Mum trying to lose the wobbly tummy!

[nat_hull]

Hi all,

I'm hoping you can help me. I'm back trying to get fit and tone up post having 2 children. I'm doing some HIIT, a couple of boxing for fitness classes, a 'proper' gym weights session and just some free weights at home each week as well as some walking. I'm working really hard on a clean diet but the thing I'm really struggling with is losing the remains of the pregnancy tummy! I dream of a six pack!

I'm not really doing specific abdominal exercises - is this the real problem?

But basically I'd love some advice on what I should be doing to try and tone up the wobble!

Thanks,

Natalie

[genetic freek]

Post up your diet

[nat_hull]

Ok so the diet is going something like this:

Breakfast-

2 eggs scrambled with 2 tablespoons of trim milk.

With either quarter of an avocado or some smoked salmon. If I have neither I up it to 3 eggs.

Lunch-

Salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sweetcorn and asparagus.

With desert spoon of cottage cheese and either small tin of tuna, chicken or prawns. I often chose the 'flavoured' tuna/chicken, e.g. Tomato and onion.

Then I have balsamic vinegar on the whole thing.

Tea-

This is usually what I've cooked everyone else in the family. I've knocked back the amount of carbs I will have. So if we had meat and veges I will do kumara mash instead of potatoes.

The evening meal isn't unhealthy as I try to cook well for my children but may sometimes be pasta bake or a lasagne.

I usually do my exercise in the evenings as that's when I only really have time. If I don't get back too late I'll have a protein shake made with a cup of trim milk and a banana.

Otherwise I try not to snack too much between meals. I've stopped eating bread altogether.

Ummm... Not sure what else... Weekends can often be a bit more tricky to be as careful so one night may well be a takeaway option like Thai...

Hopefully you can give me some more advice from there? I'm worried about having 'too much' protein powder in case I'm not using it an its just being stored on the stomach!

Oh I'm also 5ft 7 and 72kg and 30 years old!

Thank you in advance

[severe]

I've stopped eating bread altogether.

This is a good start.

When did you start the routines you posted up?

Abdominal specific exercising isn't going to change the way you see them. Diet is the key. Boxing will tighten your core up. It is all diet.

The thing with losing fat, or gaining lean muscle is that it takes time...

[teamfatboy]

Ok, first impressions you seem to be doing a lot of things right already

I've not looked too deep into your diet but it doesn't look too bad. Just have a look at it and see how close you get to 1800 calories (which is a 500 calorie deficit over what someone your age/height/weight/gender should be eating if they work out 5 times/week - see here for how I worked it out).

Sometimes "under-eating" can slow your progress, as the body will do what ever it can, when calorie intake is too low, to store calories rather than burn them.

Ditching the bread's good, so too swapping the kumara in for spuds.

Protein powder's just another convenient source of protein, what'd derail your progress is meal timings, not where the protein comes from.

Severe's right, this is about diet - abs are made in the kitchen. It does take time - good things always do!

The various cardio options (HIIT, boxing, and walking) will help expend calories, and the weights work will tone muscle so that once the b'fat has gone, the toned muscle will show up!

Hopefully, the weights sessions are in the 10-15 rep range, and include some of the bigger lifts like squats - working those bigger muscle groups means more energy burned. They also involve the core muscles (trust me, without a strong core you can't do much!) so that too helps have the abs you're after.

There's some really good advice under the Resources tab in the top right corner of the page in this Forum - and I also rate Body For Life as a good source of information for people with similar goals to you.

[Australeanne]

Hi - You and me and just about every mum in the same boat, I reckon!

I can't really get an idea of where you're at, but all I can do is say what is working (and not working) for me.

Seriously, from what I know, it's just all about body fat + building muscle. If you've got a wobbly tummy, you've just got too much fat there, which means the flab has to go.

