Possible to lose just belly fat?
 

I'd like to shed about 10 pounds off my riding weight. The problem is that the only place on my body with any fat on it to lose is right on my stomach, and any attempt to lose weight across the board results in my looking like a terminally ill patient (ie. much too thin in the face, arms, etc.). I'm 6'0 with a 32-inch waist and hover right at 179-180 lbs., and have a relatively small but certainly pronounced spare tire around the waist that doesn't exactly scream "fit". My arms, shoulders, and chest are already scrawnier than I'd prefer.

Because I ride in volume and intensity, I'm able to maintain weight eating and drinking sugary and fatty everything; about a year ago I cut out soda, sweets, essentially all sugars for 4 four days and lost 7 pounds, but still riding in volume at the time, my body retaliated against it and I've abandoned any further weight loss attempts since so as to not hijack my training.

Is belly weight just a genetic trait, ie. having a flat stomach might just mean being ghastly thin everywhere else? Or can certain foods/exercises target belly weight only?

Short of liposuction, there's no way to target fat loss - whatever the Shopping Network is trying to tell you.


As far as your body is concerned, that's like trying to drain only one corner of a pool.


If you want rid of it bad enough, stick to the diet longer. When there's no more to get from other parts, even the stugbborn areas will be affected.

7 pounds in 4 days sounds like you're trying to lose weight too fast. Most people who really know what they're talking about recommend 1-2 pounds a week. Try that and see if you can make some headway.

You can't target fat loss. Your body decides where it comes from, you don't. There are no foods or exercises that will make a specific type of fat go away and not others. (Sit ups build muscle around the stomach, for example, they don't make belly fat go away.)

Fat loss comes from a calorie deficit.

For a lot of people (men especially) the belly is the last place stubborn fat will stay. It can still be lost, it's just the last to be lost.

A good strength training program will fix the ghastly thin appearance. StrongLifts 5x5 is a good, free beginner program.

I majored in Kinesciology in college, what I, my colleagues, and personal trainers will suggest is targeted exercise. If you want to lose weight on your abdomen, do lots of exercises that target and isolate your abdomen.
Sit-ups, and crunches aren't the best, they put strain on our back and neck. Anchoring the torso and doing leg raises are much more effective.
IMHO the best way to do this is to use a dip station in reverse. Adding medicine balls for increased resistance.
You can purchase one, you can build one, you can install one on a wall. The point being...
You use the station to support yourself on your forearms, and allow your legs to hang. Then, using your abdominal muscles, bring your knees up to your chest, while bending at the knees.

[See attached pic]

Before all exercises always remember to adequately stretch first.
Facing forward, bring your quadriceps (thighs) up to your chest (bending at the knees) for how ever many reps you can do/want. (it is ok to "curl" your hips and lower back forward and upward to get your knees as high as you can)
Then twist, at your waist, to the left, bring your knees up in this position, (as you would if you were to reach down and scratch the outside of your right foot while standing) for as many reps as you can do/want.
Repeat the same to the right.
Then go back to straight. Do as many reps as you can.
When you are able, squeeze a medicine ball between your ankles and do these exercises for added resistance.
At first, you will curse me, cause it's gonna hurt and shred your muscles, but then after a week or two, you'll be happy with the results.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion, based on my observations and experiences. Every person's body type and genetics are different, everyone's abilities are different. Please be smart, and if you feel pain, stop the exercise.YRMV

Cut out HFCS as much as possible, and get yourself a good upper body workout to keep your arms from getting scrawny. Dieting too hard tends to give the concentration camp look, whereas eating what you want in the most natural form possible (hence avoiding HFCS in favor of real cane sugar or honey wherever you can) will be a lot more likely to get the results you want.
You don't have to be pumping major iron daily, just try to give your chest and arms a bit more attention to match the lower body workout you're already getting.

Actually, there's an FDA-approved procedure called CoolSculpting that freezes fat cells in a targeted area. It's much safer then lipo. It's expensive though and is for smaller amounts of fat.

