Stomach fat

This SCY season I had a two week period (in between the weeks I was sick!) where I was working out 5-6 days/wk 2-4 hours per day (weights, bands, swimming, and abs). I was consuming no more than 1200 cal/day (usually around 1000). I did not lose a single ounce. I realize I gained a lot of muscle, but alas, the belly fat did not budge. Karen, I strongly suspect you were indeed replacing fat with muscle. If you had continued this program, which is extreme -- I'm pretty sure I would starve on so few calories/day -- I have no doubt you would have lost the weight. Two weeks is simply not very long, PARTICULARLY if you (a) eat balanced meals (protein/complex carbs/fat) and (b) excercise a lot. Yes, there are some diets where you can lose a lot of weight very quickly, even in the first week. This weight loss is illusory, however (usually water weight). Burning off fat takes time (weeks/months). If you ramp up your exercise and eat a proper diet, there should be a lag time where your weight will not change much, and then will start decreasing steadily, assuming you maintain your exercise level and diet. I think losing no more than 1-2 lbs per week is best. Here is a typical experience for me...during tapers (3 weeks for me) I usually indulge myself, food-wise. Mostly that means, I still (try to) eat healthy but I won't let myself get hungry when I taper. My exercise level goes down and my food intake probably goes up a little. And yet my weight usually stays steady. After taper, however, I start hitting the weights and working out longer/harder; simultaneoously I decrease my food intake. But this is where I see a momentary weight gain, before it falls back down to normal levels. Good luck. And get more sleep!

I agree that carbs are your main source for exercise, but protein is just as hard as fat to metabolize, and I don't agree that the body reaches for that first and then fat. Either way, if you don't use the excess substrates, i.e, excess calories, it will be converted to fat. That would not be KAren's problem, her calorie intake is too low. This article has a good simple explanation that agrees with my book. Basically if you run out of glucose/glycogen, you are going to basically have to replenish, slow down intensity to use fat and protein stores, or you will cramp up and bonk. sportsmedicine.about.com/.../aa080803a.htm

According to Dr Larry McLeary, the neurosurgeon who wrote "The Brain Trust Book" (from which I got the idea of trying it for hot flashes), it is the actual ketones that get used. The book contains a long complicated description of how the brain uses glucose (or not) which I can't even begin to understand. I'm just happy it worked. I seem to have a lot more stamina in very long exercise sessions now as well, which could possibly be a side effect of learning to use fat as brain fuel. Apparently it's something you have to teach/force your body and brain to do, it doesn't come naturally as evolution has programed us to hold onto our fat stores as long as possible.

Karen, you said you are not lifting weights. You have to lift weights, if for any reason so you can lift your body when you are 80! I am a different body type from you, short and muscular, but part of the reason I am muscular is because I have been lifting weights for 25 years. I don't have the tummy pooch, and I think weight training helps a lot. My Mom and my sisters have it....they never lifted, and we all look very much a like, except weight training gives me a stronger body composition. So, resistance training is where it is at. Fit it in twice a week, somehow. NYsurfer, in my Exercise physiology class I don't remember them saying muscle is burned before fat. That sounds incorrect. In fact, it was taught that at rest, we burn a mixture of fat and carbohydrates, and exercise uses up your carbs, in the blood and then stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen. I need to look up once that is used up which substrate was used next, but I did not think it was muscle. That can happen on very low fat diet, where the muscle starts getting robbed. Carbs are the most effecient source, and muscle is actually a lot of work to catabolize. Fat gives you the most energy bang for your buck. Hey, Its true that at rest, you do burn fat and carbs. Also at rest, you are rebuilding any muscle that was worked during exercise. However, during exercise, your body uses glycogen stores (stored glucose in the muscles and liver) and burns it for energy. The body doesn't create glycogen during exercise, it burns it. Also, during exercise, your body is under a lot of stress. So while fat may give you the best bang for your buck in terms of stored energy, its very difficult to metabolize. So you go for the fastest buring energy sources... glycogen - muscle - fat. The main reason for this is that its easier to get the energy out of muscle as it can be converted to glucose. I think one of the main reasons for this order (under stress, of course) is that the brain wants glucose... its the only energy that the brain can use. So actual glucose goes first, then protein as it can be converted to glucose, then fat because fat turns into ketones, not glucose. This is the main reason that athletes are so concerned about post workout nutrition. You want to feed your body the proper nutrients in order to stop catabolic muscle loss. I'll have to go double check my textbooks and notes now :) P.S. I completely agree on the resistance training! Thats what made the biggest difference for me!

I appreciate everyone's input, although it was not my intent to make this my personal thread :) While I was doing wts 3/wk for 70 min (including abs w/med ball for about 25 of those min), I will try to get back to that, and give it a go for 6 weeks and see what happens. I had also started running, with my long run up to 4 mi, but my neck injury has sidelined me... Interesting thing has happened in the last couple of days. I saw a friend at the pool I haven't seen since before SCY Nats. She said, "Wow, you look great. You've lost a lot of weight." And this morning, my mom who helps us out on Friday mornings by coming to our house, said, "You've lost a lot of weight." Now what's interesting is: I have not been doing any dryland, and not swimming much at all! The scale too is exactly the same. Maybe I've just lost a lot of muscle and it makes me look thinner? What gives?

If you haven't heard of Tony Horton's P90x "ab ripper x" you need too. It is one of the best workouts I have ever experienced in my life! I use it on my club swimmers and it has some quick results for them and myself. You can see it and put it on an I-Pod for free if you google search it.

I Am 75 yrs old, and do a lot of excerise. But at this age , I do have some body fat on my lower stomach. I think with age I will always have it. Dom. In AZ.