# Big belly



## chillyuk (1 Oct 2011)

Over the last couple of months I have shed a stone and a half. I have considerably increased my cycling mileage and at last the extra exercise and some minor changes to my diet things seem at last to be going the right way. What I don't understand though is why my belly has expanded. It is as if the fat from my chest and sides has pooled at the front. The shape and size of my stomach is now like a football. Before I was carrying fat, but it was more evenly distributed over my body so didn't look so bad. The change in shape occured very quickly and for no apparent reason. I just hope it goes down a bit as the weight drops. I have just had a blood test to monitor my Thyroxine levels (I have no thyroid gland) and that is all within normal limits.


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## numbnuts (1 Oct 2011)

Maybe you need to strengthen your tummy muscles, if I relax totally I'm the same, but over the years I have trained myself to hold my tummy muscles in all the time without thinking.


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## Tyres23 (1 Oct 2011)

Also if your like me I lost it every where but the tummy is last measure it I'm sure it is just losing it there slower in my case because my gut was biggest


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## Nebulous (2 Oct 2011)

It's unlikely that it has actually got bigger- just that it hasn't come off there. 

Weight loss isn't uniform. I lost a lot of weight and the first bit only seemed to come from my waist. Then it changed and it came from just about everywhere but my waist. I had to get my watch strap shortened, put insoles in my shoes as my feet were flapping about, and get new shirts as my neck had shrunk.

Then finally it began to come from my waist again.


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## Globalti (2 Oct 2011)

The body burns off the subcutaneous fat (under the skin) most easily then gets to work on the body cavity fat. Most likely your waist, chest and shoulders have lost bulk and left your stomach looking big by comparison. 

Body cavity fat is more substantive and is built up over the long term, it is said that hydrogenated vegetable fat, which is margarines, cakes, biscuits, i.e. anything industrial, tends to accumulate in the body cavity. 

If you cut out anything with this kind of fat, reduce your carbs to almost nothing (beer, potatoes, rice, pasta and instant soups, "milky" drinks and gravies) and try to stick to proteins, vegetables and fruit, that fat will soon go. As mentioned above a good posture with firm stomach muscles will help as well; you will build those muscles and will soon be standing with your stomach held in with no effort.


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## Fab Foodie (2 Oct 2011)

Pretty much this I'm afraid ^^^^

I'm overweight and have been for a few years now (since quitting the weed), more cycling has firmed-up everywhere except my belly where everything is concentrated. This is the hardest fat to shift and the cavity fat is also the most unhealthy to have. As a CHD sufferer I need to do more to remove it, but it's very difficult, especially with the nature of my work and travel. Also, If I think back, on my father's side most adopted my body shape with middle age, so there are some genetic dispositions to how and where you deposit fat.

The solution is as Globalti states, avoid anything with saturated/hard fats and reduce carbs to a minimum. Veg wins slightly over fruits, but as an cyclist you're better suited to using the free sugars that fruit provides.

Threads like this remind me that I really must listen to my own advice.


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## screenman (2 Oct 2011)

100 sit ups and 100 press ups a day 5 days a week sorted mine out. I just fit them in with a daily stretching routine.


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## MacB (2 Oct 2011)

screenman said:


> 100 sit ups and 100 press ups a day 5 days a week sorted mine out. I just fit them in with a daily stretching routine.



This or something like chinups coupled with the low carb and avoiding certain fats approach. Strengthening the core muscles won't do your cycling any harm either.


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## chillyuk (2 Oct 2011)

screenman said:


> 100 sit ups and 100 press ups a day 5 days a week sorted mine out. I just fit them in with a daily stretching routine.



From scratch, at my age, and with three lumber vertebrea fused together. I think I will pass on sit-ups and press-ups. However, I may well have a look how my swimming is nowadays. Years ago I used to do triathlon.


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## JonnyBlade (2 Oct 2011)

CATCH22! Reduce carbs and cycling more!

My gut has grown since I started cycling more and running less. It's a diet thing I'm sure


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## screenman (2 Oct 2011)

Should add that at 55 I am now spring chicken, also that 18 months ago 5 of each would have been interesting to say the least.

