how to lose a beer gut?

Well to cut a long, dark story short booze use to be a good friend of mine during a time in which exercise was non existent & oily foods was consumed regularly even @ a late time of midnight. My current state is a direct manifestation of this time in my life......


......I've sinced been as active as i can considering i was blessed with child last year and time now seems some what scarce. Walking for 10 mins became 20, 30, to an hour. I now play basketball to keep active as well as 30 mins sessions on the tread mill. The only thing that doesn't seem to be improving is my belly.

I now try to eat well but tempatations get me slipping once in a while but i have the idea that if i do happen to eat say hot chips that it's alright since i can work it out on the tread mill.....is this ok?


What are things i can do to help improve the state of my gut and assist in losing weight around this area?

how old are u?

31 years young

atleast ur not in ur 40's yet so it won't take as long.

you have to do a crap load of cardio and start eating right. basketball and treadmill are fine, but if ur knees start to hurt, get on a stepmaster. your goal is to probably lose somewhere between 15-25 pounds b4 u start seeing ur belly disappear. your stomach fat is the last thing to go for various reasons so keep working hard and eating well.

-limit fast food to maybe 1-2 times a week.
-no more sodas/pop/juice/beer as they are all empty calories. stick with water
-fruits are good, but they also contain sugar so don't over do yourself with fruits. veggies are a must thou.
-if you want quicker results head to a nutrition store and ask for stuff that doesn't affect your heart (like caffeine).

once you see a difference in your face and arms (being leaner), then you can start doing exercises for your stomach.

there will probably be tons of advice other members give you, and im sure they all work as well. i just told u what i did to shed 20 pounds in 2 months.

the journey is long....but i believe in you.

Best of Luck and keep me updated

Try and cut out any junk carbs for awhile.....  No:  white bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.   As we get older our bodies are slower to break them down, inturn slower to use them for energy. Then any excess carbs store as fat(on your gut) So if your eating alot(relative to age and condition) of sugar/carbs it may take 24 hrs as apposed to 8hrs 5 years ago to leave your system.  If it were me i would come damn close to fasting on nothing but lean protein(fish, chicken and any green veg) for a week straight. This will give your body time to start using your body fat for energy.(fat from your belly)  Then reintroduce carbs in very small amounts over the next month.

Ive seen good results with this method.     

I use an elliptical - I fucked up my fibula a while back jumping onto Georgia Tech's BB court... It's low impact and can really get your heart rate up.

I went from 262 to my current 182 in 7 months (I'm 6'0") by doing that and eating a very low calorie / no sugar diet.

I do believe in low carbs (I eat a big bowl of cereal for breakfast, but no carbs after that). In particular, keeping a low blood sugar level (by reduced carb intake) and taking advantage of ketosis (google it if you're unfamilar with this), in which the body burns fat rather than carbs and protein for energy.

It's been my experience that fat comes off as LIFO (last in - first out). The belly is probably the first place you put it on, hence the last it'll come off. While you can't "spot reduce" fat, you can strengthen your ab region by doing crunches and other such exercises. Putting on muscle in that region will also increase your metabolism and aid in fat loss.

i use to only use a treadmill, but i agree longshot, it starts to get awfully hard on your knees, tib/fib after a while.  eliptical is a nice alternative, although running imo is a better choice.

you may want to hold off on doing a lot of crunches/sit ups until you shed some weight.  otherwise, you'll just be packing on muscle underneath that beer gut, which will in turn push out that beer gut further, and in doing so will make you look even more overweight

You're absolutely right cmo.

I meant to say that after one loses a good bit of weight, it's a good idea to strengthen the ab region. I lost my weight faster than my skin could keep up so I'm still working on getting that toned look in that area.

Lipo

Thank god I'm not a fat ass like a lot of the posters on this site

And my wife loves my flat stomach

The problem is how you are working out. Walking, 30 min jogging, and a little basketball isn't going to offset your diet and lower metabolism.

If you only have 10 hours a week to work out, you need to hit it like your child's life depends on it. I'm talking 2 mile a day in under 30 mins, jump rope for 30 mins, speed weight lifting ( light weights but a lot of rep done quickly), basketball with teens-early 20 year olds, swimming, and boxing.


