Long story short. I used to be around 250 lbs. Over the past few years I've dropped to about 185. But for some reason I still have a gut. Also, I'm 5'10 so I'm not really short where 185 would still be really heavy. Whats the deal?
Lost a lot of weight but still got a gut
- Thread starter amiok
- Start date
Keep cutting, you are still overweight. Once you get lower in body fat, it becomes more and more of a pain to get rid of. I'd recommend getting a calorie calculator, and actually logging every single thing that you eat, and you'll probably see that you are eating a surplus of what is required to lose weight 
Might try a ketogenic diet, Lyle McDonald has one that details one with guidelines for extremely low calories as well, with recommandations on specific foods / supplements so you don't die while you are on it. The book is a little tricky to find, a less scrupulous person may find an alternate way to read it.
Other than that, calories in, calories out, can't argue with math
Might try a ketogenic diet, Lyle McDonald has one that details one with guidelines for extremely low calories as well, with recommandations on specific foods / supplements so you don't die while you are on it. The book is a little tricky to find, a less scrupulous person may find an alternate way to read it.
Other than that, calories in, calories out, can't argue with math
i'd say you probably need to start exercising more. whats your gym routine like?
Start eating breakfast, eat 5 times a day 400 calories each. keep your protein high and your carbs moderate. do some ab routines. 8 minute abs is great for beginners. i used it for 6 months and slimmed down immensly. your ideal weight would probably be something like 170 or so. a little bit of change in your eating habits - not even how much you eat, just when you eat - and some weighted ab work and you could have a 6 pack in 6 months.
Start eating breakfast, eat 5 times a day 400 calories each. keep your protein high and your carbs moderate. do some ab routines. 8 minute abs is great for beginners. i used it for 6 months and slimmed down immensly. your ideal weight would probably be something like 170 or so. a little bit of change in your eating habits - not even how much you eat, just when you eat - and some weighted ab work and you could have a 6 pack in 6 months.
cool dude thats perfect.
whats your routine like? you should be trying to stick to high reps 10-12, with about 75% of your max. 4 sets maybe per exercise. shoot for 90 seconds between sets and try to get a burn in your muscles rather than a pump. when you are doing your weights, be mindful of your breathing and heart rate both during and between sets. if your looking for weight loss, you want your heart rate to stay up for the whole hour or so that you're lifting, it will burn more calories than a 20 minute jog. this will greatly speed your progress. time in the gym doesn't matter if you aren't making the most of it.
another suggestion would be to cut out the empty calories in your diet. soda, chips, candy, sugar in general... avoid carbs when they are on their own - if you are going to have pasta, have a chicken breast with it and don't have as much pasta. stop drinking beer, change to cocktails like rum with diet soda or whisky and water.
a few small changes will add up to the small difference you need.
are you taking any supplements?
whats your routine like? you should be trying to stick to high reps 10-12, with about 75% of your max. 4 sets maybe per exercise. shoot for 90 seconds between sets and try to get a burn in your muscles rather than a pump. when you are doing your weights, be mindful of your breathing and heart rate both during and between sets. if your looking for weight loss, you want your heart rate to stay up for the whole hour or so that you're lifting, it will burn more calories than a 20 minute jog. this will greatly speed your progress. time in the gym doesn't matter if you aren't making the most of it.
another suggestion would be to cut out the empty calories in your diet. soda, chips, candy, sugar in general... avoid carbs when they are on their own - if you are going to have pasta, have a chicken breast with it and don't have as much pasta. stop drinking beer, change to cocktails like rum with diet soda or whisky and water.
a few small changes will add up to the small difference you need.
are you taking any supplements?
kingpole
Retired Moderator, PEGym Hero
It could be loose skin, had that problem a fitness instructor told me to add lemon juice to water. It worked after about 3 months of drinking water with lemon juice. You also may want to invest some time in ab work like planks and bridges.
Get on your hands and knees on a floor mat. with two dumbbells in each hand start crawling. Any direction will do.
this is called dumbell crawling.
Get on your hands and knees on a floor mat. with two dumbbells in each hand start crawling. Any direction will do.
this is called dumbell crawling.
Possibly. I did lose like 70 punds. But then, what could I do about loose skin?
To Rockstar:
Good ideas. But what if I'm lifting with 2 other guys, as I am now, I can't really keep the rest down to 90 seconds. What do you think I should do to keep my heart rate then? I just started taking some vitamins.
try circuits. do one set of benches, then one set of curls, then one set of pushups, then one set of triceps, then one set of abs. and repeat like 4 or 5 times, adjust to your particular workout. this way, while you're waiting for them to do their benches, you're working something else too. rotate through a few different exercises and you wont have to wait on them so much.
you could try jogging a bit between sets, but thats not my favorite.
the most important thing you should consider is to spend about 10 minutes stretching before you get started and be sure to warm up well before you start. one set of 20 reps with like 40% of your max is essential to get blood flowing to your muscles and get your heart pumping.
you could try jogging a bit between sets, but thats not my favorite.
the most important thing you should consider is to spend about 10 minutes stretching before you get started and be sure to warm up well before you start. one set of 20 reps with like 40% of your max is essential to get blood flowing to your muscles and get your heart pumping.
