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Best way to lose belly fat?


Frozen x360a
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I've decided to start building my body, even since I was small my arms have always been really skinny and I don't think that will even change no matter how well I eat but it seems most of the fat in my body is at my stomach. From the little research I've done online so far I've read that there are no exercises that specifically target your stomach in losing the fat therefore we have to deal with full body workouts which affect your whole body.

 

I've also read that running/jogging/on the spot workouts have minimal affect on losing weight as well, so apart from a decent diet what we supposed to do to lose this fat? Only then can I focus on building muscle, and ultimately a six pack chest.

 

Thanks.

Edited by Frozen x360a
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There's no such thing as spot reduction. If you're a dude, the belly fat and love handles will be the last thing to go.

 

Trying to lose all the fat you have before you build muscle is the worst idea and will make you look emaciated. If you're a skinny dude, just keep eating healthy and start lifting weights in addition to your cardio as lifting will help you burn more calories while putting on muscle.

 

Skinny people need to lift weights and eat more (healthy) to get in shape. That's it. A person going from skinny to fit can get abs much more easily than someone going from fat to fit.

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running walking and dieting. mainly dieting with exercise.

 

1. Stop drinking pop

 

2. Stop drinking other things that are sweet

 

3. Only drink water

 

4. no junk food

 

 

i primarily drank sodas with meals and just whenever i felt like it. i continued to work out daily, but i really dreaded the idea of walking/jogging after lifting. I didnt want to diet, so i just started looking at nutritional facts before i ate junk food (usually would be enough to convince me it isnt worth it), and absolutely stayed away from soda. I had stopped drinking pop about 4 months ago and haven't had fast food (mcdonalds) in like 5 months. Its amazing how much your figure can change whenever you cut that shit out of your diet. Now, i am by no means thin, but if i actually cared enough to walk every day after lifting, i could probably be working on a serious 6 pack by now.

 

seriously, just only drink water and as long as you dont eat like a hoss, you should notice a difference within 3 months (with exercise).

 

EDIT: after reading the OP (originally only read the title).. If what i said applies to you (do you drink a ton of soda? do you eat fast food?), then those are some basic things you can do to lose that fat.

 

but if you're skinny, as you seem to make it sound, lifting and eating are the best thing for you. I wouldnt even worry about what i ate, if i was skinny and wanted to build muscle, id consume a lot and just work out. I'd still stick to only water, though. ABSOLUTELY do not lose fat and then lift, that just seems silly... do both at the same time

 

Plus, what is a 6-pack chest???

Edited by i fist brown i
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As others have said there isn't any way to target fat/weight loss to a specific part of your body. Your body will decide where it gets the fat from.

Just get healthy. Cut out junk food, sugary drinks, sugar in general, watch your sat fat intake, and reduce fat intake overall if it's high at the moment.

Walk/run/cycle daily, although take a day or 2 off each week to let your body recover. It does work as long as your diet is also good.

If you want to lose weight and build muscle then do weight training aswell/instead. You should still eat healthier if you aren't already though. That doesn't mean you have to cut out everything bad, just everything in moderation. I've lost 40 pounds over 6 months and not a week has gone by where I haven't eaten a pizza, curry, take-away, chocolate or homemade cheese-filled lasagne. It's all just about watching what you eat, finding out how many calories and grams of fat/sugar/carbs etc you're eating.

Belly/stomach fat is the worst though and regardless of wanting to build muscle you should be trying to lose the fat.

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If you have the weight iris easier to get the shredded look as you don't have to worry about bulking up, just have a stable exercise plan and diet with a lot of egg white, chicken and brown rice and you should be fine.

As others have said, aim to gain the muscle while losing the fat, and don't weigh yourself as muscles weighs more then fat, take progress pics and measure yourself to see how it is going for you.

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There's no such thing as spot reduction. If you're a dude, the belly fat and love handles will be the last thing to go.

 

Trying to lose all the fat you have before you build muscle is the worst idea and will make you look emaciated. If you're a skinny dude, just keep eating healthy and start lifting weights in addition to your cardio as lifting will help you burn more calories while putting on muscle.

 

Skinny people need to lift weights and eat more (healthy) to get in shape. That's it. A person going from skinny to fit can get abs much more easily than someone going from fat to fit.

 

All this ^^ There's a lot of crap people sell out there to "get those abs" we all dream of, but really just a healthy eating/training regimen works fine. Basically small changes to lifestyle to start. Then ramp it up as you get used to it.

 

Skinny folks simply need to get active, whether that is in sports or gym workouts. Fat doesn't just magically go away. It needs to be burned.

