Middle aged spread

[frillyflower]

Help please! I am not huge (about 10.5 stone and 5'4") but in the last couple of years (I am 53) I have 'grown' a horrible fat midriff and stomach. Trying to diet (low carb) but the horrible stomach remains.

Has anyone defeated this or do I just have to just embrace my inner weeble? I look like an easter egg.

Me too :(

Want it to stop-know I need to sort it! Will start when kids back at school!

I feel your pain, i really do.

I am 5.4 and 9.10 stone, i was always about 8.7 stone then i hit late 30's and middle age spread hit me.

I have recently started going to the gym and do lots of core/abs exercises but it's the hardest thing to tone up, has improved a lot though but i feel a bit sad that i can still grab a handful of fat there.

God i love carbs, i don't wanna do without carbs, but i may have to if this doesn't shift!

I am getting a bit scared that even cutting out the carbs wont work.

Today I actually looked quite slim (I thought) until I tried on a dress in Jigsaw and (size 14) it wouldn't go over what now passes as my waist and the huge flobbering mass of Jabba-stomach was all revealed in the horrible lighting.

Ebaymad - how often do you go to the gym?

it does go if you lose enough weight, but you might end up knackering your face in the process.

Faustina - you mean wrinkles and neck like Deirdre off Corrie?

Ooh same problem here. Am 48, 5 foot 7 and around 12 stone. Have piled it on recently and it's all gut and belly. Horrible

I go 2/3 times a week and usually fit in 2 classes each session, then do 25 mins on the cross trainer and some pelvic floor exercises (thanks kids!)

I do feel i am getting there slowly but surely.

No no no! I refuse to believe we have to put up with this. I'll have to start making my own clothes at this rate.

Ebay - 2 classes, cross trainer and pelvic floor - that seems a long time. I only have an hour to spare (lunch time). Can I beat the 'Stomach With a Mind of its Own' in an hour twice a week?

Poor Deirdre, i blame Ken and that belt she wears!

CACI is supposed to be great for lifting the face, my mum has it done and she looks so much better, it just costs quite a bit, but i might...

frilly apparently you have to keep doing a Pilates type mini crunch whenever you remember during the day. Stand up straighT, curl pelvis under and pull in gut.hold and release. Repeat a million times

I knew someone who tied a bit of string around their waist so they would have to hold it in all day...dunno if that works though

Yea sounds more than i'm sure i do...

I can't be on MN and not suggest "THE SHRED"
Or lipo

Dementedma - I work full time and commute hours each day. The mini crunch thing might look a bit odd. Can I do it like no-one else would know?

Ebay - I bought the Shred but I have never done it. Partly because there is no opportunity to do it without an audience of family who would find it v. amusing.

I think I will have to sign up for the gym a couple of days a week. I can't be doing with the string.

I like an audience, they're bored of me now though.

Good luck

You brave to have an audience. I couldn't stand the chortling!

ok Frillyflower, I've googled Dierdre off Corrie, and basically yes. Also Ulrika whatshername. you can make it a bit better with filler though. it's the bum/face thing - you know?

frilly you can fit these minicrunches in around work and commuting. i do. Its a very small tensing of the muscles not a full blown sit up (standing up) if you know what I mean. Do it at the water cooler, when you at home ironing - any time.
wish I followed my own advice - have just bought some big control knickers for our "do" next weekend and should have gone for the miracle worker ones!

Watch what you eat , especially portion sizes.
I am 52 and do pilates once a week and gym 3 times. I lost 10 lbs in 8 months, not through dieting but eating well and exercising. However, I have put 6 lbs on in the last 3 months as I've been eating more
i am 6 feet tall and 11 stone 6.

I'm trying hard at the moment, find keeping a food diary helps.

All the crunches and tummy exercises in the world won't shift a belly- it's fat that needs to shift!

Exercise will tone up your abs if it's soft but it won't shift fat. Only way is to eat less and exercise more- either bulding muscle with resistance exercises/weights, and/or cardio vascular.

Middle aged spread is not inevitable, but you need fewer calories and more exercise to maintain your youthful size- complete re-think of diet in some cases:)

I have developed that thick waist thing & I didn't have my children in the conventional way (adoption.) I am also skinny so it is definitely an age thing. The only thing that works is obvious - starvation - my ex recently left & I have not felt like eating. My stomach has gone flat & someone recently said I had got my 'hourglass' shape back. However I have also been told I look tired so it is definitely face versus body.

No no no ladies. I am not sacrificing the face. I am going to do the gym twice a week and eat micro portions.
I actually can't bear the weebliness. I believe I can shift it and not look 120.

Am probably deluded though

Unless you have put on loads of weight which has given you a fat face,then the first place you will lose it is the tum. IME the face only goes after all the body fat has gone- so stop before it does. simple.

Someone told me that women of 'our age' need to do 250 sit-ups per day to keep a flat tum. Haven't tested it out though.