That stupid stomach pooch!

Oh I'm really not starving myself! I just hate the look of that little indent ugly thing at the bottom of my stomach.. I wish I had a better picture. I was just wondering about what BF% I would have to get down to for it to go away
I'm thinking probably around 20-21% So I'm gonna start doing a lot more strength training for body recomp:D

thanks everyone

What, you mean the place where your rectus abdominis muscles attach to the ligament that then connects them to the pelvic bones? Which you can see on your stomach because you have pretty decent abs? THAT thing?

Honey, please. That is a 100% normal part of your anatomy. Dissecting your appearance this way is not going to lead to healthy things for you.

you look great!

I eat 1200-1400 calories a day.
Last night I had a rice dish at my friends around 10 at night and never added it to my diary because I didn't get home until 3 in the morning

I'm eating plenty I can assure you.

So lets get back to your original question by examining the above statement. Based on your ticket you appear to be about 130 lb and I would estimate around 22% body fat (at least for this example that is what I will use). And since you want to work on getting more ab definition, that means, you need to work on body recomposition which is better with very small deficits or eating at maintain so you can deplete body fat and maintain lean muscle mass. Lets look at this from a mathematical standpoint using the Katch McArdle formula

LBM = 130 - (130*.22) = 101.4
BMR = 370+ (9.79759519 * 101.4) = 1363


BMR = Metabolic Rate, aka the amount of calories you burn by sleeping for 24 hours. Now we established that, we need to figure out how much energy you expend throughout a day with exercise and lifestyle. Lets assume you are sedentary to make this example easy.


TDEE = 1363 *1.2 = 1636.2 <--- energy expended without exericse.

And lets say you exercise and on average burn 500 calories.

You new TDEE = 1636.2 + 500 = 2136.2

So you are burning over 2100+ calories in a normal day, so this is your maintenance calories (+/- exercise). But you want weight loss and since you are within 20 lb of your goal and you want to focus on definition, we want a small deficit of 250 calories.

Caloric Needs = 2136.2 - 250 = 1886


So if your situation is anything like this, you would obviously not being eating enough. If you do more strenuous exercises, you would need to eat more, if you didnt exercise, well it would be difficult to increase definition. Unfortunately, when you get to a point of doing recomposition, eating is critical and I can't tel you how important it is to eat more.

Below are two links. The first one is a study I conducted using MFP people to look at body fat and calories required. And those with low body fat for women consistently ate over 1800-2000+ calories. Many of the women where you weight. So this is why I stress that even if you think you are eating enough, you might not. The second link is just to depict why weight isn't all the important and can show the improvements of body recomposition.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395948-caloric-intake-results?hl=caloric+intake+results&page=1#posts-5425208

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat&page=2#posts-5441852

You cannot seriously think that is a stomach pooch...I would send you a picture of my 2-kid, 47 year old stomach pooch/pouch, but it would probably make you cry!

Was this a trick to get us all to say you look FABULOUS!! If so, it worked!! We see no pooch.

First, I agree with everyone else in saying that your tummy looks great!

Second, the thing that absolutely shredded my stomach was running with good form regularly. I started doing P90X a year ago, and Ab Ripper really helped me get definition, but running is what helped me eliminate fat from my belly. Nothing else that I personally have tried has even come close to running.

Third, I have no idea whether or not you have had kids. You certainly don't look like you have - as I said earlier, your tummy looks nice and flat. But for some women, like me, there is always a bump out. Maybe it's from pregnancy, maybe from a c-section, maybe it's genetic - I have no idea. I just know that my stomach was never as utterly flat as it was pre-kids.

Again, you look great! Good work!

I think it looks great now but wanted to chime in!

I have had two kids by c-section and I finally got rid of the pooch. Last time I was checked I was around 20% bodyfat and I think I might be lower now but no clue! I have been doing weight training and HIIT type workouts and really diet is important and I agree eat more not less =-)