 

My thing: bike to work and go find a rock climbing gym. Cycling burns off a shit load and climbing is an amazing full body workout for both strength and flexibility and a huge core workout. Everything gets used.... literally everything.

 

Skinny lanky people have a distinct advantage over heavy stalky bastards like me too. Longer limbs to reach with, and less gravity to fight when going up.

 

Hell even do yoga. All that stretching makes your muscles more adaptive and flexible, and therefore stronger.

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Ok thanks all for the tips. I'm definitely going to cut down on the junk food as I can't deny I eat a lot of that right now but I never really drink fizzy drinks or anything with lots of sugar and I'm easily consuming 3ltr's of water a day. I will definitely start cycling as I used to before but that will only help my lower body I'm guessing. I just want to get rid of my belly fat as fast as possible so I can properly start building muscle but I guess it's all a simultaneous process. Hardest part is trying to figure out the ideal diet for me, as I'm a very fussy eater and hate fruit but definitely don't mind eating a lot of veg. Maybe I will completely swap out my daily lunch for cooked vegetables or something for the next few months just to make things simple as I don't have a clue what I need to eat when working out.

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Maybe I will completely swap out my daily lunch for cooked vegetables or something for the next few months just to make things simple as I don't have a clue what I need to eat when working out.

 

I usually carry Cliff bars, water, trail mix with some chocolate almonds thrown in.

 

Steam your veggies, they retain more of their natural raw nutrients that way than other forms of preparation. I also drown my veggies in melted cheese and hot sauce and put it over rice but that is all optional. ;)

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Ok thanks all for the tips. I'm definitely going to cut down on the junk food as I can't deny I eat a lot of that right now but I never really drink fizzy drinks or anything with lots of sugar and I'm easily consuming 3ltr's of water a day. I will definitely start cycling as I used to before but that will only help my lower body I'm guessing.

This is all good. Don't worry so much about cutting out junk food altogether, just try to have it in very small portions otherwise you'll go crazy. It's great that you don't drink soda at all. That stuff is really horrible for you in every way when you drink it in excess.

 

I just want to get rid of my belly fat as fast as possible so I can properly start building muscle but I guess it's all a simultaneous process.

It's not necessarily a simultaneous process, but if, like you said, you want to lose fat as quickly as possible, than lifting weights in addition to cardio is the quickest method.

 

Hardest part is trying to figure out the ideal diet for me, as I'm a very fussy eater and hate fruit but definitely don't mind eating a lot of veg. Maybe I will completely swap out my daily lunch for cooked vegetables or something for the next few months just to make things simple as I don't have a clue what I need to eat when working out.

Don't worry too much about the fruits, just try to incorporate some protein into every meal you have. Things like chicken, lean beef, and eggs are all great sources of protein that aren't expensive and work pretty well with almost any meal. Proteins are also a lot more filling than carbs or fats so you won't be hungry for junk snack foods as much.

 

Someone mentioned about getting a personal trainer when you go to the gym, and, to be honest, I'd stay away from personal trainers if you can. At most big chain gyms, in general, they don't teach the big 3 lifts, instead they have you focus on weird stuff involving a bosu ball talking about working on your "core". If they give you a free session with a trainer for signing up, take it anyway, otherwise don't bother. If you do take one and he shows you how to squat, only then I would suggest sticking with him since he probably knows his stuff. Just do some research on a basic Starting Strength routine, anyway, and ask someone at the gym for advice on your form if you think you are doing something wrong. Every person who works out loves nothing more than showing people how to work out, so don't be nervous about asking for help.

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Go to the gym if you want to lose belly fat.

Ask if there's an option too get a personal trainer.

Raises hand* lol

 

Tbh everything that needs to be said has been said already. This is one of the reasons I like this forum. You get hardly any BS or misinfomation when trying to find something out.

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Losing belly fat doesn't come from working out alone. That's a universal misconception among people who work out. Losing belly fat is BEST done if fasting. Intermittent Fasting, to be proper.

 

You need to be in a caloric deficit to lose fat.

 

Then...if you want to get big, you'll need to bulk. Eat 2.5 times more calories than you usually do, lots of protein, good amount of carbs and fat. No cardio. Lift Heavy. You'll get "bulky," but from there, you can diet and train effectively to lean out and have a nice body.

Edited by BiggD
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Ok great I think I've got enough info that I'm now confident enough to go further with my diet/workouts. I won't bother getting a trainer Ty Rex as I don't think I will need one but for sure I will ask for advice. I guess I need to get into the habit of eating breakfast as most of the time I skip it but if I start eating in the morning again than at least like Bigg said I can just skip or have very little lunch and just have some meat/veg for dinner.

