I'm about to give up. Stomach isn't budging...and I am looking deformed now.

[tedrodai]

Is it actually fat or abdominal slack? Abs/belly us that last/hardest thing for men.

By abdominal slack, perhaps you mean posture? That of course could be 1 thing affecting his belly's appearance, but the main issue is fat. Fat is why it's the last/hardest thing for men. Even weak abs look fine when the fat is gone. But posture is definitely something good to work on.

 

[johnjohn320]

I'm not a dietitian, but I have some experience taking college level health classes as well as some personal experience. I guess my first question would be, are you eating whatever you want and then hoping exercise will burn it off? If that's the case, you will build muscle in the places you are weight training, but continue to store fat in your stomach. That's because achieving a flat stomach is mostly proper diet. Unfortunately, even exercises that claim to target your stomach like crunches don't do much. I say this as a person who used to do 2000 sit ups a night. It wasn't until I started counting calories, carbohydrates, sugar, fat, and protein that I started seeing immediate results in my stomach.

You do not have to starve yourself, what you need to do is fill up on foods that are low in calories but help your stomach feel full. Most fruit and vegetables will do this, as well as anything that's high in fiber. If you have a smart phone, get a calorie counting app like MyFitnessPal or something similar. Always have these snacks handy anytime you start to feel cravings. More importantly, allow yourself to indulge every once in a while... once a week, maybe two times a week. Don't go overboard and eat 1500+ calories in one sitting, just something to look forward to and prevent you from getting bored.

Losing the weight is not impossible, but it's a lifestyle change that you have to maintain. It gets easier once you get into the habit of watching what you eat, and once you achieve your goal it's a lot easier to maintain it. Try being healthier instead of just losing weight, there's a lot of benefits to proper eating in addition to losing weight.

!!!!! ????

 

[_Rick_]

or get into endurance sports. cycling especially is something where you can get your body in fat burning mode and keep it there. yes, it will take a lot of time, but one long, reasonably intense ride per week should help you into a calorie deficit, put a lot of water through your system, and help you get rid of muscle and fat. you will lose muscle first, so keeping up on the training schedule is important, but eventually fat should become the bodies final nutritient, just as you start feeling extremely miserable.
as a bonus you get the endurance high, which is different from the bodybuilder's high.

 

[amdhunter]

By abdominal slack, perhaps you mean posture? That of course could be 1 thing affecting his belly's appearance, but the main issue is fat. Fat is why it's the last/hardest thing for men. Even weak abs look fine when the fat is gone. But posture is definitely something good to work on.

You can see my abs on the top part of my stomach area. It's the lower part. If I suck in as hard as I can, the skin lifts up perfectly and doesn't lay low.

I do slouch a lot and it is affecting my appearance, but it's really annoying. Someone mentioned just last week that my stomach was finally getting smaller, but I don't see it...

 

[amdhunter]

or get into endurance sports. cycling especially is something where you can get your body in fat burning mode and keep it there. yes, it will take a lot of time, but one long, reasonably intense ride per week should help you into a calorie deficit, put a lot of water through your system, and help you get rid of muscle and fat. you will lose muscle first, so keeping up on the training schedule is important, but eventually fat should become the bodies final nutritient, just as you start feeling extremely miserable.
as a bonus you get the endurance high, which is different from the bodybuilder's high.

Damn, I am on the treadmill with my heart rate in the 140's (really hard to make it go higher) for an hour a day. This is between me lifting weights before the run, and then again after.

I feel like I am walking on stilts lately, and my arms, while not that big, are getting nicer looking without looking huge.

I really don't know how I can work out more and sustain being able to work.

 

[classy]

I have heard this has helped a lot of people

http://www.coolsculpting.com/

 

[Nebor]

For most men, your stomach is going to be the last place you lose fat. The good news is, those muscles on your arms and legs are burning calories just by being there. Keep doing what you're doing, watch your diet and try to do more high intensity exercise. If you have healthy knees, I recommend the Insanity program. Stick with it for 60 days and I guarantee you'll get results. And you can do it pretty much anywhere, anytime.

 

[amdhunter]

For most men, your stomach is going to be the last place you lose fat. The good news is, those muscles on your arms and legs are burning calories just by being there. Keep doing what you're doing, watch your diet and try to do more high intensity exercise. If you have healthy knees, I recommend the Insanity program. Stick with it for 60 days and I guarantee you'll get results. And you can do it pretty much anywhere, anytime.

