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How do you get rid of a "BIG GUT!"

7/18/2003 10:02 PM
John Fisher	How do you get rid of a "BIG GUT!" Dear gentlemen and ladies if you are here too, I need some techical advice. I am 47 years old and in pretty good health. My only complaint (if you will call it that) is that no matter even if I lose wieght I will still have a bit of a gut. My arms will get skinnier and my legs too but my gut is the last thing to give in. Exluding the diet factor which I am aware of,and excercising which I also do, what is the single most effective exercise that I can do to get rid of my gut? I am sure all you technicrats out there will have some simple suggestions. Thanks! John Fisher

7/18/2003 10:02 PM

John Fisher

How do you get rid of a "BIG GUT!"

Dear gentlemen and ladies if you are here too,
I need some techical advice.
I am 47 years old and in pretty good health. My only complaint (if you will call it that) is that no matter even if I lose wieght I will still have a bit of a gut. My arms will get skinnier and my legs too but my gut is the last thing to give in.
Exluding the diet factor which I am aware of,and excercising which I also do, what is the single most effective exercise that I can do to get rid of my gut?
I am sure all you technicrats out there will have some simple suggestions.
Thanks!
John Fisher

7/18/2003 10:33 PM
ChrisM	Re: How do you get rid of a "BIG GUT!" It's absolutely impossible to "spot reduce" body fat. You're body takes off fat wherever it feels like it, not according to what exercises you do. You can increase the muscles in a certain area. A heavy ab workout will tighten your tummy and make it look slimmer, but it won't actually get rid of the fat. In fact, if you work out your abs a lot, it may actually make your stoumach look bigger because the muscles beneath the fat are larger. Sit-ups are good, I do mine on one of those benches that immobilize your feet and can be angled down. Try working up to 4 sets of 15-20 with a short rest in between on a flat bench, and then start lowering the bench and trying to work back up to 4 sets of 15-20. I've got the bench all the way down and am starting to add weights to my sets. Another good workout is to simply turn around, hang your legs off the bench, and do leg raises. Use your arms to hold on to something, keep your back tight to the bench, and raises your legs slowly from a straight out position to a straight up position, and then try to lift your ass off the bench and push it upwards also, contracting your abs very tightly. Don't let your legs flop over towards your head, just hold them straight up. I usually do 4 sets of twelve at the sharpest incline possible. I usually do my abs only twice a week. I do sit-ups on a monday or tuesday, and the leg raises on a thursday. If you work out any muscle too often, you won't give it time to rest and rebuild. Even with that, running a few miles a week, lifting weights for six hours week, and being 25, I still have a gut. Some people just won't ever get washboard abs and have to live with that. Those genetic freaks you see on the cover of men's health just don't store fat the way we do. But when the next ice age comes and the hunting gets bad, we'll be laughing at their cold, starving, perfectly bronzed bodies.

7/18/2003 10:33 PM

ChrisM

Re: How do you get rid of a "BIG GUT!"

It's absolutely impossible to "spot reduce" body fat. You're body takes off fat wherever it feels like it, not according to what exercises you do. You can increase the muscles in a certain area. A heavy ab workout will tighten your tummy and make it look slimmer, but it won't actually get rid of the fat. In fact, if you work out your abs a lot, it may actually make your stoumach look bigger because the muscles beneath the fat are larger.

Sit-ups are good, I do mine on one of those benches that immobilize your feet and can be angled down. Try working up to 4 sets of 15-20 with a short rest in between on a flat bench, and then start lowering the bench and trying to work back up to 4 sets of 15-20. I've got the bench all the way down and am starting to add weights to my sets. Another good workout is to simply turn around, hang your legs off the bench, and do leg raises. Use your arms to hold on to something, keep your back tight to the bench, and raises your legs slowly from a straight out position to a straight up position, and then try to lift your ass off the bench and push it upwards also, contracting your abs very tightly. Don't let your legs flop over towards your head, just hold them straight up. I usually do 4 sets of twelve at the sharpest incline possible. I usually do my abs only twice a week. I do sit-ups on a monday or tuesday, and the leg raises on a thursday. If you work out any muscle too often, you won't give it time to rest and rebuild.

