QuestionI need help...really.. I'm a male, 22 I'm not a fat man, but I have this belly since I remember, I don't know what to do, I've been swimming 5 days a week for a year, I've been on a gym for 4 months, I got on a bad diet before, went really thin on arms legs and face, but my belly and chest fat doesn't disappear, then I put some weight again, and it goes always direct to the belly, what should I do ?
AnswerHello, Pedro,
The belly, the belly. It's a common problem, and it's a bummer. First, to get the health-thing out of the way, it is important to make sure you don't have a liver problem. Frankly, unless you drink loads of alcohol, your liver is probably fine. But there is a chance you have some other thing you may have been born with or caught some nasty virus that is disrupting your liver.
Diet-wise, I did find that cutting carbs was really the only time I got fat off my stomach area. Changing the way I ate actually changed my body shape too. With other diets, I lost fat everywhere except my middle. So, depending on how you eat, cutting carbs may help.
As for exercise, it's not my expertise, but I did get quite good at weight-lifting, really into it during graduate school. There was a secretary there who became Miss New England of Body Building after a single year of training. A very big deal, she was intense. So, she taught me and it was a blast. I don't know what you are doing in the gym, but since you are willing to put in the time, lets talk ab stuff. I do know what hits abs hard and it isn't swimming or aerobic exercise (though both of these, particularly swimming, really are excellent for your health).
If you want to change your shape, resistance training is the way to go, besides a lower carb diet. You won't like this, but here it is. If your issue is your abs, they need lots and lots of reps. I mean like 200 good crunches. Good, done-right ones. The vast majority of people don't do enough of them or do them wrong. Get someone to show you how to do them, a real weight-lifter, or get a Muscle and Fitness magazine to learn how. And crunch till you cannot do anymore. Build up to it, of course. And try to learn how to mentally focus on your ab muscles; this helps keep you from cheating by using your leg or arm muscles to lever you up. Just use your abs. There are all kinds of crunches and leg raises, but really the total number is the key. Just pick a kind you are good at and do hundreds of the same thing. Literally. That's the easiest thing. If you need variety, change the kind, but always do the ultra-high reps. Your ab muscles do continuous motion, breathing and trunk stabilizing, so it takes a lot of reps to really get them. I recommend the basic crunch where you rest your calves on a bench, cross your arms over your chest, and curl up. Hold a weight on your chest, even just 2 or 5 pounds, when you get stronger, if you want to get bulging muscles (washboard). If your fat is on your sides (love handles), do twists with a broom handle or whatever your gym has, with your legs stable and just twist from the waist. Do not add weight to this exercise! It's a trap that catches a lot of people. The only people that should use that twist machine with weight are body-builders who use it sparingly for very specific purposes at very specific times.
I really do believe that cutting carbs will help you store fat in places other than your stomach and chest so that you end up with a cleaner cut of a body shape. So, my advice is to cut your carbs, up the protein and good fats, do hundreds of crunches. Hundreds is what it really takes. At one point I was doing 400 crunches 4 times a week when I was splitting (2 days each week of chest/back/biceps and legs/shoulders/triceps.) That was a bit much, but my stomach looked great. The crunches don't have to be all at once, but I would go for at least 100 at a time. You can do one or the other, diet or exercise, but you would have to be way more intense with whichever one you chose to do. If you do both, you can be more moderate with them and should still make progress.
Don't stop swimming and things like that, since you must enjoy them and they are good for you. Plus, swimming covers your chest and shoulders workout. The fat on your chest is more from your diet I bet, rather than lack of exercise. A 22 year old male and chest exercises go like coffee and cream, so I won't bother telling you any of these. I am sure you are doing enough of those along with biceps, the things guys like to work. (Women do hip stuff in general.) Only professionals or very serious weight trainers do enough ab work.
Just remember that what you are doing is not working for your ab goal, so move some of your effort from your least favorite activity toward modifying your diet and doing hundreds of crunches. Once you get in the crunch mode, the time will go by faster and you will start to see definition in your stomach area. You are going to love it.
A 22 year old male can move the world. Enjoy your strength and make it work for your goals - don't be discouraged. You would not believe the changes I have seen guys make when doing the right stuff.
Keep me posted,
Arlene
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