I swam for years and always kept in great shape.
I quit for 2 years. After turning 41, which was 7 months ago, I started back up again. I swim 5 days a week for an hour, mostly freestyle. I'm in great shape again everywhere except for this stomach fat I can't seem to lose. Can anyone recommend any good workouts that can get rid of this?
Interesting salvage of a 7 year old thread!
Whatever happened to Phil Arcuni?
Sorry, Sylvia, but it's a myth to think that any exercise will selectively remove belly fat.
Lose weight, exercise to preserve muscle mass, and it's probably genetic which areas of an individual's body is likely to see the most shrinkage.
Supposedly, lower body weight is particularly hard to lose.
"Somewhere?" I read that swimmers who participated in workouts composed mostly of sets of intervals tended to have smaller waistlines than swimmers who just swum laps or easy paced intervals. I wish I could remember more about this article.
According to the below article discussing belly fat on slim women, cutting the stress out of your life may be more helpful than any diet or exercise program.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1120072314.htm
Hard intervals of any type of exercise tend to burn more calories than steady state exercise. So if they are leaner in the waist, it just means they are burning more calories off than they eat. On some people, the waist is much more sensitive to processed carbs, especially women as we get older. Eat foods closer to their source(i.e fruits, veggies, whole grains), and stay away from highly processed foods, and it helps. Don't need to go away from carbs, just choose wisely on the types of carbs.
I have the same problem to an extent. My abs are pretty hard but they aren't cut (4 pack or 6 pack).
A diet could help significantly. Through out my years (which isn't long) I've always ran and skated (hockey) before but never really had a proper diet...well unless you consider the "seefood" diet :D. To me working on your abs is more about the diet then the workout. Also, loosing weight is much more difficult if your already trim and in shape.
Running does help though. Burns more calories but is very harsh on the body. I actually picked up swimming since my knees were starting to really feel the stress of running.
Sorry for my incoherent rambling. I think running and a proper diet would get rid of most unwanted fat for almost anyone. Its rather funny because I always work out more/harder when I know I'm going to eat something that's horrible for my body later in the day...tonight its fried bread:):bouncing:
others have said it, but lets say it again, the only way to lose fat is to burn more calories than you take in. Only to the extent that crunches burn calories will they help you lose stomach fat.
I suggest a food log for everyone. I am sure that there are free food logs online that will automatically track your calories. This is invaluable. many people are shocked when they find out that they average 2500 calories per day.
I hired a trainer and we did all sorts of activities where we measured my caloric burn using a Body-Bug. Over 30 minutes I average about 14 calories burned per minute on a bike and treadmill and on a Stairmaster about 15 per minute. However, what really burned calories for me was to do 3 minutes all out on the stairmaster followed by 7 minutes of resistance training. I was close to 20 per minute with that routine.
(oh you cannot use a body-bug in the water)
