Getting rid of fat

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
Yeah, obviously, calories in, calories out, exercise, diet control....

I know this. I could teach a class in it. Both subjects.

I don't know what's going on. For some odd weird, bizarre reason, I'm accumulating fat in the midsection. No place else, just there. I seriously want to hack it off with a knife.

I don't get it. It makes no sense. I eat a good diet. I am mostly low carb. For some reason my midsection has decided it needed more padding and I don't really eat differently than I use to and if anything I exercise more on a daily basis.

Sono Bello? Those outfits that will surgically remove fat? I'm there if I need to go there. I'd rather not but, still, I'm there. Any suggestions?
 
Gets very frustrating as we age,you could go the Lypo route.
 
I use to think it was just calories in/calories out but that seems to be far from the whole story.

Sugar. It is in a LOT of things you might consider "healthy" and is disguised as a lot of different names and ingredients. Talking processed and refined, not fruits and natural sugars. Crap is evil when it comes to body fat more so than "carbs".

Also, don't drink your calories. Water, coffee, tea...everything else just will stick to you like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

That...and welcome to getting old!
 
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Yeah me too Sac. But I'm old. I eat healthy, exercise, but do drink a few beers, ahem, now & then. Midsection is where's it at, so you just gotta accept it or work out 22 hours a day or something. I dunno. I've accepted it. I love my midsection. Uh huh. :dunno:
 
Go see you doctor and have your thyroid function tested. If the thyroid is not functioning correctly it can cause weight gain even with daily exercise. Just went through this with my wife. She complained about weight gain to her doctor who was sharp enough to suspect the thyroid and tested her blood chemistry. She is now on a daily pill and has lost twenty pounds with no other changes. She still exercisises daily and is slimmimg down nicely. Even her butt is tigtening up. Come to think of it I have something to do.............bye
 
Welcome to the world of being old..!!!!

I think part of my current health problem was due to my weight. I remember when I was young(er) I ate 5 small meals a day, and never gained an ounce. I'll admit that I was very active at that time as well.

Since the heart attack I went back to 5 small meals a day and lost 5 pounds in September and 7 pounds in October without exercise. Now that I have been given permission to start exercising, I hope to knock off 10 pounds a month for the next 4 months.
 
Corporate sponsorship of Naturally Slim worked for me and mine, I am sure GooFoo will tell you what they told me. Drinking allowed.
 
I tol’ ya’ll that the sac was washed up, over the hill and done. Now he admits it. Time to hang’em up Sac and retire to the BBQ circuit.
 
I have met Sac, he is fit. That said, after you pass 50, the rules change.
 
Interstitial fat. Starts well before 50.

It ain't going away without surgery. If I recall correctly, individual cells pop the nucleus out and so are now a dollop of fat that can't be burned by the body. I probably don't recall fully correctly, but close.

Also recall it was 1/2 pound per year for men after age 25, subject to lots of individual variation based on genetics, diet, lifestyle, etc.
 
I lost 75lbs over the course of 4 years by simply counting calories... Kept it 1500 or less per day ( I'm pretty inactive, save house and yard stuff)... I found that I came to a plateau that seems impenetrable (about 10 pounds from my goal) So I've pretty much come to grips with "here I am, and here I'll stay." That said, I found that you need a way to actually count the calories... you may be taking in more than you think you are... Download "fitness Pal" App, and track everything you put in your mouth... you may be surprised...
 
G-Man said:
Interstitial fat. Starts well before 50.

Also recall it was 1/2 pound per year for men after age 25, subject to lots of individual variation based on genetics, diet, lifestyle, etc.
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One figure I recall from the Personal Trainer classes I took was that, on average, adults lose about 10% of their muscle mass per decade. The implication is that while one can be proud of holding the line on weight gain over the decades, one is still becoming “fatter” over time.

One other thing to point out: muscle training is specific. Obviously you get bigger arm by training your arms. But fat loss is systemic - you cannot “target” certain areas, and a lot of time is wasted in gyms trying to do so.
 
It is a struggle. I lift at the gym three days a week, run two, and bicycle pretty much the rest, and if I'm not careful, it starts to pack on around the mid-section. The only surefire way that I've been able to eliminate mid-section fat is to go totally vegetarian. And by Vegetarian, I mean all vegetables, fruits, and beans, no grains. I think the grains contribute more to fat issues than most realize.
 