I've been dying to try something like insanity, but living in an apartment building with neighbors downstairs who don't work for a living makes it hard.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Please post your diet.

 

[rga]

try to do more high intensity exercise

I disagree. I think all the high intensity running is what made him look "deformed" in the first place. Low intensity steady state cardio should be his focus when he's doing cardio. I think somebody even already mentioned it in this thread. Keep your heart rate at 65-75% for your age for 30-60 minutes a day; achieve this with a steep incline at 3-4mph on the treadmill. The fat will melt away. Up your protein and fat intake while reducing the carbs you consume, and start picking up heavy things.

 

[Sluggo]

Damn, I am on the treadmill with my heart rate in the 140's (really hard to make it go higher) for an hour a day. This is between me lifting weights before the run, and then again after.

Please post your diet.

Post your workout as well, over training is just as bad as under training.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

EDIT:
Also make sure you are getting enough sleep, if you are working out hard, your body really needs the rest.
Lastly, if you don't already, get some psyllium husk and keep all your insides cleaned out and running smoothly.

 

[tedrodai]

I think all the high intensity running is what made him look "deformed" in the first place.

Where did this statement come from? Why would high intensity running make anyone look deformed?

 

[jaedaliu]

I'm not a dietitian, but I have some experience taking college level health classes as well as some personal experience. I guess my first question would be, are you eating whatever you want and then hoping exercise will burn it off? If that's the case, you will build muscle in the places you are weight training, but continue to store fat in your stomach. That's because achieving a flat stomach is mostly proper diet. Unfortunately, even exercises that claim to target your stomach like crunches don't do much. I say this as a person who used to do 2000 sit ups a night. It wasn't until I started counting calories, carbohydrates, sugar, fat, and protein that I started seeing immediate results in my stomach.

You do not have to starve yourself, what you need to do is fill up on foods that are low in calories but help your stomach feel full. Most fruit and vegetables will do this, as well as anything that's high in fiber. If you have a smart phone, get a calorie counting app like MyFitnessPal or something similar. Always have these snacks handy anytime you start to feel cravings. More importantly, allow yourself to indulge every once in a while... once a week, maybe two times a week. Don't go overboard and eat 1500+ calories in one sitting, just something to look forward to and prevent you from getting bored.

Losing the weight is not impossible, but it's a lifestyle change that you have to maintain. It gets easier once you get into the habit of watching what you eat, and once you achieve your goal it's a lot easier to maintain it. Try being healthier instead of just losing weight, there's a lot of benefits to proper eating in addition to losing weight.

This is the reason why there are people asking about your diet.

I find it easiest to explain by describing that the human body tends to follow 2 modes:
1) weight gain
2) weight loss

I find that people's natural body type lends to one or the other. People that are bigger tend to build muscle more easily, and cut fat more difficultly. The skinnier people have a hard time packing on muscle, but also can slim down quickly.

Doing a lot of weight lifting is going to program your body to enter the weight gain mode, which will make your body want to hold onto fat because you're eating plenty of protein, and your body is trying to build up.

to lose your belly fat, diet is probably the biggest thing. If you've bulked up to the point that you're fairly happy with your mass, you can consider switching to a lower calorie diet, maintainence weight lifting, and more cardio.

If you're going to try to do a calorie restriction diet, buy a scale to weigh your food. People tend to underestimate the amounts of food they eat, and the scale will let you journal your calorie intake more accurately.

 

[amdhunter]

Please post your diet.

Pretty simple.

In the morning, if I am hungry, I'll have a banana or fill a cup with Captain Crunch with milk and drink it down. This is probably once or twice a week at most.

Every day at 2PM: I have 2 sandwiches for lunch. It will either be ham and cheese with nothing else (except hot sauce) with White bread.

Then I hit the gym at 4:15 and perform the following:

Lightweight curls on a machine until my arms wear out completely, usually in sets of 5.

Lightweight chest presses, shoulder presses, bench presses (all on a machine) until the affected areas wear out completely.

After that, I hit the treadmill and go between 3.5 - 6MPH for about 5km. I usually finish in about 40 minutes.