Even with that, running a few miles a week, lifting weights for six hours week, and being 25, I still have a gut. Some people just won't ever get washboard abs and have to live with that. Those genetic freaks you see on the cover of men's health just don't store fat the way we do. But when the next ice age comes and the hunting gets bad, we'll be laughing at their cold, starving, perfectly bronzed bodies. ;-)

7/18/2003 11:03 PM
anon	By excercise and restricting your diet. Best excercise is aerobic activities. Also, to burn fat, your body requires a bit of sugar in the bloodstream. So before you excercise hard, drink a bottle of gatorade or other sport drink. It'll help burn the fat.

7/18/2003 11:20 PM
steveR	Situps! Or known by the more cervically/spinally correct term - crunches. The old military style situps with your hands behind your neck are not recommended anymore. Instead cross your hands across your chest and just lift your torso of the ground about 6 inches making sure that you are pulling with your abs, not simply curling your neck and upper body. You can also try lying on your side and doing the same thing. The side crunches are particularly effective at getting the "love handles". You can also do leg lifts. (Especially if you have a bad back or neck.) Lie down on your back with your legs together. Lift them up about 30 to 45 degrees, spread them out wide, bring them back together and bring them back down. We were "encouraged" not to set our legs down and rest but hold them an inch or two above the ground. You can also hold your legs up about 6 inches to a foot above the ground and scissor them back and forth. Try to resist the urge to hold your legs up with your hands. We always just stuck them under our buns. Also try to avoid lifting your head up. It's amazing how much you will learn to relax all the other muscles that aren't necessary. When I was still doing TaeKwonDo our workouts consisted of about ten minutes general warm up (stretching, jogging, kicking) and then about a half an hour of abdominal exercises. Ultimately that's what all of our exercises were about - learning to focus your efforts on exactly what was necessary (the target of a kick or punch) and basically having everything else relaxed and loose. But since, in the philosophy and perhaps physiology of the art, all motions originate from the center of gravity or dan-tien, the abs are almost always "energized with chi" which basically means taught but not tense. Good luck!

7/18/2003 11:20 PM

steveR

Situps! Or known by the more cervically/spinally correct term - crunches.

The old military style situps with your hands behind your neck are not recommended anymore. Instead cross your hands across your chest and just lift your torso of the ground about 6 inches making sure that you are pulling with your abs, not simply curling your neck and upper body. You can also try lying on your side and doing the same thing. The side crunches are particularly effective at getting the "love handles".

You can also do leg lifts. (Especially if you have a bad back or neck.) Lie down on your back with your legs together. Lift them up about 30 to 45 degrees, spread them out wide, bring them back together and bring them back down. We were "encouraged" not to set our legs down and rest but hold them an inch or two above the ground. You can also hold your legs up about 6 inches to a foot above the ground and scissor them back and forth. Try to resist the urge to hold your legs up with your hands. We always just stuck them under our buns. Also try to avoid lifting your head up. It's amazing how much you will learn to relax all the other muscles that aren't necessary.

When I was still doing TaeKwonDo our workouts consisted of about ten minutes general warm up (stretching, jogging, kicking) and then about a half an hour of abdominal exercises. Ultimately that's what all of our exercises were about - learning to focus your efforts on exactly what was necessary (the target of a kick or punch) and basically having everything else relaxed and loose. But since, in the philosophy and perhaps physiology of the art, all motions originate from the center of gravity or dan-tien, the abs are almost always "energized with chi" which basically means taught but not tense.

Good luck!

