Stomach fat

Assuming you are more or less an average sized woman--somewhere between 5'1" and 5'10"--and you weight from 115-152 lb., give or take, your basal metabolic rate has to be somewhere in the ball park of 1200 + kcals per day. In other words, you need this much just to stay alive, even if you spend 24 hours a day lying around in bed. Here is a basal metabolic calculator: health.discovery.com/.../basal.html Mine is 1178 calories/day. I'm 5'1", 108 lbs.

So, to finally get rid of the spare tire... I should go do another two weeks of starving like I did back in November? I have been doing an interesting exercise recently... I place a foam roller in such a position so it fits snugly between my shoulder blades. Then I have to lift up my legs and arms and try to balance my back on the foam roller. Great for straightening it out, supposedly. It's also great for the stomach. And every morning after you get the joy of waking up to a vertical line of soreness running up the center of the your back. Always a refreshing feeling. Of course, I don't know if it does diddley squat about the ole tire.

Jim- You are exactly right. I do not understand it either. That's why I'm asking. I did not overstate my working out, not understate my food intake. The nutrition program I'm doing is: a shake of 238 calories, a regular lunch that is usually a turkey/cheese bagel sandwich and water, and a shake for dinner, again 238 calories. All said that is probably around 1100 calories? When I was hungry I would have a regular dinner with the family and that may have bumped me up to around 1500 calories for the day. I was swimming all of those days on average of 3,400yds. I usually has one GU before workout and Accelerade at the gym. I do not drink coffee. Some friends I know suggested that maybe my body went into starvation mode. I went to the dr. and was not at all pleased with his neck diagnosis as it may take up to a year to heal :badday: I did ask about cortisol. He said that measuring cortisol is like measuring any other hormone and that it fluctuates from day to day, so it would be hard to get an accurate reading. He also said that he didn't know what we would do with that information, as "treating" too much cortisol isn't something that is done. There hasn't been much, if any, medical research done on this according to him. He told me to concentrate on my neck for now. Anna Lea- cool calculator. Mine was 1593. Maybe my body was in starvation mode?

The nutrition program I'm doing is: a shake of 238 calories, a regular lunch that is usually a turkey/cheese bagel sandwich and water, and a shake for dinner, again 238 calories. I thought torture was illegal? Between this diet plan and waterboarding I think I might take the waterboarding!

Thanks Jim. I guess my problem is that I am too competitive, with myself above all. I'm a perfectionist unfortunately. I know to swim faster that this stomach needs to go away- it's as simple as that, and not so simple! I am an extremely healthy person. In fact, whenever I see my doctor and complain of my stomach she reminds me that my health is great and not to worry. (My HR is usually low 100s/high 60s, and my resting pulse is in the upper 50s). I can work out at a very high HR (in the upper 180s for a long time) and then it comes right back down. So, I know I'm healthy, and I attribute it lately to this nutrition program, however, the battle of the bulge rages on! Maybe I'll try eating more, although now that I can't work out that's probably not a good idea!

Karen - could it be hormonal? Are you on BCP? I have heard from my doc and other docs that this could explain some of the problems women have. Just a thought.

I agree especially with Bert and Dorothy. Do serious core exercises like Pilates or stability (as it's laughingly referred to) ball; and don't eat cookies, pies, cakes, and other pastry.

This site has free food log as well as a ton of other health tools if anyone is interested. http://www.sparkpeople.com/ As a person who has always fought the battle of the bulge I have a few thoughts. Mind you I am not a doctor or expert, just someone who has had fought weight issues for most of his life. First, your body is very smart and it reacts to everything you do. Eat too much, eat to little, work out to much, work out to little, sleep too much sleep to little...it all has an effect and I think the effects are slightly different for different people. Bottom line we all have to learn what works for us. I have been thin (under 10% body fat) 2 times in my life, playing football with 2 a day workouts or basically expending very high amounts of calories daily, and after a personal loss which gave me such a knot in my stomach could barely eat for months or very low calorie intake. But, these were not my healthiest times, just my leanest. My healthiest time I had a belly bulge, but great muscle mass, doing 3-4 3000m swim workouts a week with some weight training, but not a ton. But none of that is my point, just that like most people with weight issues I have been down many roads. IMHO, it takes 3 things. What you eat, exercise, and rest/recovery. If you can balance those 3 things, everything else will fall into place. I think when we try to tinker too much we fall out of balance or we get focused on one thing and ignore the other two. You don't have to be perfect, just find a comfortable reasonable middle ground. What do I find reasonable? Try and eat as much food that you can grow or kill, (my apologies to non meat eaters) the further away from it's natural state a food is, the more you should try to limit your intake. Workouts; do resistance for you looks (reduce fat, tone etc) Do cardio for your heart and health. Of course they overlap but these are rules of thumb. Oh and mix it up, I think the body confusion idea is a good one. Finally, sleep. This is the one area I think is often overlooked. Lack of sleep is like poison to your body, and all the exercise in the world won't help you if you never allow it to properly recover. Keep it simple, the best plan is the one you will actually do and do on a regular basis. Setting goals is important, but I find for myself if I focus on the process of staying in balance everything else takes care of itself. And when I find my pants getting tight or my chin filling out, it's usually because I have drifted from the fundamentals. Just my 2 cents, again I am no expert or swimsuit model. -JT

You mean "diddly" crunch (not squat, that's another bunch of muscles):) Actually, not it's not. Squats require strong core for stabilization during the entire movement. :)

Here is a basal metabolic calculator: health.discovery.com/.../basal.html Mine is 1178 calories/day. I'm 5'1", 108 lbs. OMG, they put this up and have this comment in the text? "However, a regular routine of cardiovascular exercise can increase your BMR, improving your health and fitness when your body's ability to burn energy gradually slows down" That's borderline irresponsible. Cardio can help burn calories that the body will most likely get from stored fat. 1 Pound of fat takes roughly 5 calories per day to maintain while 1 pound of muscle takes roughly 60 calories per day to maintain. Hmm, burn 1 pound of fat, that actually reduces my BMR by 5, but say burn that pound of fat and replace it with a pound of muscle, increases BMR by 55. So the real truth is that to burn more calories per day (i.e increase your BMR), you need to build more muscle mass and that takes resistance training NOT cardio.