Fat Burning Advice

[Road_Runner69]

Alright, here's my situation. I'm 42, 6'2" tall, 192 lbs. I have no idea of my BF percent. I'll just say that I'm tall and lanky. My extremeties are lean. I tend to collect my BF around my waist/torso.

A couple of months ago I decided to quit smoking, lose the BF, and start lifting weights, mostly for regaining some atheticism I lost over the years. I want to see my abs again.

My cardio routine is 5 days per week, first thing in the AM on empty stomach. I treadmill for 45 minutes keeping my heartbeat about 135 bpm, with spikes every 5 minutes up to 150-160's. Basically, I set incline at max, and have the speed at just below jogging speed (4.5). Every 5 minutes, I crank the speed to 7.0 and run that pace for 90 seconds, then back down to 4.5. I am soaking wet at the end of 45 minutes of this. The machine says I burn 800 calories with this regimen.

My current resting heart rate is 45 bpm which I think is pretty darn good considering I quit smoking (pack and a half a day habit) only eight weeks ago. I ran a mile the other day in 7:30.

For diet, I eat 6 small meals a day totaling out to a typical days worth of 1700 calories, 50g fat, 125g carbs, and 175g of protein. The carbs are mostly oats, fruits, brown rice, all complex stuff. The fats are pretty much incidental, no butter, margarine, mayonnaise... I eat stuff dry. I eat alot of Tuna in a bag, turkey breast, chicken breast, etc. I drink about a gallon of water per day. The only other fluid is either a glass of chrystal light or unsweetened tea with dinner.

I lift weight 3 nights per week. I have been able to add strength and hardness but not much size.( I assume this is due to caloric deficit).

The love handles around my sides and kidneys have literally melted away. My problem and question is, how the heck do I get rid of the stupid little pouch of fat in the very front of my stomach just above my beltline and around my navel. It doesn't seem to want to shrink at all. I'll never get to my abs at this rate and meanwhile, I'll disappear everywhere else.

Any advice, comments on my regimen, or tips?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Road_Runner69]

31 looks and no one with a suggestion?

Bueller? Bueller?

 

[1_more_rep]

everytime i ask people why my abs don't show they ask me what my diet is - then i realize that my diet is horrible (i am currently eating a slice of ice cream cake as an example). if you want your abs to show and are willing to work for them, it will rely on your diet about 80% and working out your abs only 20% (probably less). if you want diet tips i'd look through old diet posts. Great diets all over the forum, check them out and post up Questions if you have them. congrats on quitting smoking, by the way. good luck bro.

 

[irish_pride]

do crunches, work your abs hard three times a week and you'll see them again.

 

[lacoste]

not until your body fat is low enough to see them. You can work your abs till your blue in the face, but until its low enough..say less than 10% then you wont see them. Try to up the protein to say 200grams and cut back a little on the carbs. Say instead of 3/4 cup of oatmeal you do 1/2. change up the routine too a little. Like instead of 5 days of cardio, try doing 3 and hit the weights for 5 days. shock your body. That fat can be very stubborn, but just keep at it man good work.

 

[bettyboop]

I think if you are not building size it is because your protien and calorie intake are to low. 1 - 1.5 grams of protien per pound of bodyweight. You need to hit the weights harder and more often to see any gains in size, what you are doing now is just keeping you at the same level. You could also cut down your cardio days or do less time.

 

[nikkita]

I think if you are not building size it is because your protien and calorie intake are to low. 1 - 1.5 grams of protien per pound of bodyweight. You need to hit the weights harder and more often to see any gains in size, what you are doing now is just keeping you at the same level. You could also cut down your cardio days or do less time.

I agree with this comment

 

[promet1]

WOW looks like your worken hard.....First thing I would do is find out your BF %
this will give you abench mark....at 1700 cals per day at your size you surly will not add any quality muscle, you might be loosing some of your muscle with the amount of activity your doing. Keep in mind Muscle is the cal burning power plant. Not sure how long you have been on 1700 cals but you could have slowed you metobolic rate.
Not sure about your whole lifestyle Work etc but I put you in my "Diet Master Program It shows you need 2592 cals for maintaining weight and adding a lean muscle loosing bf. the recomended ratios are 30% pro 50%carb 20%fat 30% pro puts you at aprox 194 grams/day or about a gram per lb. I surtly would only cut this by no more than 500 cals if weight loss is the only goal

Good luck keep in mind cals in vs cals burned is a simple Idea but it happens in a very complex enviorment

 

[Lonsdale]

Big time respect - looks like you're working very hard to reach your goals. If you retain that committment and dedication while changing your routine a little, you'll reach your goals in no time.