Chillyuk, facts man if you had given them to us first then the advise may have been different. I suggest seeing a professional medical trained person not asking a bunch internet experts when you have had previous medical problems.


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## Crankarm (2 Oct 2011)

reiver said:


> Have you taken a pregnancy test ?




LMAO. The immaculate conception.


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## Crankarm (2 Oct 2011)

chillyuk said:


> From scratch, at my age, and with three lumber vertebrea fused together. I think I will pass on sit-ups and press-ups. However, I may well have a look how my swimming is nowadays. Years ago I used to do triathlon.



Would 6 pints of ale and a curry on a friday and saturday night by any chance have anything to do with the shape of your stomach?

Just eat less and not late at night before you got to bed. Your tummy got fat cause you ate too many refined carbs and saturated fats and pies. 55 years old and a huge tummy, you are in red alert heart attack action station now territory.  

As McB suggested chins up would be a great help. Also sit ups or crunches and press ups but you say you cannot do these. How about doing some serious running at least 5 miles each day for ever more?


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## Crankarm (2 Oct 2011)

JonnyBlade said:


> CATCH22! Reduce carbs and cycling more!
> 
> My gut has grown since I started cycling more and running less. It's a diet thing I'm sure



Just because you do a little cycling or running doesn't mean you can still fill your face and expect to lose a lot of weight. Errr ........ no, well you can, but you won't get any thinner or may be you still get yet fatter. Maybe if you are a pro cyclist or marathon runner you can still fill your face, but even these athletes still monitor closely what they eat to avoid putting on excessive weight especially pro cyclists, marathon runners, gymnasts, track and field athletes, ok maybe not shot putters or discus throwers though  .


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## screenman (3 Oct 2011)

Good point, but all I know was it worked for me along with a diet of course. Surely firm stomach muscles look better than slack ugly fat.

I am certainly not an expert on dieting, I do not profess to be, now experienced maybe slightly as I did lose 4 stone 2 years ago and have kept it off.

As for pilates, good call as long as you have an extremely skilled instructor and follow their advice to the letter, it is not easy to do it correctly from a book or dvd.


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## Crankarm (3 Oct 2011)

It's not rocket science. Eat less sh1t and do hard exercise frequently. Anything else is just being in a state of denial as most blubberists are.


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## screenman (3 Oct 2011)

Crankarm, you are so right. Brilliant post.


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## henshaw11 (3 Oct 2011)

numbnuts said:


> Maybe you need to strengthen your tummy muscles, if I relax totally I'm the same, but over the years I have trained myself to hold my tummy muscles in all the time without thinking.



I started doing the same about 20 yrs ago when I realised that a mate - who was getting a pot - and I were a similar shape. Not so much holding it in as just maintaining a little tension, zipping up a little Pilates-stylee - I suspect a lot of blokes (well, not just blokes..) just kinda 'let it all hang out'. I can emulate a pot but I have to push it out quite a bit.

Doing Pilates for the last 10 (?) yrs probably hasn't done any harm, but I didn't start that 'til about I was 38 or so.

As to why a pot's *suddenly* appeared (if I've read correctly), that's a bit more puzzling..


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## Adasta (3 Oct 2011)

Fat goes to the stomach first on men, then to the chest; stomach fat is the last thing you will be able to shift.


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## Crankarm (4 Oct 2011)

Adasta said:


> Fat goes to the stomach first on men, then to the chest; stomach fat is the last thing you will be able to shift.



Aren't you forgetting that internal organs also become coated in an extra thick layer of fat as well that reduces their performance and longevity? Like the heart and heart disese.


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## twobiker (4 Oct 2011)

I started to cycle again to lose the fat gut part , I didn't want to be the fat guy on the beach with my kids, anyway I cut out chocolate and beer and the gut is reducing, I ride every day, I can't run, knee problems, it is a constant battle but I have lost 5kg, now 88kg and dropped 4inches off the waist.


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## calibanzwei (4 Oct 2011)

32 and sub-16 stone - have done the whole holding it in thing, probably have decent abs underneath there by now 
Core fat is veeeeeery slow to shift, BUT! I have noticed a tapering from chest to waist was wasn't there a year ago.
If you think you can't see a reduction in the mirror, turn 90°


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## Ibi (4 Oct 2011)

alot of people say reduce the carbs and eat protein and veg

what sorta meals would you recommend eating?