FastEddieB said:
One figure I recall from the Personal Trainer classes I took was that, on average, adults lose about 10% of their muscle mass per decade. The implication is that while one can be proud of holding the line on weight gain over the decades, one is still becoming “fatter” over time.

One other thing to point out: muscle training is specific. Obviously you get bigger arm by training your arms. But fat loss is systemic - you cannot “target” certain areas, and a lot of time is wasted in gyms trying to do so.
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That is one reason I'm a big fan of deadlifts and squats. Those exercises work not only legs, but work the core pretty hard. You don't have to do lots of weight, just do them.
 
Unless there are significant metabolic problems it is still calories in and calories out. Just have to eat less or exercise more. Most folks do better with the eating less.
 
What are your macros? Sometimes you have to eat more to lose as strange as that sounds. Plus the clock is ticking... What is your testosterone levels, have you been stressed lately? Try intermintenet fasting.

And all calories are not created equal.
 
If "Wheat Belly" wasn't enough for you? Read "Grain Brain". Fascinating stuff.
 
steingar said:
Unless there are significant metabolic problems it is still calories in and calories out. Just have to eat less or exercise more. Most folks do better with the eating less.
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It is calories in calories out but what people gloss over is the process that converts calories to body fat. It is not true that all calories do this the same. A calorie is simply a unit of heat but think of a fat calorie being packaged differently from a carb calorie. A calorie is a calorie but how your body handles the packaging matters. It is now (finally!!) accepted by the medical community that carbs of the non-fibrous kind spike your blood sugar and force a release of insulin which over time causes obesity and diabetes - which they always knew for diabetics but for some reason didn't seem to want to apply that to the general community. (The "some reason" being the government promoted food pyramid - a.k.a. one of the most destructive pieces of propaganda in the history of mankind.)

So the mainstream medical community finally admits that the kind of calories matters (aside from simple mass density), although it had to be dragged kicking and screaming. As recently as five years ago my sister's PCP was still telling her to eat a low fat diet, when she complained about her new middle aged pot. To the doctor's credit, she has since reversed herself and is now telling her to eat low carb.

I agree with you the eating matters more than the exercise. To the OP, I agree with the advice to get the thyroid checked, (well, and make sure it is fat and not ascites) but if you are of a certain age, the belly is probably there to stay. You can shrink it, but not eliminate it entirely. But if you are young, take this as a wake up call. Some middle aged pot may paradoxically be healthy in older people but is definitely not healthy in the young.

Incidentally, whenever I promote low carb I feel I must restate that this doesn't mean I think all fats and proteins are healthy. Trans and rancid fats are virtually poison, and animal protein should be the natural variety, not industrial factory meat, for both ethical and health reasons. And the carbs to be limited are sugars, grains and starches, and need to be severely restricted or eliminated entirely. Whole non-starchy veggies are not what I mean by carb in this context.
 
steingar said:
Unless there are significant metabolic problems it is still calories in and calories out. Just have to eat less or exercise more. Most folks do better with the eating less.
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Ah, no. Your body will treat 1000 calories of refined carbohydrates very differently than it will treat the same amount of protein and fat.
 
FormerHangie said:
Ah, no. Your body will treat 1000 calories of refined carbohydrates very differently than it will treat the same amount of protein and fat.
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Learn some nutrition. Carbohydrate is more energy dense than protein, less so than fat. Balance and moderation in all things.
 
Everything causes an insulin spike, and some more than others. Egg whites alone cause a higher spike than a whole egg so cramming down 15 egg whites is not as good for you as you think when it comes to losing fat. And if insulin is spiked you're not losing fat. That's why I recommend intermittent fasting. You can have up to 16 hours of no insulin spike. It's just a tool in the box of tricks.

Take a break as well....deload at the gym and do a refeed. That might help as well. Exercising more usually will wreck things unless you eat more.
 
Your just on a permanent bulk bruh...no worries...cutting is for chumps. Eat big to get big.
 
