Limitations on waist

The more you work a muscle the bigger it gets. I would stay away from ab work and focus on everything else.

I know when I tend to concentrate only on cardio (though I do mostly the rowing machine which has some elements of strength to it), my stomach gets larger. Only when I really start hitting heavier weights does my stomach shrink enough to make me happy, relative to the rest of my body.

Weight goes to my stomach first and then my face. I lose it in that same reverse order but it takes a lot of watching everything I eat and lifting to make it happen.

There is a point where working abs a lot can build them. I'm 196 and 5 foot 10 and can flex and see a six pack, but yet I have a 35 inch waist. I'm roughly 22% or so BF right now. In order to have a 32 inch waist, I really need to lean out to around 15% BF.

I've been enjoying adding the Power Abs for Moms program into my fitness routine to help target the mom tummy that I have lingering, maybe something like that would be fun for you to try? https://powerabs.shop/collections/featured-programs/products/powerabs-for-moms

The reality is our bodies change shapes over the years and especially after having kids. Not true for everyone, but definitely true for most.

I have two really old pairs of trousers that I really loved in the past. Then gained weight. When I'd lost it, and was lighter than when I bought them they didn't fit. Fat and muscle distribution probably played a role, but also my pelvis bone didn't fit anymore. And I never had kids.

Aging is a thing...and the body of a woman changes over time. Exercise can do a lot to moderate it, but there's really only so much one can do in the face of time marching on.

I don't mean give up. But expecting your body to react the way today that it did at 23 is a fool's errand.

There's a reason a mature woman needs clothing that shapes and compliment.

Lowered estrogen is the culprit behind a thickening waist after menopause.
https://www.startribune.com/mayo-clinic-study-finds-explanation-for-postmenopausal-belly-fat/205701571/#:~:text=Scientists have long known that,cells to store more fat.

That said, I think there are three solutions here.

1. Exercises that target firming up the area
2. Acceptance of your changing shape, along with love and appreciation for your body and what it has done/does for you.
3. Dressing in a way that makes you feel good about what you have. I make this last point as a person who has always been rectangular through the waist....even as a svelte teenage athlete. I make the most of what I have by wearing clothing that highlights my back/shoulders and long slender legs. I look silly in belted clothes (and so avoid them) and instead favor dresses, empire waistlines, v-necks, and low rise pants. Blazers (with a little pinch at the waist) over a cami work great. Of course style is a very individual thing...but these are things that I think work well for my body type.

SModa61 wrote: »

So jumping back to my original post for just a moment. We are all in 100% agreement that age is a factor in body shape. I know my height and related aspects are not an issue......yet.

Actually, I'm not sure I do agree, at least not that age per se is universally a massive factor in body shape, in the age range I think we're talking about here.

Some things that are more common with age, but aren't aging per se, may be meaningful. (Childbirth is one - I'm childless, so not much informed about that.)

I know women in their 50s-70s who've been fitness oriented for decades (including one Olympic gold medalist whom I won't name), and a couple of women who lost weight and got very serious about fitness a bit later in life after a decade(s) of a more average lifestyle. I don't know what they personally looked like in their 20s, but they have body shapes that I think many 20-somethings wouldn't mind having. (More superficial wrinkles than a 20-something, and a few other differences, especially once 60+, but talking overall body shape here.)

It's not necessarily that they were pursuing a particular body shape, but it was an outcome of their lifestyle choices certainly.

So within that scenario of age, is it likely muscular change contributing or could it be visceral fat that due to its volume then limits muscular response? Those are the two premises that I am playing with.

I'm not sure it's that simple. Those are not completely isolated things.

Yes, there are some research findings that menopause affects body composition, particularly abdominal fat; and suggesting that estrogen levels are part of that picture. But body composition also affects estrogen levels pre- and post-menopausally, as does exercise (different exercise modes possibly in different ways).

Before menopause, ovaries are our major estrogen producers. After menopause, our body still produces estrogen, most significantly from fat cells and adrenals. (I learned about this as a consequence of breast cancer treatment for hormone-fed tumors.) Clearly, weight loss affects fat cells, and that can affect estrogen levels. (Obesity is believed to contribute to incidence of hormone-fed cancers in women, speculated to be via estrogen levels, I believe.) Exercise can affect circulating estrogen levels, too, either increasing or decreasing it, it seems, depending on the exercise type.

There's lots of research around this set of interlinked topics, but the study linked below brings together various interesting tidbits:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6619462/

It's focused around osteoporotic changes specifically, but the discussion touches in interesting ways on the other aspects (body composition, exercise type, circulating estrogen levels, etc.) and their interrelationships. I'm not suggesting that the study is beyond critique, more suggesting that the background information that's taken as accepted is perhaps relevant to our current discussion here.

Am I upset about my waist? Nope. Never thought I would see my current weight or measurements again. So I guess I am being greedy and/or curious about my limitations. If it is a visceral fat thing, then maybe I will try and learn more on that subject. If it is a muscle thing, you all have given me lots of pointers above.

Some day I would love to do a body composition scan, again mostly out of curiousity.

Lastly, someone recently posted a link to this: https://www.weareageist.com/profile/joan-macdonald-74-journey-to-strength-and-fitness/

Front page is so inspiring. Need to find more down time to really give it all a read. I want to "grow up" to be her. (I'm approaching 60 now).

I respect and admire what Joan's accomplished, but I have to admit a feel a little eye-roll-y about whether her daughter is using mom as an influencer to promote daughter's career as a trainer. IME, there are women around us of similar age accomplishing things like this. Not common, sure, but she's not a full-on unique sparkly unicorn, either.

Ernestine Shepard started late, Madonna Buder (more an accomplished athlete than a "look nice" person) started late, and there are more . . . and that's just semi-celebs, not regular women who've done similar things without fanfare. Unusual, yes. Not impossible.