Then I go back to doing the weights on machines. I've tried using free weights, but I am very clumsy with them. I've bought some dumbells at home around Christmas to try and practice with. I'll start heavyish, then lower the weight until I can't even lift 20lbs.

After that I go back home, and I try to get a meal in within the hour of my last exercise. Usually the meal will be bigger than my lunch, but is mostly White rice, and some meat (Chicken, Beef, Pork) fried with just some light seasoning. Biggest portion of rice is probably 1 1/2 cups cooked, white, and meat would be the biggest size of about a chicken breast.

I'll occasionally make a single sandwich if I get hungry later, usually with tomatoes, lettuce, onions and mustard...

 

[blackdogdeek]

1 banana = 105 calories
1 cup cap'n crunch = 145 calories
1 cup skim milk = 80 calories
4 slices white bread = 280 calories
8 oz boar's head ham = 240 calories
2 oz boar's head swiss cheese = 180 calories
1.5 cups cooked white rice = 363 calories
1 chicken breast fried = 322 calories
2 slices white bread = 140 calories

So I get about 1730 calories (averaging the banana and the cap'n crunch and leaving out the veggies in your nightly sandwich). Now all we need is your BMR and your caloric maintenance values. You should be able to get those values from the fat-loss sticky at the top of this subforum.

 

[vi edit]

With a diet like that you are absolutely starving your body of any remotely decent calories and instead filling it up with nutritionless shitty carbs.

Ditch the white bread and white rice. Get something whole grain. Get some protein shakes in there to add in some more clean, high quality protein that your body is desperately craving.

If that really is your diet and Blackdog is within a couple hundred calories of what you really are getting then you are too low and your body is hanging on to anything you give it. I think you are a decent sized guy and your daily workout is certainly enough to burn 300-500 calories or more. You need more clean, quality calories from protein rich sources. A good multivamin a day wouldn't hurt either.

 

[repoman0]

Of course you're clumsy with free weights at first - because you aren't strong enough to stabilize them. Keep it up with them and ditch the machines, they'll get you nowhere. Also, do squats and deadlifts. Upper body-only gym routines are worthless.

 

[Sid59]

Pretty simple.

In the morning, if I am hungry, I'll have a banana or fill a cup with Captain Crunch with milk and drink it down. This is probably once or twice a week at most.

Every day at 2PM: I have 2 sandwiches for lunch. It will either be ham and cheese with nothing else (except hot sauce) with White bread.

Then I hit the gym at 4:15 and perform the following:

Lightweight curls on a machine until my arms wear out completely, usually in sets of 5.

Lightweight chest presses, shoulder presses, bench presses (all on a machine) until the affected areas wear out completely.

After that, I hit the treadmill and go between 3.5 - 6MPH for about 5km. I usually finish in about 40 minutes.

Then I go back to doing the weights on machines. I've tried using free weights, but I am very clumsy with them. I've bought some dumbells at home around Christmas to try and practice with. I'll start heavyish, then lower the weight until I can't even lift 20lbs.

After that I go back home, and I try to get a meal in within the hour of my last exercise. Usually the meal will be bigger than my lunch, but is mostly White rice, and some meat (Chicken, Beef, Pork) fried with just some light seasoning. Biggest portion of rice is probably 1 1/2 cups cooked, white, and meat would be the biggest size of about a chicken breast.

I'll occasionally make a single sandwich if I get hungry later, usually with tomatoes, lettuce, onions and mustard...

diet and exercise lack focus.

 

[Modular]

So, most days you eat 2 sandwiches as your first meal approximately 6 hours after waking up? That's a huge part of the problem. You should have the diet flipped around. More food in the morning and less at night.

More protein and less white carbs. I'm no expert, but those are the blatant issues that I see.

 

[kache]

Try ketogenic diet and further exercise.

 

[rga]

amdhunter is just trolling H&F as far as I'm concerned. People have been givin him good advice for close to a year now, but he just keeps posting cry for help threads or complaints that nothing works. Cap'n Crunch and lightweight bicep curls? Either he's in shape and just fucking with us, or he can have fun being a skinny-fat ass for the rest of his life for all I care.

 

[rga]

Where did this statement come from? Why would high intensity running make anyone look deformed?

It doesn't make anyone look deformed. It makes amdhunter look deformed. If you haven't figured out why from this thread, just look a his post history regarding anything H&F related.