Can't seem to lose the big, flabby tummy
 

Hello All,

I have been lurking for quite a while and finally got the nerve up to join a little while back. I can not tell you how great, useful and motivational this site is!

Now, on to the issue at hand - lost a lot of weight but can not seem to lose this tummy and believe me it is nasty! I am not kidding when I say I am starting to look like an insect - arms and legs shrinking with this big abdomen. It is getting difficult to buy clothes since if they fit me in the waist they hang off of my non-existent hips and butt.

I work out regularly but due to a back injury can not do floor exercises and need to be extremely careful about bending or putting pressure on my lower back for about 2 more months, so I have been doing cardio - sometimes even twice a day! Every morning after a couple of cups of coffee I take a brisk walk with my dog for 30-45 minutes. Then on alternating days I either jog/walk where a typical split would be about 15 minutes jogging with 5 minutes walking recovery and another 15 minutes jogging and cool down. On the other days I ride the stationary bike at a moderate pace with heart level at 60-70 percent for 30 to 45 minutes.

I rotate my calories so that for a few days I am on about 1000 calories with very low carbs - just non starchy veggies, lots of green - and low fat with only about 25 grams of which only about 5 grams saturated fat and get around 150-160 grams of protein. Every 3rd day I add in about 300 calories of high fiber carbs. On top of this I take a multi-vitamin every day and drink between 4.5 and 6 liters of water a day.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I am just so frustrated that the tummy isn't going anywhere and I have not seen the scale move in a while.

Thanks in advance and have a great day!!!!

It seems like the biggest thing you can do for your figure would be to pack some muscle mass onto your butt and legs, which means training hard, cardio won't do it. You're limited in the exercises you can do because of your back, but there are modifications which can still be very effective.

I hold my fat in the same spot - middle belly, and upper rear hips... so from experience changing yor proportions and building bigger butt muscles and thighs will make that belly look a lot better. Plus it's always great to have a nice, fit, butt! Unfortunately you'll have to get your bodyfat pretty low in order to reduce the fat on your actual
waistline. It's going to leave there last.

There is also a thread around somewhere about how bodyfat shifts around once you're done losing fat, to become more proportional...
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=23367

take care,
Meg

Meg,

Thanks for the reply! I went to the link you gave found some fantastic information - as usual from what I have experienced with this site. I will try to the body brushing and have a doctor's appointment in a week or so to check the progress on my back and then I will ask him if I can have the green light to do some modified exercises.

Thanks again :-)