I am in a similar situation. 5'7", 132lbs give or take a lb or two. I can see the new muscle definition I am gaining everywhere, but my cursed pooch. The favorite line fo one of the trainers in my gym is "Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym."

I never heard the rumor about crunches building muscle over the fat, but I have long felt that it was true. When I atually have time to consistently make it to the abs classes at my gym, I feel as if my belly gets bigger not flatter.

I am anxious to see the replys your thread receives as it will help me as well. :happy:

Crunches are pretty much the only exercise I do aside from walking. The whole muscle over fat thing is ridiculous, muscle eats fat, it does not just ignore it and sit on top of it. I do five minutes of crunches, which is currently around the 140 mark, different ones though, regular crunches, bicycle crunches, reverse crunches etc Not only is my tummy shrinking down but it's firming up nicely. By my honeymoon I should have a wonderful flat stomach I'm happy to put in a bikini.

I'm 5'10", 25, around 140lbs and only interested in toning up rather than loosing weight, but I've put myself on the loose half a pound a week diet just because every little helps when getting ready for a wedding.

I must agree with the last post - all types of martial arts are great for building that core and getting that lean, trimmed look. After my two pregnancies, I've done a lot of cardio (running) that helped me flatten out my post labour pooch, but am still myself looking for that magic formula to get it into my pre-children state!!!:sad:

I'm 5'6'' and a 1/2, weigh 135 at the moment, looking to get to around 125 again...

I have had some results by doing planks. You have to reach the deep muscles. As for building muscles over fat...I had a trainer tell me that I have some great muscles UNDER the fat on my legs.

I definitely, agree with Kimber_av's advice. It's a lot about your food choices I'm beginning to realize. Also, excess protein intake can store as fat so I've began to eat my protein earlier in the day and go lighter at dinner. Makes sense because you can't pin point a certain area for weight loss, your body looses it as a whole.

My mom said that my family is just cursed with a stomach pooch but I fail to believe in that! lol I am determined to proof her wrong! I've done a lot of reading and research and have put in to place my current routine of a cardio warm up of about 15 mins to get the heart rate up, then resistance/strength training (it actually burns fat for around 30 hrs after you end your work out where cardio stops burning as soon as your heart rate returns to normal) , followed by interval cardio (which burns more calories because it keeps your body guessing) , and then end with ab workouts (the rest of your body will be exhausted which makes focusing and building up the stomach muscles easier)

If you looking for a butt kicking ab workout, I read on another post here on my fitness pal about Manny Pacquiao's ab workout. Now this is a hard work out. Check it out on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOHLPlLwTiM Good luck!

This is an issue with me! thanks for the advice!

Okay here is what works for me. and I"ve lost 5 inches in my stomach pooch.

1- watch your fat gram intake. it effects it HUGELY. 50-55 grams tops per day
2- watch your sugars. this i struggle with seriously. but the more sugar in your diet the more fat builds on your stomach
2- drink plenty of water
3- cardio cardio cardio!!!
4- do some ab strengthening. because you want your abdomen wall to be tight, so once your cardio dusts all the fat off you have a nice flat masterpiece underneath.

so cardio and a little toning are a must. but 75% of it is your diet.

"abs are made in the kitchen"

that's interesting. I never really paid attention to fat intakes etc, rather i only bothered paying attention to the overall calorie intake.
thanks for the tips!

I believe the saying "abs are made in the kitchen" is so true. My abs are made of McDonald's french fry's and Tim Horton's bagels....lol That's why I've started tracking my calories on myfitnesspal, limiting my fast food intake and just bought 3 of Jillian Michaels workout DVD's. No more trouble zones, 30 day shred and Banish fat, boost metabolism. So far I love them. They are hard because I've had a desk job for 8 yrs and let myself get lazy. She breaks her workouts into circuit and focuses on specific areas. She does some ab exercises I've never seen before. It's only been a couple of days and I am fully aware of some muscles I haven't been using....lol

So happy to see this because this is exactly my problem... I'm 5'5" and 122 lbs, and yet have a 32" waist (!). My waist is the exact size of my hips, not cool. I'm starting to the think that the only way for me to have somewhat normal proportions is for me to be model thin, which is a standard I never aspired to.

Okay here is what works for me. and I"ve lost 5 inches in my stomach pooch.

1- watch your fat gram intake. it effects it HUGELY. 50-55 grams tops per day
2- watch your sugars. this i struggle with seriously. but the more sugar in your diet the more fat builds on your stomach
2- drink plenty of water
3- cardio cardio cardio!!!
4- do some ab strengthening. because you want your abdomen wall to be tight, so once your cardio dusts all the fat off you have a nice flat masterpiece underneath.

so cardio and a little toning are a must. but 75% of it is your diet.

"abs are made in the kitchen"

SN you gals sure are skinny! lol

Thanks for the info! I'm a healthy size 8, 5'5'' 147lbs and I would be fine with this if I wasn't so flabby (stomach), so my goal is to shed the fat and gain muscle. I'm glad to see those things u mentioned get rid of tummy fat cause that's what Im doing now :-))) I already see the difference. I'll be sure to keep it up! yay!