Best machine in the gym to get rid of belly fat?

kathrynangelabaird
kathrynangelabaird Posts: 53
in Health and Weight Loss
I currently have started to go to the gym and never know what machines are actually better to fight the stomach fat with?

I have a horrid amount of stomach to get rid of (I'm an apple shape) but when at the gym I seem to work on my arms and legs and not really have a clue at what to do to get rid of my trouble area.

Does anyone have a suggest what machines (UK ones) are the best for losing inches off your stomach?

Many thanks :)
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Replies

  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
    Reducing stomach fat will involve creating a calorie deficit to cause weight loss from the entire body.

    The machine you choose to use to burn calories is irrelevant.


    Now, lifting weights will help OVERALL, and you can do core training for functional/strength purposes, but none of that will help reduce belly fat outside of how it helps you create a deficit.
  • AlayshaJ
    AlayshaJ Posts: 703 Member
    Treadmill.
  • Jugie12
    Jugie12 Posts: 282 Member
    The treadmill!!! One of the most effective ways to get rid of the tummy is to blast it with cardio. Start walking/jogging/running, whatever you like. What's cool is that as you add that to heavy strength training, you'll notice inches disappearing!

    Personally, I HATE running but I really have fun using a jump rope (bonus - helps build nice legs!)

    And remember, abs are made in the kitchen!
  • kathrynangelabaird
    kathrynangelabaird Posts: 53
    Should have said I am currently following around 1200 calories dependent of what exercise I do that day.

    I have no clue about exercise and much appreciate any comments possible!
  • alasin1derland
    alasin1derland Posts: 575 Member
    You cant target fat. You can only target muscle. if you target stomach muscle, you may appear bigger for a short time but as you lose the fat on top of it you will enjoy the results. Your overall effort is what is going to reduce the fat.
  • aj_31
    aj_31 Posts: 994 Member
    bump
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    Food Scale...but it's in the Kitchen.
  • kathrynangelabaird
    kathrynangelabaird Posts: 53
    You cant target fat. You can only target muscle. if you target stomach muscle, you may appear bigger for a short time but as you lose the fat on top of it you will enjoy the results. Your overall effort is what is going to reduce the fat.

    That is more or less what I am wanting to do. Most of my weight is based on my stomach and as I am trying to lose weight everywhere I am trying to concentrate the most on trying to tone and sort out the mess I call my stomach!
  • kaydensmom12
    kaydensmom12 Posts: 338
    As others have said you can not spot reduce, you can only reduce overall fat and your body will decide where it wants to lose weight from unfortunately.
    You do not want to do a bunch of ab exercises, because your stomach may start to look larger. Best exercises to lose overall fat is weight lifting, heavy lifting, such as squats and deadlifts. Look up the stronglifts 5x5 program, there is only 5 different lifts to learn, and you only do 3 lifts each day at the gym. That really blasts fat away, while keeping lean muscle.
    The pics on my profile show the difference between my stomach in just 3 months from weight lifting, I hadn't lost any weight from the first to the third, in the last I lost 2lbs.
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
    Should have said I am currently following around 1200 calories dependent of what exercise I do that day.

    I have no clue about exercise and much appreciate any comments possible!

    As other people have said, you mainly have to reduce your overall body fat. Cardio will help. Strength training and moderate body weight ab exercise are part of a general healthy program, but if your lower half carries a lot of fat and you are concerned about looking heavier, I would watch the weight work on your butt and legs.
  • laurastrait21
    laurastrait21 Posts: 307 Member
    first and foremost, DIET!!

    six packs are made in the kitchen :flowerforyou:
  • kathrynangelabaird
    kathrynangelabaird Posts: 53
    first and foremost, DIET!!

    six packs are made in the kitchen :flowerforyou:

    I have cut out all the bad from my diet which is a start. I do love my Kitchen so I shall hopefully start spending more time in there soon!
  • AshleyVeronica
    AshleyVeronica Posts: 69 Member
    I would love to lose my belly fat too. The rest of my body is actually fairly toned! Just my butt and belly. My thighs need some work but I am not so concerned with them. I wish my butt and belly would just shrink already! I feel like no matter what I do I don't see change there at all.

    Does lifting ANY weights help with your belly? All these people keep saying weight lifting and losing overall, but I feel like lifting with your arms and legs would ONLY help your arms and legs (mostly that is). There has got to be something we can do to focus on these areas!
  • missashley884
    missashley884 Posts: 188 Member
    abs are made in the kitchen!

    and 1200 calories? thats nothing!
  • ready2tryagain42
    ready2tryagain42 Posts: 202
    Lots and lots of cardio.
  • mes1119
    mes1119 Posts: 1,082 Member
    diet is what gets rid of fat, if you want to work on "toning" I would suggest lifting heavy and doing compound exercises (squats, deadlifts)

    those exercises use the most muscles (including your core) and therefore burn the most calories

    but most of all, you can use every machine in there and work out to heart's content, but if your diet sucks, the fat will remain.
  • jcstanton
    jcstanton Posts: 1,849 Member
    Should have said I am currently following around 1200 calories dependent of what exercise I do that day.

