thanks, one more note!

Question
QUESTION: "I'm going to give you my issue/question and info about me, hoping lots that you can help me out!! I'm 30, watching my cholesterol as it tends to be high and HDL is low. I'm 5'3 and have always weighed about 113. I've never had a waist, but rather have a body figure that has no cuves, just a straight box. My stomach I've always thought, is big for the rest of my petite body, which always bugs me!! My main issue however, is that I know we're supposed to stay below .8 in the hip/waist ratio, and I'm always slightly above, as you can imagine with a body tat has no waist/hips/curves. My waist is 27 and hips 33. So that puts my risk factors up. I don't know if I should try and lose weight to get waist lower so that my ratio becomes better, but my husband says I'm skinny enough and doesn't want to see my face/body get any thinner. But having this risk factor for heart disease, bugs. Any thoughts, ideas?"

ANSWER: Your BMI is 20, this tells me that your weight is fine. If you are concerned about hip to waist ratio then you have a bottom weight of 105 lbs that may address this for you. I would say that you might want to go down to 108 or 109 lbs and your hip to waist ratio should adjust. You might also want to exercise your hip area slightly more to cut it down. Your HDL being low may be from you not getting enough exercise. Your cholesterol issues might be genetic or it might be lack of exercise and failure to maintain a healthy diet low in fat. Which ever it may be I hope this advice can help you.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for the info and advice.  Maybe just working on getting my stomach a bit down, but maybe that's just my body shape.  As far as exercise, I do exercise (I used to do it every day for 70 minutes-cardio) but a trainer advised me to take a couple days off every week, so now I've compromised and I'm doing 6 days a week but one of those days is only 35 minutes.  The rest of the days I do 70 minutes and either 15 minutes of weights or stomach/legs.  Do you think I need to be doing more?  As far as cholesterol, I've gotten it better (thanks to diet) but there's also definitely hereditary issues going on there, so I think I'm probably doing as much as I can. With my occasional splurges like now during holiday times!

Answer
Your exercise schedule is fine. It maybe slightly to much,but if you are not having any signs of over workout such as fatigue or dehydration then you are probably good. There are specific exercises that work all four quadrants of your abdominal muscle and your oblique's. You need to make sure that all these areas are being worked and that stubborn areas are worked some what harder. The sheer number of situps needed to conquer a problematic abdomen is very high. Most boxers do thousands of situps a week. Also remember that opposite muscles support each other. You should be working your back as much as your abs to get the best out of the workout.

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