I've been talking to a few trainers and ultimately, unless you have the genes for it, losing that last bit of belly fat comes down to diet. Rockstar's workout will help you lose most of it but it sounds like you're probably built a bit hefty naturally. Becoming a vegetarian for a few months is almost a sure fire way to lose the fat. Most people don't have the will to do that, so another easy way is to cut out all fast food and cut down on red meat, juices, desserts and any slow digesting foods like cottage cheese or yogurt (not really sure this is slow digesting).
Did you lose that weight through exercise and changing eating habits, or did you decrease it by doing a lot of dieting/cardio?
The culprit in the "gut" distention is often omentum fat. You may want to google that "omentum".
Anyhow, a poor diet and and lack of good core exercise can often lead to this abdominal distention. With dietary and lifestyle changes subcutaneous fat tends to disappear quickest but the omentum, which is a sack like despository for fat and other metabolic wastes in the lower abdomen tends to be much slower at disposing or metabolizing it's contents.
You may notice some fat people have a rock solid and huge gut like an oak whiskey barrel, while some people store their abdominal fat on the oustide of the abdominal cavity making them soft and sloppy.
Overeating can cause the "stretched out slinky" effect to you gut as well. If you have weak core musculature and chronically eat till you are full, you can stretch out your gut to beyond it's normal dimensions, whether empty or full.
...or you may have a bad case of intestinal nematodes....does your bum itch? LOL
Anyhow, a poor diet and and lack of good core exercise can often lead to this abdominal distention. With dietary and lifestyle changes subcutaneous fat tends to disappear quickest but the omentum, which is a sack like despository for fat and other metabolic wastes in the lower abdomen tends to be much slower at disposing or metabolizing it's contents.
You may notice some fat people have a rock solid and huge gut like an oak whiskey barrel, while some people store their abdominal fat on the oustide of the abdominal cavity making them soft and sloppy.
Overeating can cause the "stretched out slinky" effect to you gut as well. If you have weak core musculature and chronically eat till you are full, you can stretch out your gut to beyond it's normal dimensions, whether empty or full.
...or you may have a bad case of intestinal nematodes....does your bum itch? LOL
Great results already. Congrats.!! You really can't spot reduce a particular area. And fat cells shrink but do not usually disappear entirely. If you have a tendency to store fat around the guy, its usually the last place you will lose it, and you will only lose it if you get your body fat percentages down pretty low; at 5' 10", you might have to get down to 170 before you start getting the classic six pack, if not 165--and since you were so big at one time, you might still have a bit of loose skin. I'm 6' 175#, fairly lean, and if I put on 10 pounds, I would see most of it in my face and my gut, right along the love handle area. I lose my love handles completely at about 165# which was my old walk around in season HS wrestling weight before I cut down to 158 right before a match. It always becomes a trade off. The diet I have to maintain to stay at 165 is pretty extreme, while at 175, i still look damn good and it is much less effort, basically just requires working out.
if you still have a lot of excess fat at 170, then you might want to consider a minor lipo procedure. This is the classic indication for it, but at 185, your really not in a position to see whether you can trim down a bit with that last 15 pounds. That last 15 pounds is really the money weight if you are someone who stores the fat first in the belly, because a lot of your late weight loss will affect the early gain spots.
Core work does help in tightening the underlying muscles, but it won't spot shrink the actual fat cells. It might raise your metabolism a few clicks so that you've increased the calories eaten/calories burned equation in your favor. The cardio helps also but mix in some sprint and interval work because steady state work just tends to build efficiency, iow, you will start to burn less calories per minute worked. Intervals force your body to adapt to high intensity work loads.
Good luck with amazing progress so far.
if you still have a lot of excess fat at 170, then you might want to consider a minor lipo procedure. This is the classic indication for it, but at 185, your really not in a position to see whether you can trim down a bit with that last 15 pounds. That last 15 pounds is really the money weight if you are someone who stores the fat first in the belly, because a lot of your late weight loss will affect the early gain spots.
Core work does help in tightening the underlying muscles, but it won't spot shrink the actual fat cells. It might raise your metabolism a few clicks so that you've increased the calories eaten/calories burned equation in your favor. The cardio helps also but mix in some sprint and interval work because steady state work just tends to build efficiency, iow, you will start to burn less calories per minute worked. Intervals force your body to adapt to high intensity work loads.
Good luck with amazing progress so far.
Thanks. But wow it's gonna be tough to drop another 20 pounds. Especially because I hate cardio haha.
you don't need cardio. you just need to burn energy. high intensity burns more energy quicker. you just need to do it a bit more often for a bit longer and eat a bit better. you're close though dude.
Well, I'm down to like 165 lbs. Still have a bit of a gut though!!!!!! Though if I flex I can feel my abs when I touch where they are haha. Dream goal is to get rid of this gut and fat pad, then put some more muscle mass on and get back to about 180.
that a solid goal man. congrats on the success! i'm trying to lose the last 1/4 to half inch covering my abs right now.. i've been doing loads of ab work focus on the burn rather than building them anymore. i also started running a bit more often. that belly fat sure is a bitch.
