To ask how it's possible to lose half a stone and none of it off the fat bits?

[InViennaWeWerePoetry]

I've managed to lose half a stone in a month. Which I'm quite pleased with, don't get me wrong, and I don't particularly want to lose any more numbers wise. But hear me out please. I'm in my late 20s and still have the body fat distribution of a prepubescent teenager, I've been stuck in the just about to have a growth spurt/finish developing feminine 'curves' stage since I was 18. I'm fairly slim but then have a disproportionately podgy belly, again think just about to have a growth spurt- which I'm definitely not! I've never been pregnant, I've always eaten healthily and exercised regularly. So I've now lost half a stone, but weirdly none of it has come off my belly, which is definitely where I carry the most fat. What am I doing wrong, or do I just have to accept this is the way I am?

I've been led to understand that the belly is the absolute last place the fat comes off. Don't know if this is scientifically true but it certainly is for me - I know this because it's mostly still there! but I've lost a shoe size ffs and two bra sizes. Explain that!

I never realised how much weight I carried till I started losing it. Watched half a stone drop off with no noticeable difference. I think it's easy to over estimate how much a stone looks like tbh. I'm 9st now and have a pot belly and an arse like a couch. I reckon I have a choice, go under 8stone again or do some serious exercise and toning.

I am losing the weight after dc3 and I am down to the last 4 or 5 lbs (aka the bastard clingers) and my gut still looks like it did straight after birth.

I've lost 2 stone.

So, YABU to ask how to get rid of tum flab. I think you have to believe in magic! Or sell your soul or something?!

But congrats on the weight loss. Christ, it's a bore isn't it? Hot weather helps, kills appetite for me anyway.

I always lose it from my belly first. It's my damn thighs and arse that go nowhere!

I probably lost about that amount last time I trimmed my toenails, shaved my legs and plucked my eyebrows.

I once weighed 9 stone (a long time ago ). At 5'6", that gave me a BMI of about 21 and yet I still didn't feel comfortable wearing a bikini - almost all of my fat was concentrated around my middle, lots of flab, not just sticking out a tiny bit.

I don't think you're necessarily doing anything wrong; unless we follow a strict diet and exercise plan specifically tailored to our particular body type (think Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow), I believe we just have to accept that fat is concentrated around around specific parts of our body and all we can do is exercise regularly, eat healthily and just accept our bodies as they are. I don't do any of these three things, though. I exercise sometimes, eat too much cake and chocolate and cry when I look in a mirror.

Hi op, you are young and I have had 4 kids, 2 grown up.

I am 5'2 and weigh 8 stone.

You need a bike. It's fantastic. Great for the belly/arms/ thighs and bum.

Also you can nose into other people's lounges as curtains open!!!

I was the same (5'6, 9 stoneish) and also self-conscious in a bikini! I carry my weight on my belly too. Always have and my mum is exactly the same.

Weight is all about diet, but looking good without clothes is about weight-bearing exercise. I looked the best I ever have in my early 30s when a PT had me doing some hardcore weights. I wasn't the thinnest then either.

I think it's an individual thing that follows sod's law. I'm rather generously endowed which means boobs are the last place i lose weight. My friend is the opposite and loses boobage first when she'd really prefer if it stayed.

I'm down to just over 7 1/2 stone, I haven't got an awful lot more I can lose. I'm starting to think I'm just constantly hugely bloated I've lost a cup size and gone down a jeans size which I didn't need to as such, but nothing off my belly which I definitely do.

My tum is the first place it comes off, what I want to know is when will it come off my boobs?

InVienna are you low carbing? It comes straight off your tum if you low carb. Also, giving up wheat works wonders.

diet irrelevant, you can't spot reduce and it is babble to think otherwise.

stomach exercises needed.

Sit ups/crunches . 200 a day every day, in conjunction with other exercise. That's the only way to tone your tummy, not losing weight. Because you will lose it from your cleavage and other such places first, whilst the grim bits hang on to the bitter end! Toning your tummy will make a huge difference, even if you don't actually lose weight from it.

This might be a load of rubbish but I've always been told by those annoyingly fit gym instructors that you cannot target fat burning. So it will come off at the same rate all over and as you deposit most of your fat on your tummy (like me) it will always be the last place to show the fat.

What you can do is burn the fat and then build muscle and tone. Flat tummy but muscle in other areas will mean you won't lose as much weight as you fear.

7lbs in 4 weeks is likely to be a chunk of water weight plus a bit of actual fat. Keep it up, it'll go.

Do some weights. Some women run shrieking from weights. Don't be one of them, weights will be your friend.

Oh I see you don't want to lose more weight.

Still do some weights.

thebody .. Some of us are short arses. 7.5 stone gives me a bmi smack bang in the normal range.

We are not all Amazonian (I wish!)

I'm low carbing already, been doing that for a while but hasn't really made a difference. Don't think it's lack of exercise/stomach muscle, I had the same issue when I was doing 25 hours dance training a week. I still exercise regularly although could up the reps of crunches/sit ups etc I'm doing. I already use weights regularly. Is it possible it's bloating and allergy related?

Thebody I can assure you this is real, I'm just very short. For my height, 7.5 stone gives me a perfectly healthy BMI. If I wanted to, I could lose a few more pounds and I would still have a healthy BMI.

thebody I'm 5ft 8 and used to weigh less than 7 and a half stone. I wasn't dieting or exercising, I just had a high metabolism and a naturally small frame.
OP if you're very thin everywhere else but have a bloated stomach it could be something like fibroids. Maybe check it out with your doctor and if there's nothing wrong then I would exercise rather than diet.

Most of the half stone could have been water loss so nothing much to notice.

eurozammo - ''Weight is all about diet, but looking good without clothes is about weight-bearing exercise. I looked the best I ever have in my early 30s when a PT had me doing some hardcore weights.''

StuntGirl - ''Do some weights. Some women run shrieking from weights. Don't be one of them, weights will be your friend.''

Totally agree with these two comments. I had the same problem as you - my tummy - and it was weights that made a difference.

Have a read of this article, it's got some real life before and after photos, not the usual fake model ones, about half way down:-

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2273364/Pump-iron-drop-dress-size-Weightlifting-key-slimmer-figure-say-fitness-experts.html

Seconding the weights suggestions. Can I suggest pilates as well? Or yoga? Crunches etc work the superficial layers of ab muscles, whereas planks, side planks and Russian twists with a medicine ball (for example) all work the deeper core muscles that the six-pack "hang from". You will notice a huge difference in how your body feels (and how your core looks) with strong obliques and deep abdominals.

Plus, if you are worried it might be an intolerance to something, try an exclusion diet for a fortnight, and gradually bring back things that you suspect, eg bread, milk, alcohol and see how you feel. Keep a note of it in a diary -it's a faff, but still the simplest way to find out if something is caused indigestion/a swollen gut.