Those activities above are just suggestions but you need to do a combination of calorie burning and metabolism boosting.

Running is the best way to burn but not if you run slow for short periods. Many people have trouble pushing themselves which is why running often doesn't work for them. This is when you swtich to rope work or a sport like swimming and basketball. The focus and compatition needed to perform those tasks forces people to puch themselves properly. But you need to make sure you do your part and play for longer than an hour.

To boost metabolism, you need to improve your musles. But you need lean musles, not bulking musles. Many people make the mistake of trying to lift the max all the time. This is great if you want to bulk up or improve short term strength. But if you want to lose wieght and create a system to fight weight gain, you need to create lean musles. With most men, that means curling 20 lb dumbbells 100 times rather than 40 lb dumbells 50 times. Boxing is another great why to do this since hitting that bag all day will improve your musles too.

muscles require more calories to burn fat..so the more muscle you have in essence the more you can eat, however eating fairly healthy...the recommendations so far have beeen good.

Find your niche, try and have good portion control and find a good medium... GL

Cheers gentlemen, some very valuable recommendations in this post


OK from what i have gathered from people's replies and in consideration for time around my family & work, convenience for everyday healthy practice and practicality this is what I'm deciding to do for a start for my surge to lose weight around my stomach area:



- Continue to run for 30 mins on the tread mill (8 kmph - vary to 11-12  kmph for several mins) every 2nd day (sometimes consecutively if time permits me) & repetitive light weight training in between. We also have our weekly sunday basketball where we play full court for 2.5 hours in the morning. When the weather is good (spring here right now & will be summer here soon) i also shoot around several times during the week and do some running on the crt for about 30-40 mins all up.

- My diet is what's going to change the most and discipline is what i'm going to have to practice. I am currently on a fish diet and eating fruits and vegies but eating some junk also. I will cut down on the junk and will only eat wholemeal Bread, Fish, Chicken and Vegies with fruits for my sugar ravings. I usualy have oats for breakfast with green tea. I will only drink Water and some gatorade for those dehydrating workouts and i also drink alot of green tea. So no more Pasta, white bread, potatoes, orange juice and rice.



This is just to start off with to lose some weight. As wjeremy stated i will have to lose around 15-25 pounds which is pretty accurate as i am currently about 136 pounds and my original weight before the weight gain is about 121 pounds so i want to lose about 15 pounds (6kg's).



What you guys think of the plan.

You're 136 and have a beer gut??? How tall are you?

There are a few things i am concerned about:

I learned that if you exercise regularly you must put back the calories you lost in order for you to have energy to work out the following day. Some times i run on the treadmill consecutive days and i need that energy so i thought it was ok to eat say hot chips after i exercised only if i was working out the next day. What sort of foods should i eat instead of junk in order to put back calories and have the energy if i am to exercise consecutive days?

I also was told that eating something sweet such as candy 30 mins after you exercise is good in order for you to have energy the following day. Should i just eat fruits to get the same sugar intake?


Also i know beer is bad and i rarely drink beer now for the past several years but is whiskey say a few glassess once every week or 2 ok? Whiskey goes hand in hand with poker or is this something i must sacrafice also



One more thing what sort of cardio work outs in context of losing belly fat can i add to my exercise?

I'm 5'4" TALL


As i stated my original weight is 121 pounds, during my booze & junk food binge i ballooned to almost 154 pounds and for my height that is BIG. Now i am see-sawing around 132-136. i haven't been below 132 pounds in years so my first goal is to reach below 132 pounds and then i know i am in the right path.

Oh BTW the encouragements are great, very much appreciated!


I don't really have a goal in regards to amount of time i set myself to losing the weight, i'm taking this more as a day to day thing as i know this is going to be a grueling, slow process but in the back of my head i'm thinking 2 months.

Food wise stay away from junk food and fast food. Unless you work out like a gym rat such foods will hinder your weight loss.

To re-energize, proteins are the best. Eggs, bananas, prunes, and non-fried chicken as an example. For carbs, eat things that also have high fiber content. Oatmeal and whole wheat bread are good. If you need sugar, fruits are always better than candy because fruits are generally also high in fiber.