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## calibanzwei (4 Oct 2011)

Reduce the carbs to much and you won't have the energy to perform - its a careful balancing act. Veg are just good, protein for muscle repair after exercise. Balanced diet, don't do to much of one thing 
There are those on here that can probably offer much better/detailed explanations.


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## Crankarm (4 Oct 2011)

A healthy balanced diet. What bit about healthy and balanced don't over weight people understand? It's not rocket science. You have had to do be living in a cave, a very big cave, with a McDs at one end not to recognise what is healthy food. Don't eat processed, fast food crap, eg McDs, pizzas, crisps, cakes and more crap. Stay off booze and fags.

What you do eat control your portions sizes and do *hard* exercise daily. You will lose weight.

It really is this simple.


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## fossyant (4 Oct 2011)

It's called being over 30. You have to watch the food. It's a bugger !


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## screenman (4 Oct 2011)

I have met very few fat people who blame themselves for getting fat, it was always somebody else's fault


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## ayceejay (4 Oct 2011)

I doubt that there is one answer that fits all so I am throwing out a wheat free diet as a possibility. Also you should take care to measure your body some other way than just by standing on the scales. I fractured my pelvis three weeks ago and watched my diet carefully so as not to gain weight while inactive: I have lost 13 lbs. The pain killers I took were also a diuretic which no doubt accounts for the 2 inches off my belly but the muscle loss on my legs is the reason for the weight loss.


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## Crankarm (5 Oct 2011)

fossyant said:


> It's called being over 30. You have to watch the food. It's a bugger !




Fossy that's the prob, some people have been looking too much at the wrong foods. So long as you only look and do not touch that's fine ;@) 

Mind you there are plenty of really fat people under 30 as well, even kids which is scary - mini sumos.


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## fossyant (5 Oct 2011)

Crankarm said:


> Fossy that's the prob, some people have been looking too much at the wrong foods. So long as you only look and do not touch that's fine ;@)
> 
> Mind you there are plenty of really fat people under 30 as well, even kids which is scary - mini sumos.



There is a lad at my son's primary that is huge (proper bulging face) - mum's 'normal size' so I wonder what the hell she's been letting him eat.


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## calibanzwei (5 Oct 2011)

fossyant said:


> There is a lad at my son's primary that is huge (proper bulging face) - mum's 'normal size' so I wonder what the hell she's been letting him eat.



What are the class sizes like? Decreasing?


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## Adasta (7 Oct 2011)

Crankarm said:


> Aren't you forgetting that internal organs also become coated in an extra thick layer of fat as well that reduces their performance and longevity? Like the heart and heart disese.



Visceral fat is a problem but that is also affected by genetic predisposition, I think. It's possible for someone to be skinny buy have loads of visceral fat, or for someone to be "big" and have very little.


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## accountantpete (8 Oct 2011)

To the op - check how you are breathing.

At you age (and mine!) the lungs can start taking the easy way out and expand by pushing the stomach out of the way. If your tummy is expanding as you breathe in then that is the root cause.


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## MyBikeCodes (11 Oct 2011)

Are you doing any rides on an empty stomach? I've been following a blog about running for weightloss where a strong black coffee and a regular run on an empty stomach is advocated. Seem to recall something similar being pushed in Cycling Weekly about 2 hour rides on an expresso to the point of blowing - basically it gets your body used to switching to fat for energy rather than just carbs, so much so that it can access fat more easily the rest of the time as well.


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## Crankarm (11 Oct 2011)

MyBikeCodes said:


> Are you doing any rides on an empty stomach? I've been following a blog about running for weightloss where a strong black coffee and a regular run on an empty stomach is advocated. Seem to recall something similar being pushed in Cycling Weekly about 2 hour rides on an expresso to the point of blowing - basically it gets your body used to switching to fat for energy rather than just carbs, so much so that it can access fat more easily the rest of the time as well.




Common sense tells you this is an absolute crap idea. Do it if you want it's your body. I wouldn't. I don't even drink coffee. Could it be that CP is now being sponsored by Lavazza or Doue Egberts?


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