7/18/2003 11:38 PM
Frank DeSalvo	Situps will not reduce the size or appearance of a gut. The muscle will develop beneath the fat and push it further out, creating a more bloated appearance. Your arms and legs are reducing in size because your body is canabalizing it's own muscle tissue to meet the increased demand for nutrients and protein. As a result of the decreased muscle mass, your basal metabolic rate will in turn decrease thus reducing the number of calories and fat burned during rest and during cardio work. You need to taper your carbs and fat intake off during the course of the day where your last meal is the sparsest in calories, fat and carbs. All of this in addition to resistance training and a cardio routine will get you where you want to go. I became a cert personal trainer when I was 19 and used to love that gig. John, email me and I'll design a routine around your schedule, bro. ~F

7/18/2003 11:38 PM

Frank DeSalvo

Situps will not reduce the size or appearance of a gut. The muscle will develop beneath the fat and push it further out, creating a more bloated appearance.

Your arms and legs are reducing in size because your body is canabalizing it's own muscle tissue to meet the increased demand for nutrients and protein. As a result of the decreased muscle mass, your basal metabolic rate will in turn decrease thus reducing the number of calories and fat burned during rest and during cardio work.

You need to taper your carbs and fat intake off during the course of the day where your last meal is the sparsest in calories, fat and carbs. All of this in addition to resistance training and a cardio routine will get you where you want to go.

I became a cert personal trainer when I was 19 and used to love that gig. John, email me and I'll design a routine around your schedule, bro.

~F

7/19/2003 7:05 AM
steveR	I know that you cannot specify where fat gets used up by the body, but I maintain that way more more than 50% of a "big gut" is flabby, untoned abdominals that let everything (meaning your intestines) all hang out. I seriously doubt that toned abs will make someone have more of a gut, particularly since they they won't really bulk up like quads, biceps, and triceps. they just get taught. From personal experience when I was more toned I had less appearance of a gut, but since I haven't been training for about a year my posture is bad and my tummy sticks out. I don't think I really have much more body fat. I'm just not as aware of my body as when I used it more. Like someone said, you may not ever get washboard abs, but you can get to the point where your shirt doesn't dangle over your stomach. He had asked for a single exercise that would provide the most results and I'm still sticking with the ab routine!

7/19/2003 7:05 AM

steveR

I know that you cannot specify where fat gets used up by the body, but I maintain that way more more than 50% of a "big gut" is flabby, untoned abdominals that let everything (meaning your intestines) all hang out. I seriously doubt that toned abs will make someone have more of a gut, particularly since they they won't really bulk up like quads, biceps, and triceps. they just get taught.

From personal experience when I was more toned I had less appearance of a gut, but since I haven't been training for about a year my posture is bad and my tummy sticks out. I don't think I really have much more body fat. I'm just not as aware of my body as when I used it more.

Like someone said, you may not ever get washboard abs, but you can get to the point where your shirt doesn't dangle over your stomach. He had asked for a single exercise that would provide the most results and I'm still sticking with the ab routine!

7/19/2003 1:42 PM
Frank DeSalvo	Swim your @$$ off! Steve, if that were the case, then simply walking about with your abs flexed would do the trick. Abs can get bulky as with any muscle, but I forgot that when I post here, every word is dissected and analyzed. I can agree to a lesser extent with your comments because the organs in the abdominal cavity are held in by the abs. I should have mentioned that while using heavier weights or equipment to train abs, one can accrue unwanted mass in the mid-section-particularly when doing oblique movements. If I had to choose only one activity, it would be swimming. You can get great definition and reduce bodyfat at the same time! I mean laps! ~F

7/19/2003 1:42 PM

Frank DeSalvo

Swim your @$$ off!

Steve, if that were the case, then simply walking about with your abs flexed would do the trick. Abs can get bulky as with any muscle, but I forgot that when I post here, every word is dissected and analyzed. I can agree to a lesser extent with your comments because the organs in the abdominal cavity are held in by the abs. I should have mentioned that while using heavier weights or equipment to train abs, one can accrue unwanted mass in the mid-section-particularly when doing oblique movements.

If I had to choose only one activity, it would be swimming. You can get great definition and reduce bodyfat at the same time! I mean laps!

~F

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