Belly fat.....the scourge of men (and women) :)

Weight loss
1

Hello all…new Hueligan here… :wave:t3:

I’ve just switched over to Huel as a protein drink replacement and lunch after my daily workout.

Prior to Huel, I was either starving myself (no lunch), or drinking a vile tasting protein shake after my daily workout.

I do 30-50 minutes (depending on the number of meetings I have), hard training on Zwift daily. I’ve been at it solid for almost 3 months now training 6 days per week. (5 days on Zwift, Saturday rest day with the family, and then a long outdoor ride on the Sunday).

I’m losing weight steadily which is great, and my body fat has fallen from 13% to just over 11% and I’ve lost 3.6kg since February down from 84.1 to 80.5%

Overall, I’m very happy with my progress, and even more so with my VO2 of 54, so my cardio training is working out well.

However, with this all aside, I simply cannot shift my belly fat. It’s there and no matter how hard I work out and exercise, I simply cannot shift it.

I’m not looking for a six-pack or huge abs. I just want to shift the fat from my belly and have a flatter stomach. Last year I managed to drop to 74kg and just 8.2% body fat, but the belly was always there. Marginally smaller but it was clear as day. Unfortunately, a combination of injury, then illness, redundancy and a huge amount of stress made me pile on the pounds and I shot up over the winter months to 84kg.

I’m on a mission to fix this, and return to my former weight but what does a man have to do to shift the belly fat?!!?!?

I’m hoping that initially replacing Huel for my lunches will help (drinking Huel black), but I don’t want to replace too many meals yet. This is my first double pack. If I see the benefit after a month, I may consider replacing breakfast with Huel too, but I enjoy poached eggs in the morning (usually two), on a single slice of toast, or maybe some scrambled eggs.

The point is, I want to enjoy my diet. Not suffer by it.

Evenings I tend to eat “normally”. Meats,veg, fish. All homemade and fresh, be it bolognese or BBQ meats, etc…

I frequently eat salads with spinach, tomatoes, nuts and olive oil, sometimes with accompanying meats like chicken, fresh bbq turkey breast and I don’t drink sugary drinks. Only fizzy water and the odd Coronita beer here and there as a treat.

There must be a way to rid me of this!!! Suggestions welcome!

2

Accurately count calories in the food you eat, eat less, exercise more. Be very conservative in estimating calorie numbers for exercise, since working out uses up very few calories.

Huel helps with calculating the amount of calories you eat, if you use food scales to measure it out.

There is no way to selectively remove fat from any body part.

3

It’s not just men who have trouble getting rid of belly fat. Would be great if we could choose where our fat gets deposited. Perhaps spread it around a bit too.

2 Likes
4

Fair enough regarding all genders. It just seems to be my blight and that of many men you see around and about. I don’t want to end up with that permanent pot belly…

Regarding @rikefrejut’s answer, thank you. Generally speaking, I burn around 500-700 calories on a weekly workout session. I always round up to the nearest 100 and never go below 500. On Sundays, my active calorie consumption on a typical ride is anywhere between 1,500 and 4,000 calories on a single ride. (The latter was a 133km cycle with about 2,400m elevation gain, but I do that from time to time).

I’m not sure I can exercise more without burning out. I work a 10 hour day and mix my exercise in between that on the indoor trainer. Remember, I’m not looking for muscular abs. I’d just like a flatter stomach. My legs are very toned as you might imagine from the cycling, and my back too from the core workout. My arms, not so much but they are fairly toned, but that belly fat just doesn’t want to shift!

5

Go get some HIIT TRAINING :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

Seriously. Doing 3 x 20 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training in combination with lifting those weights or using your bodyweight (I do calisthenics)

A combination of HIIT, Bodyweight training and ensuring I was in a sustainable calorie deficit resulted in the results I achieved. I went from being kinda lean to lean lean.

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My lifestyle was as follows.

I was also working 5 x 8 hours shifts that included heavy lifting (6am - 2pm) I had Black Edition for breakfast whilst at work, then I had Huel Black Edition straight after my post-workout (straight after work) On average I was doing 20,000 steps a day x 5 = 100,000 steps a week just from work.

I was hitting around 1,100 - 1,200 calories (taking into account blended fruits, yoghurt etc.) from breakfast / post-workout lunch. When I had dinner my total intake came to around 1800-2000 calories give or take.

This is what worked for me of course though in order to get leeeeeean (as you probs know) you gotta work hard and play harder.

6

Do you have a body goal in mind? Guessing minimal body fat?

7

Gone are the days where I had a stomach like that :sweat_smile:

8

It is NEVER too late my friend :muscle:hahha

9

Wait till you get in your 40’s :sweat_smile:

11

how the hell did you have 8% BF and still have a belly. Don’t abs show at like 10% or something?

as for @anon40342979 save these pics for friends and family please :slight_smile:

2 Likes
12

Very likely an incorrect measure. You’ll typically start seeing striations at 8% bodyfat.

People used to come here a lot using those scales you get on Amazon which “measure” your bodyfat. They were often wildly incorrect and misleading.

Belly fat is 12%+ IMO

13

Im sitting pretty at 14.8% at the moment. 10% has been the lowest I have been (2 years ago). Ive said from now im happy between 14-15%

1 Like
14

Is the fat hard or soft?

Have you checked yourself for diastasis recti? This can often be confused for a fat stomach.

15

Yeah, I’m at the same point.

Dropped down to being super lean at one point but realised I’d lost track of what my goal was. I hover at 15-20% now but that suits my workouts which are entirely barbell based. I’d rather have size and power than striations.

There’s a fine line sub 10% between looking amazing and looking like a prisoner of war!

16

During the most recent UK lockdown I managed to lost about a stone, most of which was body fat. I had a kettlebell and some weights to do home workouts to try and keep muscle built up in the gym and as a result I had to drill a new hole in my belt because it was too big, but my t-shirts got tighter around the chest and shoulders.

So, in your case weight lifting might help here too - increasing muscle size has the dual benefit of a) making your stomach look smaller relatively speaking, and b) increasing the base rate of calories burnt in a day.

If you keep doing cardio and cutting calories all you will do is lose body fat and muscle, when really to balance out your body shape you’ll want to increase your ratio of muscle to fat.