Losing fat around the tummy

[emilie007]

Rather than doing this by ref to losing weight, can I ask people how they would lose 10cm across the tummy? Like, you put on an old jacket which used to do up no problem and you now have 10cm between the fastenings? You are otherwise fit and healthy.

Would you keep to the diet you are on but reduce portions or go low carb or spend a few days just eating fruit and veg for tummy loss?

I've done this as part of overall weight loss. Middle age spread crept in so that the measurement just under my bust was pretty much the same as my bust - 34 inches. It's now 29 inches and I'm amazed at the difference overall.
I've lost 3 stone altogether with a combination of calorie counting, one fast day a week of 800 cals and making sure that what I ate was good for me.
The biggest change was not eating pure sugar - so no biscuits, cakes, shop bought sauces and cut out while bread, rice and pasta and replaced with wholemeal and less of it too.

It is impossible to lose weight on just one part of the body. Some people try doing exercise focused on the stomach for months and achieve nothing.

The only solution is an overall good diet with balance of food groups (including adequate protein), minimal processed/refined food coupled with an exercise programme that targets the entire body. I personally find strength training achieves the best results for me but with cardio built into the routine. You will tone up everywhere and it will take a lot of commitment to lose the inches from your stomach but the results are worth it

Calorie deficit. Eat less, lose fat. You can tone up, sure, but you can't tone fat. Diet is the only way.

I would do FAST800.

You can't spot reduce weight loss. You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat and it will go from wherever your body wants to lose it from. Eventually you'll lose 10cm from your waist but for me, I had to lose nearly 2 stone to lose that many cm from my waist.

I would do 16:8 and cut out sugar.

A couple of days of just fruit and veg would bloat me up like a balloon!

I've found low carbing is the only way to do this. Makes a massive difference to me. I think alot of it must be wheat bloat.

Weight training but only if you’re at the lowest end of a normal BMI. If your BMI is over 22/23 you need to consider that your natural bmi might be lower - so even a tiny bit of weight loss could dramatically transform your shape. I know a lady who was 22 BMI but had a 32 inch stomach while the rest of her was an 8 at best - just by going down to a 20 bmi she went down 4 dress sizes on her belly! She’s now lifting weights to gain more muscle.

I'd love to know, too! My arms and legs are slender, but all my weight goes to my tummy My BMI is "ideal" but somehow I manage to look like a pregnant chicken 🙈

Fasting and reducing / cutting carbs

I’ve done it and it works

Very very difficult to target only one area (especially past 40) and obvs can't have treatments like Venus legacy or fat freezing at the mo, so really just had to be a combination of healthy diet (calorie restriction only if you're happy to lose weight elsewhere as well as tummy): ie nothing processed, lots of veg, fruit (but less than veg), good mix of carbs and lean protein; lots of water; core exercise every day (all round exercise too if you have time); massage with scrubs every day - ones containing coffee and grapefruit are meant to be good.
Good luck. I'm slim but getting rid of the tummy (and bingo wings) seems bloody impossible!

@WelliesWithHeels A pregnant chicken, that's totally me too! I get jealous of these well proportioned plus sized women sometimes, if I put on weight in it's goes round my middle, not the lovely curvy look I want!!

I've lost 43cm and that took losing the weight of a healthy woman....

Like others say you can’t spot reduce fat.

I’ve had to accept that despite being a size 8 (and I do shit loads of exercise and eat well) I will always carry weight on my stomach. If I lost enough weight to lose it here (and I did that last year before a holiday!) I do become too thin.

I could probably cut out wine and that may help. But I don’t want to lose weight anywhere else.

I have also done prolon which definitely helped with fat reduction and shrunk my waist. However I need to learn how to keep it off...

This is me! Middle age spread a currently struggling to find any motivation to exercise.
Following with interest.

I'd recommend an enema if you've the money. Then some extra abs exercises thrown on top of your usual exercise. Try to avoid saturated fat too.

I'm the same. Buying jeans and trousers is a nightmare as they are always way too tight on the waist and baggy on bum/thighs or the other other way around. But then leggings make me look like the pregnant chicken too!

Low carb

My BMI is 22 and generally slim but proportionally my stomach is bigger than the rest of me.
I did loose 2 stone which helped a lot and I look ok in clothes but ideally I'd like it gone. Just can't face having to loose more weight.
When I was younger I was more of a pear shape but as I've got older I've turned into more of an apple.

Is it "fat" or is it bloating?

I'll admit to having a good layer of fat there but my main problem is bloating. I know I have a mild gluten intolerance, going gf makes the biggest difference then alcohol free helps lots too.

If I put on weight, most of it goes on my tummy, so if I lose weight, that’s where it shows.

As PPs have said, the only thing that has ever worked for me is cutting out excess sugar. In my case, I still ate fruit, veg and unrefined carbs, but I didn’t have biscuits, cakes, white bread, sweets, alcohol etc.

I didn’t enjoy it, but it worked. I need to find the willpower to do it again.

As some others have said, you cannot spot reduce. That just isn't how the body works. Losing/gaining weight is just calories in vs. calories out. Worry less about what to eat (i.e. all the suggestions about cutting carbs, more veg, fasting, yadda yadda), at this point and just focus on reducing overall calorie intake and - this is key - remaining CONSISTENT. It needs to be maintainable for you, fad diets are destined to fail, just eat less of whatever you usually eat. You can look at tweaking your macros down the road. Most people fail to succeed in their goals because they don't keep it up, usually because they go too far and restrict themselves too much and ultimately give up.

One thing I would suggest is to look into training your transverse abs with vacuum exercises - after losing pregnancy weight I noticed my stomach still wasnt tucking under like it used to, but doing these has helped to pull it back in to my old shape. Good luck!

Tummy weight is notorious to be from sugar so reducing carb intake, alcohol and refined sugar will help. Exercise will also help loose weight over all, particular hiit, weight training and running x

Running, fasting and low carb keeps me fit and I don't have a tummy bulge. But if I go over 20 BMI I start to get one, so I try and keep to 19.