

    Yes, it showed a cyst on one of my ovaries, but my doctor said it was a normal cyst and wasn’t concerned.

    It does “grow” after eating sometimes so it could be bloating. Although my stomach gets worse after eating at times, I do have jiggly fat and a muffin top in the area when I first wake up before eating anything. :(

    I often wake up bloated, especially if I've eaten a carb-heavy snack a few hours before bed. However, based on your answers above I'm going to guess it's more related to your level of activity over the past year, and possibly your habitual posture as well.

    We use our core muscles even just sitting upright, standing and walking. Like any other muscles, if they're not being used they will atrophy. If you posture is not good, either, even while you're sitting you may be using too much of one muscle and not enough of another, which over time can result in a more protruding belly appearance and loss of some of the lower ab muscles. It also can lead to back problems, so it's not just aesthetics that it impacts. I know about the posture thing--because I have poor posture and over time it contributed to some of lower belly pooch. Also, some people also just have the body type where they store all their fat in their stomachs even if they are technically not overweight.

    The good news is that 1. You're still young, so there's lots of time to correct it and 2. It actually doesn't take a lot of intense or even a lot of direct ab/core work to get a flatter stomach. I actually remembered recently that one of my favorite female trainers described her former body type as "an orange with toothpick limbs," which kind of sounds as how you describe yours. You'd never know by looking at her now. A healthy diet combined with total body resistance training with a bit of core work is usually what takes. In your case, too, I'd especially pay attention to your posture--engaging your abs with a neutral spine without rounding or over-arching your back.

    I agree with the idea that body recomposition is probably the way to go if you're not overweight--not sure why the personal trainer didn't tell you that. You lose fat but gain muscle, so your weight may stay the same or even go up. However, because muscle takes up less space than fat, you'll look leaner.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,311 Member
    Here’s the annoying thing - your body will put fat on where it is genetically programmed to, not where you want. So even though I have okay body fat levels, my legs are always chubby with awesome cellulite (husband says I have pudgy knees syndrome 🤣). It looks like your body stores your fat around your mid-section. Have a look at the recomp thread mentioned; it will help you to build muscles in your arms and legs and slowly lose fat. This will be no consolation but I would kill for slim legs! We are all different and the grass is always greener!