 

I will report back in 3 months and show ya'll an image of my 6 pack chest. :p

 

Appreciate all the comments.

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I won't bother getting a trainer Ty Rex as I don't think I will need one but for sure I will ask for advice.

Not all PTs are terrible, they usually are in good shape for a reason, they are just bad at teaching people new to working out and they are afraid to teach more intimidating lifts because it can be a turn-off for most people. Like I said, if they give you one session for free with your membership, definitely take it. At the worst you'll waste a day rolling around on a bosu ball.

 

And if you have any questions that google can't answer, you can always post something here or send me or someone else from this thread a PM.

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I cut out the shit from my diet, and started running everyday. Lost a good amount of weight from the stomach, although it wasn't targeted, but basically evenly spread weight loss throughout my body.

 

Just do cardio to burn the fat. If you're skinny, build some muscles, or else people will tell you that females won't like you, but that's not true.

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Hardest part is trying to figure out the ideal diet for me, as I'm a very fussy eater and hate fruit but definitely don't mind eating a lot of veg. Maybe I will completely swap out my daily lunch for cooked vegetables or something for the next few months just to make things simple as I don't have a clue what I need to eat when working out.

 

I lost 23kg in a year by changing my diet. I used to have a horrible diet because I used to be an undersized athlete in a full contact sport. Try being 1.75m tall and 64kg in a game where people average 2m tall and 91kg, you get absolutely rag dolled. I ate like crap so that A) I could have energy for my 3 daily work outs and B) become heavier so I didn't become someone's chew toy. By the time I retired from sports I was 84kg but kept the same eating habits but none of the physical activity. A year went by and I was 91kg. I started eating right and now I am maintaining a weight of 68kg.

 

Tips:

- EAT BREAKFAST!!!! Even if it's just a banana and a piece of toast, just eat something for breakfast, your body needs it.

- Try to have 5-6 smaller meals a day. Limit your portions so that you're not over eating, but this helps your body's metabolism. Example: 7:00am - Oatmeal, banana, milk, 1 egg. 10:00am - carrot sticks, apple, single serving of low fat yogurt. 12:00pm - rye bread sandwich with lean turkey meat, greens (spinach if possible), tomato, steamed veg. 3:00pm - cottage cheese, veg, and a handful of UNSALTED nuts. 7:00pm - chicken breast, salad with peppers, tomatoes, and unsalted seeds (use a splash of extra virgin olive oil as dressing), black beans, green beans, and any veg you can get.

- Don't eat too much meat, our bodies are not designed to handle a carnivore diet. Eat a LOT of veggies.

- Every meal needs to have veg, protein, and carbs. Nuts, eggs, and beans are great non-meat sources of protein.

- Don't be afraid of all fat, some of it is very good for you. Olive Oil has good fats, however if you cook with it, they get burned off. So find one that tastes good as is and use it very sparingly as a salad dressing

- Don't be afraid to experiment with kinds of fruits and veggies. Try them out as often they are very cheap to buy. If you find you aren't able to find a fruit you like, try finding ways to hide them in the meal.

- Get to like spinach, it will be your best friend. There is a reason Popeye eats it before he TKO's someone.

- Allow for cheat days. They're going to happen, it's not the end of the world if you go overboard one day.

- Record EVERYTHING you eat, and I mean EVERYTHING. There are countless online food journals on the web. Or you can just keep a hand written journal. Believe me, physically recording what you're eating and how much of it you're eating will give you irrefutable evidence to yourself on how healthy your diet actually is. Don't let yourself cheat yourself.

- Don't starve yourself. That destroys your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode and slows the process to an absolute crawl. If you're hungry and in need of a snack, grab some carrot sticks, a handful of pumpkin seeds, or some other healthy snack.

- Caffeine is fine in small amounts. If you drink coffee or tea, drink it black. It's a great 0 calorie way to get you up in the morning and can give you that extra umph for your workouts, but don't go overboard. Too much is bad for you.

 

Good luck and get that 6-pack.

 

EDIT: I didn't include calorie numbers etc because I am not a doctor and I do not know you. Best thing you can do is see your doctor as they will be able to tell you what and how much you should be consuming. Consulting your doctor should always be your first step when you are trying to make these kinds of changes.

Edited by Super Cow Man Guy
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Woah thanks for the diet tips. Overall, I will definitely try to eat more fruit as I quite like green apples, grapes, peaches & oranges but I just never eat any of this. Instead of eating 5 small healthy snack meals a day I'd rather just have breakfast then dinner and in-between some fruit/savouries. I'm going to try and work on my body maybe 3 hours a day 7 days a week hopefully this doesn't sound too aggressive for my body? This would include the cycling, running, the gym and home exercises. On the weekend I would have more time to workout instead of rest my body that's why I say 7 days a week.