    I have no clue about exercise and much appreciate any comments possible!

    Cardio is great for boosting your calorie deficit, which helps you lose fat overall. Strength training, when done properly, will help you build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more efficiently you will burn calories. Also, building muscle helps tighten and lift things a bit. So, doing core work like crunches and such will help tighten your tummy, thereby making it appear smaller. :smile:

    Disclaimer: I'm not a fitness pro. I'm just speaking from personal experience. Hope it helps.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    I would love to lose my belly fat too. The rest of my body is actually fairly toned! Just my butt and belly. My thighs need some work but I am not so concerned with them. I wish my butt and belly would just shrink already! I feel like no matter what I do I don't see change there at all.

    Does lifting ANY weights help with your belly? All these people keep saying weight lifting and losing overall, but I feel like lifting with your arms and legs would ONLY help your arms and legs (mostly that is). There has got to be something we can do to focus on these areas!

    No, sorry. This is a huge misconception that a lot of people need to be disabused of.

    You CANNOT spot subtract, only add.

    By that, I mean you can focus on where you build muscle, but you cannot tell your body where to burn fat, and different body types burn different reserves of fat at different rates. For people like me, it's the belly that goes last. I do planks, squats, situps, leg lifts, elliptical, freeweights, cycling, treadmill, and everything I can do to maintain a good cardio/weight mix to burn off calories and tone muscle.

    My arms are not muscular, but there's no visible fat. My face is slim now. My legs are well-muscled from cycling a lot. But, while I can feel good muscles in my abdomen, there's still a belly there and will be until my overall body fat percentage drops into a level where my body gets rid of the belly fat, which it will do when it damned well pleases and there's nothing I can do to focus any effort in fat loss there.

    But the actual surface fat that is covering all that muscle just needs to be burned off as part of burning off excess fat. Once your body fat percentage gets into the proper range, the tum-tum will melt away and reveal the hard work you've put into muscle underneath, and the result will be beautiful.

    Work out to burn fat, AND to build beautiful muscle underneath. Eat at a modest deficit to bring your body fat percentage down and unveil the new muscle.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
    A calorie deficit is great for reducing body fat!




    Lady Homebrewer - 3yrs
    MFP Smarty-pants and sometimes food logger
    Also, boobs.
  • opus649
    opus649 Posts: 633 Member
    "You do not want to do a bunch of ab exercises, because your stomach may start to look larger."

    I must respectfully disagree with this. Although it is true that the layers of fat might hide the abs, there are numerous benefits to having a stronger core.
  • foster59803
    foster59803 Posts: 439 Member
    154544_316130501802779_120374388045059_726425_185790992_n.jpg
  • ked154
    ked154 Posts: 2
    I agree with everyone that has been saying treadmill- but I find short bursts of sprinting help the most = sprint for about a minute, cool down for a minute and repeat for 20+ minutes total. Explosive moves will burn the most fat so if you're feeling extra ambitious, throw a minute of jumping jacks or burpees throughout the above mentioned routine. When off the treadmill, focus on your posture and keeping your core hard and engaged and random planks when you're watching TV never hurt either. I've been working on all that I mentioned for about 2 weeks (when I realized too late that I needed to be wearing a 2 piece quite soon ahaha) and I have noticed a difference. Good luck!!
  • jcstanton
    jcstanton Posts: 1,849 Member
    I would love to lose my belly fat too. The rest of my body is actually fairly toned! Just my butt and belly. My thighs need some work but I am not so concerned with them. I wish my butt and belly would just shrink already! I feel like no matter what I do I don't see change there at all.

    Does lifting ANY weights help with your belly? All these people keep saying weight lifting and losing overall, but I feel like lifting with your arms and legs would ONLY help your arms and legs (mostly that is). There has got to be something we can do to focus on these areas!

    When lifting weights, you should always keep your core muscles engaged to maintain proper form. This in itself will work your abs. However, I highly recommend implementing core exercises with a swiss ball at the end of your cardio routine. Follow this link to get some ideas:

    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=abdominal+exercises+for+swiss+ball+images&qpvt=abdominal+exercises+for+swiss+ball+images&FORM=IGRE
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    "You do not want to do a bunch of ab exercises, because your stomach may start to look larger."

    I must respectfully disagree with this. Although it is true that the layers of fat might hide the abs, there are numerous benefits to having a stronger core.

    Absolutely.

    Plus, since muscle is denser than fat, it's NOT going to add any significant girth there to have some reasonable muscle built up. And that muscle will burn calories along with all the other muscle, so it increases the rate at which you can lose the fat.

    Then, when the fat starts melting away from the tummy, you get just a little bit of muscle definition along with a tighter, trimmer midsection. And a body that can do more things because when the core is strong, the body is strong.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    I agree with everyone that has been saying treadmill- but I find short bursts of sprinting help the most = sprint for about a minute, cool down for a minute and repeat for 20+ minutes total. Explosive moves will burn the most fat so if you're feeling extra ambitious, throw a minute of jumping jacks or burpees throughout the above mentioned routine. When off the treadmill, focus on your posture and keeping your core hard and engaged and random planks when you're watching TV never hurt either. I've been working on all that I mentioned for about 2 weeks (when I realized too late that I needed to be wearing a 2 piece quite soon ahaha) and I have noticed a difference. Good luck!!

