Fat Around Belly Button Area?

[cassiegose]

Hi Martin,

That chicken probably has between 104 and 120 calories.

It doesn't matter what time you do the cardio. I do mine first thing in the morning as i feel better that way but you can do it anytime.

Breakfast looks good... I would add some eggs/eggwhites to get a bit more protein. :)

Banana looks good... i would add some almonds and/or low fat cheese stick there for protein and/or healthy fats.

Lunch: what is a french stick? Bread? Ham and cucumber look good.

Dinner: tuna pasta is not bad. I would add some veggies there if possible.

Good job on the cardio! If you feel drained you must have really been pushing yourself.

I've told you more times than i can count Martin that you probably won't see major results in only a weeks time. If you stick with it you will see results.... I am totally confident of that. YOU WILL NOT SEE RESULTS IN ONLY 1 WEEKS TIME but you will see results if you give this more time.

You're very welcome for the time and help. :)

[Boss Man]

I'll say it as well Martin. You can't expect much results in a week. Even for people losing weight; sure maybe 2-3 lbs, but that's a little result as part of a long-term one.

So just keep doing what is right for you, and keep paying attention to people like Cassie, because it will pay off in the long-term.

[MartinBoy]

Thanks guys, i will stick with it. And Cassie yes french stick is like bread but more in a retangular shape.

http://www.hub-uk.com/images016/french-stick.jpg

Not the best of pictures but yeah lol.

[MartinBoy]

It's been 10 days now and i know you guys said it takes time but i haven't noticed the slightest change.

I did weight training on monday and a bit of cardio after. It is wednesday today and should be weight training day but il probably have to leave it for a couple days as i think i have overdone it. My arm absoultley kills when i move it and i can only move it back a little bit without having to stop. So i did cardio instead. (40mins worth of excercise, 20min then short break then 20min again. 800 calories according to excercise bike)

I ate 3 wheatabix for breakfast with milk, 2 slices of bread - butter but not tons, 2 boiled eggs, and a few ocean sticks/fish sticks/crab sticks.

After i had a snackbar to keep me going this was about 3pmish. Oats, raisins some other stuf with honey and choclate at bottom. (126 calories)

For dinner i had a homemade pizza.

I struggled to do the excercise as i was real tired but i kept going until the routine was over.

Drinks i have been having water, however there is cream soda about with no sugar and no calories per 250ml so ive had a few cups of this i hope this wont affect anything as sugar and stuff is trace/nil.

But yeah my stomach at the moment looks as if it's bloated sort of like this pic.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=5pqzjb&s=5

I just want it to look as if im breathing in so that my stomach is FLATERRRRR.

Grr lol i hope this all ends up for the best soon as my motivation is starting to die down.

[DevilWrath]

dude, it took me 2 month to notice changes and you gotta take full body pics, because when you lose fat, its everywhere, so 10 - 20 pounds you might not even notice it

[Boss Man]

Trying to lose weight won't happen too well, if you're going to eat 4 times a day.

Plus you ate a snack bar, a homemade pizza, and a Breakfast with too much Carb in it.

I mean that Breakfast alone, Carbs wise, could be around 70g Carbs, with a Glycemic rating of roughly 75, which means you're spiking Bloodsugar up at 52.5% in that case, which in my mind is too high.

You won't see much change, if anything you try to do with your exercise plans, is being counteracted with dietry fau pahs, and possibly not enough calories as well.

Plus you're getting a bit edgy after just 10 days.

I'm going to be straight here. You need to start focusing on things you're not quite doing right, and let these things take time to happen and work for you.

You might be doing what's right on the exercise front, and you are making the effort which is good to see, but you need to start being more proactive, and less willy nilly on the food.

You need to outline how you're going to change this, as I can see a recent Breakfast just had Cereal, but this one is much larger, so there's no parity between meals. The caloric amounts certainly differ too much meal to meal, day to day. It's just not structured enough.

You've had ideas and suggestions for stuff before, given to you, so I want you to help yourself, by trying to come up with a plan that involves 6 meals a day, YES, 6, and can be pretty much the same thing every day, no chopping and changing of practically every meal.

Come back to us on that, and we can then tweak what you've done. We can help you, but you have to take some big man steps here fella, and to some extent step up to the plate.

Trust me, this trying to tackle things a little more yourself, and focusing on it more, is character building, and will help you in the long-term.

We wait to see what you come up with.

[MartinBoy]

So you think im not going to lose weight unless i eat 6 meals a day?

But this is hard for me as Dinner is cooked for my whole family by my mum and dad so id have to do cooking myself. It would be hard to get used to which is why im mainly eating 3 meals a day and snacking on fruits and stuff.