Yes, core exercises will help a lot, but I see women in my gym doing endless crunches and suchlike, and a year later they haven't improved a bit. They're still fat, because they're obviously not fixing their diet. Diet really is about 70% of the equation (to use fake statistics pulled out of nowhere!). You can do all the tummy exercises in the world, but if you've got ten inches of fat covering your rock hard six pack because you're chowing down on pizza every night, nobody is going to see it.

Are you tracking what you eat? If not, start doing so. I was stunned when I started tracking how much I was actually eating. And the best tip I learned was - enter the data before you eat it. If you wait until afterwards, you can forget and your data entry can be inaccurate. I use MyFitnessPal, keep my phone with me all the time, and put the foods in before I eat them, then I know they're accurate.

Another thing is, don't use your exercise "free calories". I started doing this, and it halted my progress. What I mean is, I'd burn 500 calories in cardio, then figure I could eat an extra 500 calories. Not surprisingly, my progress stopped.

Drink lots of water. I didn't realise that I was really dehydrated and thinking I was hungry when I was actually thirsty. If you think you're hungry, drink first, wait ten minutes, then decide.

You don't mention what you're eating in the evenings. For me, evening meals are the problem time, because that's when the family and I eat together. I found, in the end, I just had to start eating separately from the kids (age 8 and 5) to avoid eating the same. So now what I do is feed them early, then adults eat later on. I avoid being hungry by adding a small meal in at 3:15 (with at least 100g protein in it), just before the kids get home, and overall eat 5-6 small meals through the day instead of 3 big ones.

The tummy *will* go. It's still a problem area for me, but I'm taking progress photos every month, and can see it reducing. Track your measurements, not just your weight, and if you're doing it right, you WILL see your waist dropping.

I hope this is useful stuff

[Bigger]

Hi, good topic. I've been focused on losing weight lately too. In my experience cardio and weights just don't really shift enough fat unless diet is super strict. I was doing 40 minutes cardio (powerwalk) twice a day at 8.5 km/hr, sweating heaps, plus weights, and eating fairly clean, high protein, keeping calories to 2,000-3,000. It was like wringing blood out of a stone. After doing a lot of research I've started sprinting. Find a rugby field, sprint it at 95% pace, then walk back to the other end to recover. If you do this 10 times each session, 3 times a week, the weight just flies off, and the muscle pumps and gains are not far off lifting, even in the upper body. Similar to HIIT but I think probably more effective. I think if it isn't jiggling, it won't be shifted.

I've also combined this with Alpha T2, rated as a good thermo, purchased on Amazon.com, and also replaced all sugar cravings with Coke Zero or Pepsi Max. A lot of negative press about Pepsi Max and Coke zero not being that good for you, but neither is being overweight and frustrated. Also taking CLA, L Carnitine in my green tea, and 7 Keto (not sure if it does anything). Hope this helps.

[kiwisilvester]

Hi Natalie

Sounds like you are doing some good things with your training and diet. I have been trying to shift the wobbly tummy myself for a while and have recently made a big breakthough...I think two things really helped me.

Firstly I started to track my food intake on a website called Shapeup Club, it's free (unless you want extras) and there's also an app to download so you can use it where ever you are and enter what you plan to eat BEFORE you munch into it!! It also lets you choose a goal weight and how much you want to lose each week then calculates your goal kj for each day.

The other thing I did was to eat a mid morning and mid afternoon snack of 30g of nuts and a piece of fruit. This really kept me going til the next meal, even though it seems likes lots of kj you are working them off when training and your body won't need to eat into your lean muscle.

Hope these ideas are helpful

[danellaj]

I find when I track my diet I loose fat, when I dont track my diet I dont.

I use myfitnesspal

Tracking can be a pain in the bum to start with untill you get set up with your regular items. Because abs are made in the kitchen this could be a good place for you to start. 

I have also found high intensity interval training works best for me. Sprinting and resting. Or doing a set of weights and instead of resting a minute jumping rope as fast as I can for a minute then the next set and so on - makes the workout faster cause you dont waste time and it keeps your heart rate up. 

In saying that - these are not my favorite things to do so I too have a wobbly tummy.