Look into intermittent fasting, has a lot to do with the circadian rythm of your liver. I need to start doing it again. I lost 25 pounds in 2 months, while eating more calories and not changing anything else. (read: I dont exercise, lol)

Dr. Sachin Panda does a lot of the leading research with it.
 
And intermittent fasting also increases Testosterone and lean mass gains. Terry Crews has been doing it for years.
 
Same thing happens to me Sac, only thing that beats it is me, repeatedly kicking my a$$ with exercise and cutting out most carbs, especially simple carbs. Get checked by the doc for thyroid, that gets fixed by meds, the rest is just hard work and discipline.

I've gained a few pounds in the past month, maybe we can do a weight loss contest.
 
FormerHangie said:
Ah, no. Your body will treat 1000 calories of refined carbohydrates very differently than it will treat the same amount of protein and fat.
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I've been testing this myself just using finger prick blood sugar. A meal of only meat, fat and salad totaling 700 calories my BS at one hour is 90. But I eat two slices of cherry pie totaling 700 calories my one hour is 140. Don't even try to argue this makes no difference, the verdict is in, it's laid to rest.

If you really want to lose weight, get a test kit and keep your BS under 100 24/7. Eat however you have to in order to do that. You will quickly find that if you try to consume refined carbs at all, you'll have to keep it to tiny portions and you will probably be tormented with hunger and cravings.

Now keep in mind that if you are young or have no tendency to pre-diabetes then it will be a lot easier to keep you BS low but you have to remember, your pancreas has to pump out a huge glob of insulin when you consume that 700 calories of carbs. It does not need to do that with the 700 calories of meat and fat. The real problem isn't the blood sugar reading per se, it's the way your body has to scramble to process that carb hit to keep your BS from rising to tissue-damaging levels.

The finger prick testing is flawed in that sense because with a well functioning pancreas (liver, and everything else) the strain of consuming the high carb hit is masked. If your BS tests under 120 forty five minutes after pigging out on cake and sugar, consider yourself lucky because it's a good predictive sign you won't go on to developed type 2 diabetes, but don't be lulled into complacency. You're still placing harsh demands on your system. And there is plenty of evidence that empty carb calories such as refined sugar and flour have other problematic effects (pro-inflammatory, etc.)

Another way to look at it is processed foods are in general less healthy. The bad carbs tend to be highly processed but this also applies to processed fat and meat, but those are bad for other reasons, not the high insulin spike!
 
steingar said:
Learn some nutrition. Carbohydrate is more energy dense than protein, less so than fat. Balance and moderation in all things.
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I actually agree with this (the bold part). Despite all my preaching, we live in the environment in which we live. It takes super human willpower to say no to cake when everyone around you is eating it and the evidence has proven, as far as I'm concerned, that trying to stay 100% "treat celibate" tends to backfire. You end up feeling deprived. The key is figuring out how to incorporate the occasional treat into your life, or your day in small enough amounts, in such a way as to avoid triggering the carb craving addiction in those of us thusly afflicted.

The problem isn't that I ate a cookie. The problem is when I let that cookie become 20 cookies for breakfast, then 20 more for lunch, then fake my way through a healthy dinner only to eat 20 more cookies at bedtime.
 
I have found what helps me even in my advancing age is less calorie intake and more calorie burn.

One of my problems is that when I get bored I want to snack on something. When I sit at my desk to take care of paper work I would grab a snack. Stopping those two habits has been the biggest obstacle so far.
 
I think I've just been having too many excursions lately and it's catching up with me. Funny thing is that when I'm in Vietnam, I drink beer (beer is cheap, hard stuff is pricey) yet I still lose weight. But I'm also eating a very different diet there and not much of it. Here, I'm surrounded by food. Food at home. Food at work. Food available for midnight munchies. Food food food.

I think I just need to redefine my relationship with food.
 
steingar said:
Learn some nutrition. Carbohydrate is more energy dense than protein, less so than fat. Balance and moderation in all things.
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I'm quite familiar with the differing energy densities of food. What I'm getting at is that your body has a complex hormonal response to what you put in it, and that will be quite different if you ate 500 calories of grilled chicken breast and roast vegetables as opposed to drinking two 20 ounce bottles of Dr. Pepper.
 
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