    Cardio is beautiful. It really is. It burns calories NOW. Results are instant.

    It's like exercise crack (and I don't mean that in a negative way, it's beautifully addictive). It increases your stamina.

    But you'll need to keep doing more and more of it to continue losing weight (you're making your body more efficient, which is good, but it means you'll need to keep doing MORE to get the same result), and it's only helping marginally with muscle tone unless you have some resistance training in there.

    A combination of cardio AND building a little muscle or at least toning muscle through good core work and some moderate lifting is really the ideal. The muscle building/toning keeps your body burning more calories at rest to maintain the muscle, and the cardio keeps the calories burning off now and keeps you coming back for more.
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
    You cant target fat. You can only target muscle. if you target stomach muscle, you may appear bigger for a short time but as you lose the fat on top of it you will enjoy the results. Your overall effort is what is going to reduce the fat.

    That is more or less what I am wanting to do. Most of my weight is based on my stomach and as I am trying to lose weight everywhere I am trying to concentrate the most on trying to tone and sort out the mess I call my stomach!

    It sucks but you cannot target where you lose fat. Youbody loses where it wants and it genetics. You can tone MUSCLE in certain areas though. I'm working on my arms quite a bit hoping that it takes away from some of the flab. Abs and bellies are a different story. Just get good cardio AND strength training and your body will change in time.

    Patience is key.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    So many misconceptions in here. First, cardio is for creating a calorie deficit but is NOT as good as cutting fat. Cutting fat is better done by strength training (see note # 1). Second, you can NOT build any kind of muscle on a calorie deficit. You need energy to create mass and if you burn more energy then you intake how do you create muscle? Third, if you want to cut fat, you need to have a regime heavy in ST and a diet that has a small calorie deficit (1200 calories won't cut it, figuratively or literally). You need to estimate your TDEE and cut 20%. Huge deficits will cause your body to conserve body fat, as fat stores are easier to get energy from then converting the amino acids from your muscle to create energy (see note # 2).

    And I am sure there will be those saying, what does this guy know... So ok, you want proof. Here is a response from a 36 year old lady @ 5'5", 154 lbs...lifts 4 times a week and doesn't do any cardio and she eats 2100 calories on lifting days and 1800 calories on non lifting days (See quote #1)




    http://www.metaboliceffect.com/topic/38-nutrition-lifestyle.aspx

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html


    "I just wanted to thank you for your help. You helped me a few months back and I just wanted to give you an update on my progress. 12 weeks ago I started at 154 and 28% bf. I got my bf remeasured last Friday and it was 24%. But I only lost 1 pound. It is crazy to me but I have learned to ignore the scale. You were right that keeping consistent and not giving up my body would finally adjust.

    Thanks again for your help!

    Stephanie"
  • opus649
    opus649 Posts: 633 Member
    Third, if you want to cut fat, you need to have a regime heavy in ST and a diet that has a small calorie deficit (1200 calories won't cut it, figuratively or literally). You need to estimate your TDEE and cut 20%. Huge deficits will cause your body to conserve body fat, as fat stores are easier to get energy from then converting the amino acids from your muscle to create energy (see note # 2).

    http://www.jacn.org/content/18/2/115.abstract

    Conclusion: The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in preservation of LBW and RMR during weight loss with a VLCD.

    In other words, even on 800 calories, these people maintained their lean tissue and lost fat.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Third, if you want to cut fat, you need to have a regime heavy in ST and a diet that has a small calorie deficit (1200 calories won't cut it, figuratively or literally). You need to estimate your TDEE and cut 20%. Huge deficits will cause your body to conserve body fat, as fat stores are easier to get energy from then converting the amino acids from your muscle to create energy (see note # 2).

    http://www.jacn.org/content/18/2/115.abstract

    Conclusion: The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in preservation of LBW and RMR during weight loss with a VLCD.

    In other words, even on 800 calories, these people maintained their lean tissue and lost fat.

    Any links to the full studies? This abstract wont allow you to see the starting weights of the people involved. Many of the studies are conducted on obese or overweight studies, not people who are average in weight. Even my link suggest the same thing but on a 1200 diet.
  • opus649
    opus649 Posts: 633 Member
    Any links to the full studies? This abstract wont allow you to see the starting weights of the people involved. Many of the studies are conducted on obese or overweight studies, not people who are average in weight. Even my link suggest the same thing but on a 1200 diet.

    http://www.jacn.org/content/18/2/115.full

    OP is 5'7" >200 lbs, so I figured she qualified (no offense) as obese. I'm 5'9" 166 and I'm losing fat while maintaining muscle eating 1700 calories/day while doing cardio and weight lifting. While one person does not make a rule, I think there is room for discussion with regards to the size of the calorie deficit... but that's just my $0.02 :drinker:

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