Unless you've just started weights for the very first time (and even then), running at the calorie defecit that you are, you'll always have a hard time building muscle.

Your main goal is to lose fat and by the sounds of it you just want to look good, rather than be the next mr Olympia.

In order to lose fat you'll have to run a calorie defecit, which you are. Speaking VERY roughly, your maintenance would be 2500 hundred calories per day, and you're very far below that. It's generally recommended to be about 500 calories below that in order to safely and permanently lose fat, but you are below this.

While you may think this will merely let you achieve your results quicker, bear in mind that your body would rather hang on to body fat rather than muscle.

I would recommend upping your calories to around the 2000 level, and reviewing your weight training routine and make sure you go into the weights room with maximum intensity. By upping the calories ever so slightly, and more importantly UPPING THE PROTEIN LEVEL TO AT LEAST 1 GRAM PER LB BODYWEIGHT, you are giving your muscles a chance to grow.

Not only will this make you have a better muscle/fat ratio, but by maintaining this kind of diet/weights/cardio regime, fat will continue to drop off, since the new muscles that are built burn significant calories in themselves.

Meanwhile, train abs three times a week, making sure you hit them from all angles - crunches, leg raises etc. There's lots of helpful ab routines elsewhere on these forums.

Recent studies have shown that workout out in the morning gives individuals higher resting testosterone levels than those who don't, and also kick starts your metabolic rate each day - take from that what you will.

Also, have you thought about taking a fat burning supplement? At your rate, you'd only need to purchase one or two tubs and from personal experience, they really do help. Once again, there are polls and threads relating to the best brands and types elsewhere on these forums.

Best of luck.

 

[Road_Runner69]

Big time respect - looks like you're working very hard to reach your goals. If you retain that committment and dedication while changing your routine a little, you'll reach your goals in no time.

Unless you've just started weights for the very first time (and even then), running at the calorie defecit that you are, you'll always have a hard time building muscle.

Your main goal is to lose fat and by the sounds of it you just want to look good, rather than be the next mr Olympia.

In order to lose fat you'll have to run a calorie defecit, which you are. Speaking VERY roughly, your maintenance would be 2500 hundred calories per day, and you're very far below that. It's generally recommended to be about 500 calories below that in order to safely and permanently lose fat, but you are below this.

While you may think this will merely let you achieve your results quicker, bear in mind that your body would rather hang on to body fat rather than muscle.

I would recommend upping your calories to around the 2000 level, and reviewing your weight training routine and make sure you go into the weights room with maximum intensity. By upping the calories ever so slightly, and more importantly UPPING THE PROTEIN LEVEL TO AT LEAST 1 GRAM PER LB BODYWEIGHT, you are giving your muscles a chance to grow.

Not only will this make you have a better muscle/fat ratio, but by maintaining this kind of diet/weights/cardio regime, fat will continue to drop off, since the new muscles that are built burn significant calories in themselves.

Meanwhile, train abs three times a week, making sure you hit them from all angles - crunches, leg raises etc. There's lots of helpful ab routines elsewhere on these forums.

Recent studies have shown that workout out in the morning gives individuals higher resting testosterone levels than those who don't, and also kick starts your metabolic rate each day - take from that what you will.

Also, have you thought about taking a fat burning supplement? At your rate, you'd only need to purchase one or two tubs and from personal experience, they really do help. Once again, there are polls and threads relating to the best brands and types elsewhere on these forums.

Best of luck.

Thank you and everyone else who posted advice. You are correct in that I'm not looking to be the next Mr. Olympia. I just want to look fit, have decent musculature, turn back the clock so to speak.

My initial intent was to diet heavy while starting the cardio figuring it might take my body a couple of months to figure out what was going on before it started holding on to the fat. I guess my bod has figured it out

It was just frustrating that the fat melted off my love handles, kidney areas, face, butt, etc, fairly quickly, but not right around my stomach area.

While awaiting and reading the answers in this thread, I've done other reading that all seems to point to the same thing.

My plan is to up the calories to 2200ish, keeping fat intake low, and start a supplement or two, likely the Thermorexin and maybe the SesaMax (probably not at the same time)

As for the weights, I think I train fairly intense. I take all sets to failure, gerenerally two exercises per major muscles, 3-40 sets of 6-10 reps, again going to failure on the last rep. I've gained some strength, little size (understandable given the calorie issue), but good definition, likely due to losing some bf, revealing the muscle underneath.

I'm doing a good hour, 3 times a week. I'll keep after it.

Thanks for the advice everyone.