You can target muscle growth with exercise, but you can't target fat loss. Here are some ideas to help.
First, for all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it.
On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. A couple of common questions amount to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete.
Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.
There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.
The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.
Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.
To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.
For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.
Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.
There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.
If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.
Aloha
2006-10-23 10:54:49
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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Zack is indeed correct. There is no way whatsoever to spot reduce.
Those people suggesting sit-ups have no idea - i used to do endless situps, leg raises, ab crunch (with dumbells) and my abs were rock hard - problem was i still had fat on em. A friend of mine who is a personal trainer/fitness freak tells me that the sit up is one of the worst exercises for you, and can cause back strain and potentially damage to the organs in the abdomen (intestines especially) - all this without any weight loss whatsoever.
Cardio is the most effective way to weight loss, and what you eat is crucial. Additionally, remember that muscle burns more fat than calories, so weight training can kickstart you metabolism and get you burning more fat.
I'm not sure what to suggest with your specific problem, as the stomach is usually the last place to shed fat (typically cause fatty deposits are thickest around the stomach)
The only thing i'd suggest would be to find a midpoint between the two, ie. where your fat levels are such that your stomach is somewhat flat but you still have some fullness to your heinie.
Good Luck
2006-10-22 21:55:49
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answer #2
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answered by milosmann 1
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2016-09-01 01:15:52
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answer #3
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answered by liebermann 4
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This is a great question. These days butts are really in. Eating right is always going to help lose and tone and maybe you are a lucky one that your fat goes to your butt first he he. Anyway I have found sit ups to be one way and also body curl machine that you can usually find at gyms. Doing any exercise alot will take off some of your butt because it will effect your whole body but these 2 are great for keeping you booty. Also when you do your stretches do alot of side twists. They can really help you get the look you want with your waist going in. Stay away from squats and lunges as well. They may seem save but they do threaten to take a little butt. : )
2006-10-22 19:15:52
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answer #4
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answered by Kara C 1
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You will not starve. You will not instantly become thin. Fasting is consuming only liquids. When the body does not have to deal with digesting solid food and getting rid of the waste that solid food creates, it can concentrate on getting rid of toxins. The most common reason to fast is to eliminate disease or from the body.
How much weight will I lose?
The main benefit offered by a fast, to those who wish to lose weight, is the speed of the weight loss. To see a person drop 30-to-40 pounds in a 30-day juice fast is to see a person totally transform his life. Self-esteem is given a boost and for the first time in their life, discipline becomes a lifestyle. The fast becomes a catalyst for a total life overhaul. People start dressing better, showing more confidence, becoming more organized, more dedicated in relationships and more at peace.
Initially, weight loss can be as high as three-to-four pounds per day, but as the fast continues, the average loss will be one pound-per-day. If you are juice fasting and not losing weight, the juice is supplying all the calories you need. You may have to cut down on the juices or alternate between water fasting and juice fasting if losing weight is part of your goal. The slower your metabolism is the slower the weight loss.
Try to stay focused on the healthy things you are doing to improve your life rather than being consumed with the number of pounds lost each day. Water retention can vary your weight five pounds so watching the scale can be frustrating. The best motivation to fast is for physical and spiritual health. Be patient; the fasting process is slow. Be thankful the toxins are leaving your body. Do not have unrealistic expectations. Give your body the time it needs to do the work of cleansing.
Fasting And Metabolism
The fear is that while fasting, the metabolism will slow down and afterward there will be more weight gained than before the fast. Initially, any calorie reduction will cause a lowering in the BMR or base metabolic rate. Cleansing will bring health that will increase metabolic performance and energy output. In other words, you will eat less and feel more energetic.
After fasting, the body is more efficient. Digestion is better due to a cleaner colon. The colon walls have been cleansed of impacted feces, allowing improved absorption of nutrients. The good news is that greater efficiency equals enhanced energy. Healthy people burn more calories. They also eat less because they are more active and feel better about themselves. They don't need food as a security blanket.
The greatest impact you can have on increasing your resting metabolism is exercise. After a workout, you can be sitting on the couch reading while burning calories, as the muscles are grabbing glucose from the blood to replace glycogen supplies. The key to weight loss is fewer calories and more exercise. A diet high in raw food provides fewer, low-density calories, and higher-fiber, more-filling foods.
Oh, by the way, a slower metabolism diminishes aging. A tortoise can live to 400 hundred years of age.
2006-10-26 17:20:25
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answer #5
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answered by Sunflower 6
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First you have to watch out what you eat. Best eat less and enjoy your food. You need to find out how much calories you
need based on your activity. Best exercise is walking at least 1 hour a day in three segment 20 minutes or two times 30
minutes each. Do warm up first. Get an exercise ball based on your height and follow the chart. It works. You need to design
your exercise plan based on your time. The real deal is to be consistence make it a life style choice not a boring routine. Do
the gradual way not the unqualified Gym trainers ways who are after your pocket. Do consult your Dr. first .
2006-10-22 19:23:17
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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THERE is no way to do so. the human body does not burn fat in any particular place. so like most people are suggesting doing crunchs. this wont work. just because the abs are being worked it doesnt mean fat is being burned and even if you did do enough to get to a heart rate high enough to burn calories ( which would be doing around 500 crunchs most likely more) that doesnt mean the fat that your body used to provide energy would come from your stomach. Sorry wish it were possible
2006-10-22 19:50:33
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answer #7
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answered by zack 3
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Do the Core Secrets work out with Gunnar Peterson. He has the best work outs for womens bodies. It works fast and keeps your *** hot. Not that I give a crap about what celebrities do but J-Lo does use this guys system. She also does Krav Maga. It is an Israeli Fighting techcnique and it does wonders for your body as well.
2006-10-22 19:46:50
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answer #8
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answered by Candice A 1
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If you have stubborn belly fat, the only way you can reduce your fat is by doing aerobic exercises. During activities like swimming, rowing and walking, enough oxygen is supplied to the body to burn fat. More information available at http://www.toloseweight.org/losestomachfat.html
2006-10-24 14:52:51
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answer #9
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answered by Seema R 3
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Sit ups will tone and sculpt your abs, but no-one will know if the muscled is covered by a layer of fatty tissues.
The only way to loose that weight there is to diet and eat the right things and exercise.
2006-10-22 19:06:08
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answer #10
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answered by BlondeBarbie 4
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