I started working out and i want to get my stomach flatter and more in shape. I heard somewhere once that doing crunches and situps while you still have fat is bad because the fat will get pushed into the muscle and it will be harder to burn off. THat you should just run the fat off then work out your stomach to get it more toned. So whats the dope?
That sounds strange to me, first time I’ve ever heard that one. IANAD though.
One thing that you can’t do is “spot reduce” fat - diet and exercise will combine to give you the calorie imbalance that your body will handle by burning stored fat for energy, but you can’t pick and choose exactly where the fat comes from. Doing crunches will certainly make your abs stronger and the exercise will help you lose weight but it won’t automatically make you lose belly fat.
I have lost ~35lbs and I’d say that the majority of it came from my torso, that’s just where a lot of guys tend to carry the extra weight. Crunches are part of my regular routine and I’ve been doing them from the day that I started losing weight with no ill effects.
My advice would be to have a balanced strength training program (including exercises for your abdominals) as well as getting appropriate aerobic exercise (running or biking or swimming or walking or whatever is good for you). My experience has been that strength and endurance build on each other - being stronger makes it easier for me to run and ride farther, and increased endurance makes my strength workouts more enjoyable.
If you are looking at making sudden changes to your diet and exercise I’d also suggest that you talk to your doctor and get his advice. It’s a lot better to ramp up slowly to get used to it as opposed to going from “0 to 60” very fast, getting injured and then discouraged.
I don’t think it is possible to “push” fat anywhere.
Some of it is going to be your genes. You may never get that 6-pack abs. And men tend to put on weight around the waist first, and lose it last. Be patient.
You need to do cardio and weight training, and then eat sensibly. The weight training helps you build muscle, and the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn when you do your cardio. You don’t need to become a body, builder, but just low-weight, high-rep weight training will be fine. Especially for the larger muscle groups. Don’t worry about when you do crunches, but crunches alone aren’t going to give you the flat stomach-- you have to get rid of the fat before you can see the muscle. For your cardio, do whatever you enjoy the most. If you try to do something you don’t like, chances are you won’t stick with it. I like to mix up running and cycling. I’m lucky in that I can do both outside all year 'round.
For your diet, get rid of everything in your house that has “high fructose corn syrup” as one of the top ingredients. Cut back on refined cards (bread, pasta, rice), and eat more raw (or unrefined) vegetables. Try to eat lean meat, but as long as you’re not eating that much meat, it’s not a bid deal if you have a steak now and then. But turkey and chicken (skinless, preferred) is going to be the best. And cold-water fish (like salmon) once or twice a week.
Just eat less, and do basic cardio like running, biking or jumping rope. That’s it. Don’t even bother with situps, really - you already have the abdominal muscles down there, you just need to get the fat off of them.
I can definitely say in my own experience that this is more an issue of eating less than of exercise. I used to wrestle in high school. It’s completely possible to lose a dramatic amount of weight within the space of weeks, it’s just not healthy at all. A wiser approach is to just eat less, gradually. You’ll lose the weight, trust me.
IANAD but, simply put, big muscles burn big fat. Abs are not big muscles, legs are. Use your legs to burn it fastest (run, bike, hike).
I used to work in a warehouse for 12 hours a day and believe it or not i was pretty toned. I ate horrible as well but i burnt it all off so i actually did have a 6 pack. Now i work in an office…So go figure.
Weight gained is proportional to calories in – calories out.
Eat less and exercise more. Mostly eat less.
Face it. Unless you are a professional athlete, or under the age of 23, you can’t do it. My advice would be to buy bigger shirts — Peyton Manning
I think something got lost in translation. I’ve always heard that doing ab strenghting excercises will create bigger abs (think 6 pack) which will then push the belly fat out more thus giving the appearence of an even bigger belly.
If you drink alcohol, stop. Depending on how frequently you imbibe, you can drop some pounds pretty quickly when you eliminate adult beverages from your “diet”.
It might not be the “best” way, but I’d imagine a liposuction and tummy tuck would spot reduce just the belly.
Most of the time, when men have a big gut (like this), it’s internal fat on the omentum as opposed to fat between the muscles and the skin. So lipo and a tummy tuck isn’t going to do you any good.
Since this the The Straight Dope…
the best way is a combination of proper diet, exercise and hormone replacement/supplemental therapy. Currently HRT (with, for example, HGH and anabolic steroids) is fairly controversial because for some odd reason we have decided athletes cheat when they use “steroids.”
You cannot change your genes, and your genes will govern how you respond to diet and exercise. More specifically, they govern the cellular chemistry response to diet and exercise.
Within a few years (5-10 as a WAG?) HRT will become a very ordinary, standard route to a more fit appearance. Right now though, it’s pretty hard for Joe Layperson to get decent HRT in the absence of lab tests which show what are considered pathologically low levels. There is widespread disagreement about what those “normal” levels are, or should be. If everyone has a declining testosterone as they age, it’s “normal” to have a lower testosterone when you are 60. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be preferable to have a higher level…muscle burns fat and anabolic steroids build muscle so you can probably figure it out from there.
The sports “problem” around HRT is ruining it for those of us who dream of a day when we can get fit even as we sit on our fat A$$es staring at a computer screen. There will come a day when we figure what exercise itself is doing at a cellular level to trigger better muscles (or we’ll just fix your genes themselves), and then we can skip the exercise as well.
I came in to chime in with Chief Pendant - you need to reduce overall body fat (diet and cardio) and weight train to get definition.
There really is no other way. You can do sit-ups until the cows come home but if they are covered with a layer of fat you are never going to see them.
I can recommend the * Body for Life * book as an excellent guide to this plan. It’s a simple to follow plan and you need minimal equipment.
Good luck and please check out the Straight Dope Weight Loss Group for added support
Just being older might have something to do with it, too. I don’t know how old you are now, but trust me on this-- it gets tougher every year. (I made the turn onto the back 9 a few years ago, and am now headed back to the clubhouse.)
When I was younger we used to say: Keep the engine running and you can throw anything in for fuel. That might have been true a decade or so ago, but I find it increasingly difficult to make that happen now.
You don’t have to necessarily eat less as long as you eat smart. Replace some of those empty calories with more fiber-containing foods, and you’ll feel just as full but won’t have as many calories to burn.
My God, are you crazy! 
Actually, you’re spot on. But it’s not necessary. Some of us are able to keep our weight down without giving up the nectar of the gods.
Since this is The Straight Dope - cite? What makes you think this sort of thing will become more acceptable in the future?
You are asking for a cite on something I labeled a Wild-Ass Guess?
Anyway…HRT will become more acceptable because it is effective and safe.
Seemed to me that only the 5-10 year figure was the WAG part, and the rest of the sentence was presented as something obvious. I agree with your philosophy but I just doubt it’ll happen anytime soon, especially with all the recent uproar in Major League Baseball.
My fault entirely for poor wording.
At some point in the future we will be able to manipulate genes and replace perfectly (via genes or external administration) what age robs from us. That’s not much of an insight, so I was trying to put the WAG around the time frame.
It will be fun to see if we layfolk get to have unfettered access to HRT before the athletes get unfettered access to (gasp!) Performance Enhancing Drugs, aka HR for the most part. But my guess (another WAG) is that the brouhaha over athletes will go away as HRT becomes increasingly accepted in mainstream anti-aging medicine and PED increasingly difficult to police in athletes.
Was a time in my own lifetime when the Olympics banned “professionals” and it was anathema to consider allowing them. I seen that change coming too.