Before/After BELLY pics???

First pic was October 9, 2011 at around 130 pounds. Second pic was two days ago at about 115 pounds. I lost about 15 pounds. I hope to lose about 5 more and then continue to tone. I have been having the hardest time losing weight and I think it's because I am already pretty petite and naturally muscular. Lately I have cleaned up my diet ever MORE by scaling down the amount of carbs (pasta!) and dairy I consume. I am lactose intolerant and the dairy left me bloated all the time. I feel as if I have lost inches but I still weight the same. Doesn't bother me too much. I am 4'11!

I do cardio 5-6 days a week for about an hour. I bike for 20 minutes, stair master for 20 minutes, and jog for 20 minutes. I take a CORE class twice a week. I lift weights 2-3 days a week.

Eating fairly clean, lots of protein, heavy lifting. Still have work to do.

My before pictures are not the best because I did not allow pictures to be taken of me in my bikini.

These are 1 year after 6th baby was born. I normally lose the baby weight easier, but not this time.


This is me One month ago.


I teach Zumba everyday, but really any cardio will work. I burn around 400-500 calories per day. I eat 1600-1900 calories per day. What I think has helped is what I eat. I eat around 100 carbs/day and 150 protein/day.

I do not do crunches, but a lot of my songs include a lot of pumping the hips, which is like doing crunches standing up. I do planks, and ab vacuums. I highly recommend ab vacuums! Those work your core and actually pull in your abs.

Since I am the teacher, I design my class so we are burning fat but also toning up our muscles. So, when we get rid of that fat, we have pretty lean muscle underneath. I do believe in muscle building, it just makes a body look fit and healthy!

I still have stretch marks and loose skin from having six kids, but it does look a lot better.

Before:


After:


Eat well, drink water, exercise (including strength training!!!)

OMGoodness! You are my new inspiration! How did you do that?!

yes!!! how did you do that????

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/CoryIda/view/how-did-you-do-it-200995

... and strength training.

Belly Before/After:


Back Before/After:


That was just over 3mos of work...nearly 40lbs, mostly in my belly.

Here's an overall comparison, from one 4th of July, to the next (2010/2011):


And the workout I used to do it, no gym, no weights...all bodyweight:

Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:

This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.

Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds

Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies

Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.

Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.

None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.

The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.