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I'm going to try and work on my body maybe 3 hours a day 7 days a week hopefully this doesn't sound too aggressive for my body?

This would be quite a bit even for someone who's been training for a while. It's good that you want to be aggressive in this, but it's important not to burn out early on. It's really common for people to start to work out really hard for a month, then just drop it entirely.

 

I don't know how you're going to schedule your workouts, but I'd suggest spending about 45-60 min on weights each day that you lift, and doing whatever for cardio since you probably don't need to do it. I'd say around 30 minutes would be the max cardio for you, just make sure you do it after lifting. You also don't need to be lifting more than 4 days a week right now. Try doing a Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri split for lifting, and if you feel like it, you can do cardio whenever.

 

Just remember, you need to give most of your muscles at least a few days rest so they can rebuild. Early on, if you're doing it right, you will be hurting pretty bad to the point that you won't even want to train certain muscles, like anything in your legs, for a week.

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I lost 23kg in a year by changing my diet. I used to have a horrible diet because I used to be an undersized athlete in a full contact sport. Try being 1.75m tall and 64kg in a game where people average 2m tall and 91kg, you get absolutely rag dolled. I ate like crap so that A) I could have energy for my 3 daily work outs and B) become heavier so I didn't become someone's chew toy. By the time I retired from sports I was 84kg but kept the same eating habits but none of the physical activity. A year went by and I was 91kg. I started eating right and now I am maintaining a weight of 68kg.

 

Tips:

- EAT BREAKFAST!!!! Even if it's just a banana and a piece of toast, just eat something for breakfast, your body needs it.

- Try to have 5-6 smaller meals a day. Limit your portions so that you're not over eating, but this helps your body's metabolism. Example: 7:00am - Oatmeal, banana, milk, 1 egg. 10:00am - carrot sticks, apple, single serving of low fat yogurt. 12:00pm - rye bread sandwich with lean turkey meat, greens (spinach if possible), tomato, steamed veg. 3:00pm - cottage cheese, veg, and a handful of UNSALTED nuts. 7:00pm - chicken breast, salad with peppers, tomatoes, and unsalted seeds (use a splash of extra virgin olive oil as dressing), black beans, green beans, and any veg you can get.

- Don't eat too much meat, our bodies are not designed to handle a carnivore diet. Eat a LOT of veggies.

- Every meal needs to have veg, protein, and carbs. Nuts, eggs, and beans are great non-meat sources of protein.

- Don't be afraid of all fat, some of it is very good for you. Olive Oil has good fats, however if you cook with it, they get burned off. So find one that tastes good as is and use it very sparingly as a salad dressing

- Don't be afraid to experiment with kinds of fruits and veggies. Try them out as often they are very cheap to buy. If you find you aren't able to find a fruit you like, try finding ways to hide them in the meal.

- Get to like spinach, it will be your best friend. There is a reason Popeye eats it before he TKO's someone.

- Allow for cheat days. They're going to happen, it's not the end of the world if you go overboard one day.

- Record EVERYTHING you eat, and I mean EVERYTHING. There are countless online food journals on the web. Or you can just keep a hand written journal. Believe me, physically recording what you're eating and how much of it you're eating will give you irrefutable evidence to yourself on how healthy your diet actually is. Don't let yourself cheat yourself.

- Don't starve yourself. That destroys your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode and slows the process to an absolute crawl. If you're hungry and in need of a snack, grab some carrot sticks, a handful of pumpkin seeds, or some other healthy snack.

- Caffeine is fine in small amounts. If you drink coffee or tea, drink it black. It's a great 0 calorie way to get you up in the morning and can give you that extra umph for your workouts, but don't go overboard. Too much is bad for you.

 

Good luck and get that 6-pack.

 

EDIT: I didn't include calorie numbers etc because I am not a doctor and I do not know you. Best thing you can do is see your doctor as they will be able to tell you what and how much you should be consuming. Consulting your doctor should always be your first step when you are trying to make these kinds of changes.

 

Great tips, I shall use some of this knowledge myself. Some of these things I already knew, but hearing them reaffirmed somehow encourages me to abide to them, rather than let my personal health standards slip.

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Woah thanks for the diet tips. Overall, I will definitely try to eat more fruit as I quite like green apples, grapes, peaches & oranges but I just never eat any of this. Instead of eating 5 small healthy snack meals a day I'd rather just have breakfast then dinner and in-between some fruit/savouries.

 

If you're not going to do the small meals, try to at least eat lunch, your body needs the energy to get you through the rest of the day and it's better for your metabolism (your body will burn through your food quicker)

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