ShapeFit.com

[gsplf]

Hi! I read through some of these just to make sure that I looked around to see if my question was answered but I'm not really satisfied so I'm going to ask.


Here's a quick summary of my body. I went from being really hot (my opinion) with a nice waist: hip ratio. You could better understand me if I could show you a picture of me then but I'm not sure how to attach one. Anyway, with one pregnancy and two years later I'm pretty much a fat slob, HOPEFUL because i'm PROOF that weight loss is totally possible with the right mentality and tools...


BUT my ideals have changed. Even though I looked really hot back then, at that time I thought it was gross to have small waist and big hips. I kind of surged from an eating disorder and I just wanted to be an all over twig. I just didn't appreciate my body enough and now that I sit here looking back at the old me, I sure wish I looked like that now.


oh, the irony of life.


Anyhow, my goal is to lose all excess fat in my belly while flattening it as much as possible and creating that small waist I once hated. I love my thick hips and thighs so I'm not too worried there, because I want them to stay thick. I'm assuming with my diet and workout plan my legs will keep themselves this thick just tone.


So i guess my question is, what exercises can I do to give myself that old small waist big hip ratio??


I've started doing crunches and twists on a ball.
I do:
5 sets of 50 crunches
5 sets of 50 twists
5 sets of 50 crunches
HOWEVER, I feel like I could do more.

Can somebody advice me on different exercises and if I should be doing more reps? somebody told me to add weights, but how the heck do i do that??

PLEASE HELP ME . I read that diet is the trick but that's so hard to believe because if shrinking my waist depends on eating healthy then that's SOOO EASY and shouldn't it be hard to achieve something that looks so good???

don't forget, whoever is helping me with this, I don't just want to flatten my stomach I want to make the sides as small as possible to get that hourglass shape!!! thank yous!!![/img]

[SarahPT]

All that ab work will do nothing to make your waist smaller. That is not how the body works. Those exercises simply work the muscle. Also, if you can do that many reps the exercise isn't even effective for strengthening the muscle.

First, find some ab exercises that are more challenging. Second, a solid nutrition and exercise program will help you reduce your waist size. It can take time, but it can be done. For exercises, you can do crunches on a decline bench. For adding weight you can put a plate weight behind your head. Just make sure you keep your head back and eyes to the ceiling. Don't let the weight make you curl your neck. Hanging leg raises can be good too.

Sarah

[gsplf]

thank you sarah. I appreciate it. I think I understand. I'm doing these ab exercises because I have a lot of fat to burn off to "rediscover" the waist i know is hiding there. Are you saying that I'm not doing enough or that I am doing too many? I was kind of confused by that. Also, when you say to put the weight behind my head, you mean hold it while i have my hands behind me, right? So, since these ab exercises will only get rid of the fat and strengthen the muscles underneath, are there ANY exercises that will help reduce the waist size?

[DianaB]

Excellent advice from Sarah, as usual.
I had the same issue with losing the curve in my waist after pregnancy. A clean diet is really crucial, you'll find with healthy eating that your natural curves will return in time. Clean eating habits do not have to be hard, if it you can't picture the food you are eating either growing or running in a feild somewhere, don't eat it.
I found that really working the whole core area, including hip stabilization, really helped bring back my shape. And good cardio sessions, using different mediums, i.e cycle, jog, treadmill, sprints to keep your body guessing helps a lot.
You may not get back a tiny waistline after child birth. You can also try to balance out your shape by working the upper body and back to create the impression of a v-shape (use a 3-way mirror to check from behind).
Good luck and keep at it.