So do i really need to change it?

[Boss Man]

Yes. You can quite easily eat plenty of cold options. Dinners might vary because they're cooked for you, but as long as most of the meals stay the same, that's fine.

As I said, plenty of Cold food options can be had between meals, and for meals, so no, you wouldn't have to cook anything.

6 meals would be better yes, as otherwise you might get too high a space between meals, or little snack amounts between meals, that just don't cut it, and you don't want your body trying to cling onto Fat, or burn muscle for fuel.

A good Metabolism will serve you well, and with a good eating system in place you'll get it.

So don't shilly shally my man, I KNOW you can come up with some kind of rudimentary meal plan for us to see. We await to see what it is.

[cassiegose]

One last thing to add...

Martin for dinner you can still have what the family is having (as long as it has protein and veggies with it). Just have a smaller portion than what you would usually have.... which should be quite easy as you would have had a meal 2-3 hours before dinner so you shouldn't be terribly hungry.

Also, have you tried talking to your parents and explaining that you are trying to eat healthier? I would think that they would me more than happy to help you adopt healthier eating habits... in fact you could help the whole family adopt healthier eating habits! If you mom is making a casserole with chicken in it, simply ask her to hold some chicken out of the casserole for you to eat. If she is making tuna casserole.. again simply hold some tuna out to have with veggies and complex carbs. You could also talk to your parents about some of the foods that they buy and see if they could start making healthier purchases from the store. For instance, instead of regular pasta suggest whole wheat... instead of white rice suggest brown... instead of potatoes suggest sweet potatoes or yams.... instead of fried chicken suggest baked... These small simple changes will add to to major health benefits.

[MartinBoy]

Thanks, however im not sure on the 6 meals. I hope im eating resaonbily healthy as it is? But basically 6 small meals - I would of thought 3 meals a day and snacking inbetween on stuff like apples and fruits would of been good. But yeah, i don't really know what to eat for the 6 small meals as im sort of limited to food choices. I thought i was doing well as i was?

[MartinBoy]

I just want to shred the fat/excess skin off of my belly.. my abs and stomach under neath feel pretty strong and musclely and the fat i have now which may be excess skin? is ugly and unatrractive.

So far today i have eaten

3 wheatabix and milk

Can of tuna, some salted nuts, bannana.

Might have a snack here otherwise mite not last til dinner.

And dinner not sure yet will update.

I just can't see this working unfortunately. But i want it too so much. I, don't want to change my diet so much that if i even do manage to succeed that i have to eat like this after. I just want to eat 3 meals a day like normal really instead of confusing my diet with other stuff.

Thanks

[cassiegose]

I guess it comes down to how much you want it then Martin. To be honest with you, i doubt it is excess skin that you have on your stomach. If you want to make these changes then you will do whatever you can to take the advice that I and others have been giving you. I know that the advice that i'm giving you will work if you actually give it a try as it have tried it and it has worked for me. In fact its working for me right now as i train for my upcoming competition. If you want to take the advice you've been given then great... I guarentee if you take it, give it 100% effort, and be patient you will see the results that you are looking for. However, if you don't want to take the advice that is ok. You keep coming on here asking the same questions over and over.... Its almost as if you think i will tell you that what you want to hear if you ask me enough times. Doing only cardio will help, but will not get you the BEST results. Eating 3 somewhat healthy meals a day might bring you slightly closer to meeting your goals, however eating 6 meals a day will again give you the BEST results. You seem to really want to meet your goals, however it appears that you don't want to put in all of the effort that it will take to meet them. And to answer your question, yes you will need to eat like this even after you lose the fat if you want to maintain your figure. Its a fact of life my friend. If you want results for a lifetime you will have to make lifestyle changes and keep them for a lifetime. It kind of stinks but its the ugly truth. I have a family history of heart disease and obesity and i have been eating like this since I was 15 years old... I am 25 now and i know that i will have to continue eating like this this for the rest of my life if i want to keep my figure and keep myself healthy. Nobody said this was going to be easy or that you would see results in only a weeks time of exercising. If it was that easy then there wouldn't be so many overweight and obese people walking around.

I'm sorry if this comes off as a bit harsh, however at this point i don't know how else to get through to you on this. I TRULY want you to meet your goals (which i think is obvious considering how much time i've spent helping you on this). However I wondering how much you want to meet your goals? If you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen.