The body will redistribute fat cells though. The best thing to do is to lower your overall body fat percentage through diet and exercise. If it's hanging around your midsection more, that's mainly genetic, but can still be reduced. If you're worried about the rest of you, add some weight training to balance out the proportions. Adding muscle to your arms, chest, back and legs will help reduce your spare tire too.

Spot reduction doesn't work...Cutting calories also won't work because it will cause you to lose muscle and make things even worse for your belly....You need diet and exercise program which targets your full body. I recommend you start doing weight training and build some muscle.

I take issue with your usage of absolutes...
It IS possible, and thousands of people, my fellow students, our collective clients, and myself have all done it. So don't say "it's impossible"

You can and will.

Unless you're an expert in the field, please refrain from using absolutes, and common/uncommon acceptance as fact.
:twitchy:
Instead of going into a tirade, citing my research and sources, and further derailing this thread, I'll just say this. If you have an opinion please don't use that as a fact for all cases.
@FreaStevens I mean no disrespect, I'm only pointing out MY issues with the verbiage you used, in this particular post. If I've somehow offended you, I apologize. I went to school for many years and studied Kinesciology, and in the effort to help the OP I wanted to offer some of my knowledge and experience.

Targeting your abs with useless abs exercises is a waste of time and energy... Squats, deadlifts, overhead pressing, rows, pull ups, kettlebell workouts and interval training are a lot more beneficial for losing belly fat.
The real secret to abs is diet and resistance training which targets your full body and not just the abs.

You're making some strong statements here. Please post links to the peer-reviewed studies on which you are basing your opinions. Love to see them.

From the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction

I believe this article includes absolutes.

Sorry ... you can't spot reduce. Weight comes off wherever it feels like.

If we could spot reduce, we'd all look like surgery-enhanced models.

And for whatever reason, the belly area seems to be the last place to lose the weight.

You can, however, do weights and core work to build up your muscle tone, and perhaps improve your posture, which might tighten up the belly area.

Ahhh, a salesman. :crash:

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...1&d=1494433651
I should mention that this exercise is a very good one. In fact, that's the only ab thing I do. I do this exercise mostly because it targets the hip flexors even more than the abs. If you don't lift your back off the backboard, it really targets only hip flexors. And hip flexors are really hard to target, yet they get so much use on the bike and stronger ones will give you a stronger pedal stroke. That said, it does almost nothing to burn fat. I don't even break a sweat doing 3 sets of 30 on it. My belly fat is not moved. BTW, you don't need to so the side-to-side bit. Does nothing for cycling unless you twist your torso from side to side as you pedal.

Yep, as said, if you are skinny, you can and will lose fat and build muscle at the same time if you begin weight training and healthy diet. Some people say you can't, because after a time, for someone who has already built a certain amount of muscle and lost most extra fat...doing both begins to get harder, and so bodybuilders will cycle phases of targeting growth or fat loss...but if you have a spare tire and skinny upper body, you aren't at that point.

Short answer: weights are your solution. You might even stay a similar weight, but lose the tire and gain some broader shoulders.

What @12strings says is correct. You can "recompose" your body if you're at your goal weight by doing a progressive resistance program and eating to maintain your weight (eg zero net calories).

Love this debate because I've been through it.

Firstly, I wasn't even heavy to begin and I was getting a big belly as I was approaching 150lb. At the gym I was already bench pressing a little over my body weight and more at the squats and deadlifts. I was running on the treadmill until it read that I had burned 200 calories. I did some fat burning exercises listed in two books from Men's Health magazine. My edurance improved with those exercises. My doctor didn't seem too concerned because he already knew I was in good health. When I first became his patient I was 128 lb.

Then I did bike commuting and in a year I lost 10 pounds. Not only did MOST of my belly fat had gone, the fat all around my body did so too. I look at past photos and my head was round. My belly still protudes but not as much as before. I attribute that to age. I'm 55. A trainer-friend at the gym measured my overall body fat with one of those grip instruments and it came up with 10%.