Cassie

[MartinBoy]

Cassie i really want to meat my goals. My shoulders back and above my stomach isn't fat. A little bit of fat on my arms but most is at the bottom of my stomach storing there and it looks so unattractive i just want it to be gone!!!!!! As for eating healthy lifestyle all the time... 6 meals a day every day? No normal breakfast lunch dinner? I really do want to do this ive been doing it for 11 days so don't want it to go to waste however.. i am limited as to what i can eat as i am only 17 and living under my parents roof. You know i really really want to get rid of this last bit of fat on my gut but it isn't moving!!! Im getting real frustrated but i really want this, i mean of course i want to look good however, does that mean i can never have stuff like a choclate bar, crisps, cake any of the sweet nice tasting foods. It seems like the past 11 days have been a total waste then if im not going to lose the stomach fat by eating 3 meals a day? I feel so dissapointed and feel like ive wasted my time. Im so determined to get rid of this and to stick with it, i really am trying to improve myself, spending 40mins daily doign excercise - i never used to do so much im really trying but not seeing results and i know that it's only early but i just got a feeling it's never going to go.

For instance the food i ate today i posted above, i also had one of them snackbars to keep me going, a bit of grapefruit and for dinner - jacket potatos with beef mince.

For desert the family are having rhubarb crumble - homemade. This is my favourite!!!!

But by all means if that means i can't eat it then i won't i am so determined to do this no matter how i show it i really want it! Please don't give up on me i am real unhappy with my appearnce.

[MartinBoy]

I have just done just under an hours excercise on the cycling bike and according to that burned (1000 calories) It was real hard work and i hve been working very hard on the cardio for the past 11 days. Please don't tell me that all this has been for nothing. Surely if i stick with it for a few more weeks il see results?

[cassiegose]

Martin,

Yes, 6 meals a day EVERYDAY! Give it an honest shot friend! You might actually enjoy it!! By eating 6 meals a day I have more energy and I never feel totally hungry or experience that uncomfortably full feeling. PLUS I get to eat every 2 to 3 hours. I love to eat so this is definitely a plus for me! And by meals we're not talking 3 course all you can eat pig-outs. A meal for me is usually a bit of chicken and half a sweet potato or two sticks of low fat string cheese with a handful of almonds, or 5 eggwhites and an egg with a cucumber on the side (which is actually quite filling).

When I was 17 years old I worked a full time job while going to high school. I also did a great deal of my own grocery shopping and paid most of my own bills. Instead of continually saying "i'm only 17 I can't do that" maybe change your attitude to "I'm 17 now and ready to take on some responsibilty". In America, when you hit 18 your are considered an adult. By the time I was 18 I lived on my own, had a full time job and a part time job and was going to college all while exercising regularly and getting myself on a healthy diet. Sooo when you tell me that you're only 17 that honestly really don't mean anything to me. I'm not in any way trying to "toot my own horn" here, just telling you that i have a hard time with the excuses.

Moving on....

Youre meals today don't look horrible and it does appear that you are working to make healthier choices.

As i've suggested before, i would add more protein to breakfast. Eggs work really well with that meal.

Meal two looks great. Good job there!

Yes, you defintely need a snack before dinner... in fact, I usually have 3 meals between breakfast and dinner so you need food there.

The potatoes and meat are good for dinner. I would have veggies if possible too.

As for the sweets... I think you already know what i'm going to tell you here so i'm not even sure why i'm bothering with this one. I would skip the desert. If you're craving something sweet maybe have a piece of fruit (grapefruit is great!).

No, making healthy lifestyle changes doesn't mean that you will NEVER again be able to eat sweets or foods that you enjoy. However it does mean that you can't have these things everyday. I allow myself a "treat" once every 2 weeks IF i've been doing well on my diet. You could probably get by with having a couple of sweets a week as long as you are maintaining a healthy diet. If you were to add some muscle and increase that metabolism you might be able to get by with more. Its hard to say as every body is different. One good thing about it.... once you take the sweets out of your diet you won't crave them as much as it does get easier to stay away from them. And remember Martin this is your CHOICE. Nobody is forcing you to exercise and eat healthy. I'm offering suggestions but at the end of the day it is you that is making the ulimate decision. I think you need to sit down and figure out how bad your truly want this. If you don't mind spending the rest of your life feeling bad about the way you look then have yourself some chocolate and stop stressing yourself out. However, if you want to spend your life confident about how you look, full of energy, and ulimately healthier both physically and mentally then keep up the hard work and be patient for the results to come.

Its your choice. One thing that I continually tell myself is "nothing tastes as good as looking great feels". As i continue with this insanely strict diet and workout program that phrase often gets me through the day and keeps me motivated.

Cassie