From my experience, I also could not target the belly fat. It was an overall body thing. I had heard from another training session that ab exercises will make your ab muscles stronger. And guess what happens when your muscles get stronger? They grow. So ab exercises will make your abs bigger.

Fat is also genetic. Many people exercise a lot but can't lose the weight. Aside from the looks, if your heart and organs are ok and you can endure long walks, runs or stair climbing, don't worry too much.

That's right. Exercise affects most of the body's muscles. Exercises directed at a certain part can move the muscles of the whole body. For the reduction of belly fat, I did these: eat a lot of soluble fiber, eat fat fish, replace some cooking fat with coconut oil, and use a men's fitness belt for resistance training. After two months, I saw significant results.

No. I dropped about 20 lbs over 2 years to get down to my 20 year old weight while lifting and doing cardio and just recently cycling. Had a slight calorie deficit since I like to eat ; )

Its been great and the fat has come off all over and I’ve added some nice muscle mass. Scary that I’ve probably dropped over 20lbs of fat since I think I’ve gained a few pounds of muscle at least.

But that last bit of belly/love handle fat is the last to go and very stubborn. It’s coming off bit by bit. At this rate, maybe another year to really see all the abs. But, overall, very satisfied with the progress.

Dude, you got duped, because Kinesciology isn’t even a real word. ;) Heh.

I think this is about it. Not encouraging but true.

Sure, "kinesiology" is a word, and an area of legitimate study. The poster who proclaimed to have majored in "kinesciology" perhaps missed out the actual spelling of his/her major. Twice. Hope you're having a better day now that you've found your sense of humor.

I don't have bad days. And, when someone tries to bring me one, I just evaporate them.

Probably typed on a phone. Once you go with a spelling, it gets added to the dictionary and your device will suggest it in the future.

Here is a professor of kiniseology who disagrees....
“It packs in and around organs like your liver and pancreas and they just don’t function well when that happens,” says Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.

This doesn’t mean you should try every ab workout on Instagram to eliminate ab flab, though. Research shows that ab exercises do little to actually get rid of abdominal fat. “Spot fat reduction is a total myth,” says Phillips. In other words, no matter how many series of crunches, oblique twists or side planks you do, you’re not really targeting the fat around your middle”

https://www.chatelaine.com/health/ta...abdominal-fat/

Don't do crunches, they're bad for your spine.

Yeah, targeted exercises don't do a thing to reduce belly fat. Ask any heavyweight boxer or MMA fighter who comes in overweight but still has rock hard abs... under the flab. Nobody ever put down Big George Foreman with body shots, not when he was young a chiseled, not during his comeback in his 40s when he looked like the Michelin Man some fights. Despite looking overweight Foreman was known to be diligent about training and was tough as a tank under that fat.

Insulin and cortisol appear to have some influence on stubborn belly fat. Insulin can be controlled to some degree with diet. Observers of bodybuilding have described differences between Schwarzenegger's era and today, noting that more bodybuilders today have more belly fat. This has been attributed to the deliberate misuse of insulin. And it's not just subcutaneous fat but interstitial fat around the intestines. Very difficult to get rid of.

Cortisol is trickier and it appears to be linked to stress. It may be difficult to lose belly fat, even for otherwise fit and slender folks, if they have a lot of stress for whatever reason. And if the body feels "stressed" by efforts to lose weight -- changes in diet and training, including fasted rides to provoke burning fat -- it's possible the body compensates by hanging onto belly fat.

I found it relatively easy to lose 50 lbs with sensible changes in diet and exercise, nearly eliminating beer and alcohol, cutting way back on sugar and junk carbs. But the remaining 3-5 lbs of belly fat is stubborn stuff. I'd have to go full keto and switch my bike training to almost exclusively low and slow, zone 2 stuff endurance rides, including fasting rides as much as I could tolerate. I'm not sure I'm motivated enough just for 3-5 lbs. I'm not really training for anything, just trying to stay fit and improve a bit. But if I get serous about time trials again, I'll consider those changes in diet and exercise.

Indeed. Keto is just about the only way to reduce belly fat.