Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below My girlfriend complains about the stubborn belly fat that has collected at the front of her waist. Her hips have also collected some. She says she's ten pounds over her target weight, all fat. She has a small frame, and I have to say that she is an animal for working out. She does spinning, palates, running, and swimming laps. All of this very seriously and with intensity that blows me away. Regardless of her fitness level- which is very high- she has got this problem with bodyfat having built up over the last year or so. The only thing I can think of is that for awhile our diet was not good- I started a bulker and she got a little swept up into my diet- and she is now over 40y/o. She doesn't want to take diet pills (doesn't want to toy with any thyroid problems), but I think I could get her to take something to aid her- but I want it to really work if I buy it for her as a present. I've been reading about YES, and asked her about topicals- she has no faith in them. Please help me out- what do the women here think is best to take for this??? Thank you very much for your replies.
stubborn "pudge"
- Thread starter kgarto
- Start date
Sassy69
New member
Hi kg & welcome to the ladies' forum! COuple easy places to start --- even if she's very aerobically active:
1) DIET DIET DIET
2) She's 40+ => natural metabolic slowdown -> women tend to deposit fat in the middle so that's probably going to be where you see it the most if it does start to accumulate
3) No resistance training?
Sure you can buy something like YES to help, but you simply are not goiing to see miraculous changes w/o addressing at the very least a change in diet & training. I say both because the diet is probably the biggest culprit, but the age thing is a new aspect that she will have to fight even harder and if her body may have adapted to a lot of the aerobic activity she does, maybe a little resistance training in there to change things up & shock her body into havign to respond to a difference stimulus might be just the thing.
Its nice to think in terms of gettign a little bottle of soemthing to add to the mix - but its more changing the mix that will get the results --> and that means taking a look at her lifestyle --> diet & training.
I do know about the age thing - i"m looking at 41 next month --> but I've also successfully dieted down to 8% bf naturally for competition starting at age 35. I did experience a noticeable hormone change around age 37, but the fight w/ estrogen has always been there is probably the source of my 10 extra lbs my whole life.
I would say - get her to post up here -- post up the daily meal plan and lets start there. It would be great to see it listed here in specific detail, e.g.:
Meal 1: 8 am
1/2 c egg whites
5 oz chicken
1/2 c oatmeal
Meal 2: 11 am
1 oz almonds
3 oz chicken
etc
This can also go into a food counts program like www.fitday.com to see exactly what she is eating - i.e. total calories & macronutrient breakdown (%, grams protein / %, grams fat / %, grams carbs). Then we have something to talk around specifically. I would suspect w/ her activity level that it would only require some small tweaks.
Also does she do any resistance training? One thing that people who do shitloads of aerobic stuff may enounter is muscle catabolism - if her diet doesn't include enough protein to support muscle maintenance and / or her fuel does't support the energy demands, the muscle mass willl suffer - thus you get the distance runner look - stringy, maybe skinny/fat.
These are my thoughts and I think this is the place to start before looking for supplements to make the difference. It just so happens that the old mid-section is where estrogen likes to deposit fat so that's what you are going to be fighting against.
1) DIET DIET DIET
2) She's 40+ => natural metabolic slowdown -> women tend to deposit fat in the middle so that's probably going to be where you see it the most if it does start to accumulate
3) No resistance training?
Sure you can buy something like YES to help, but you simply are not goiing to see miraculous changes w/o addressing at the very least a change in diet & training. I say both because the diet is probably the biggest culprit, but the age thing is a new aspect that she will have to fight even harder and if her body may have adapted to a lot of the aerobic activity she does, maybe a little resistance training in there to change things up & shock her body into havign to respond to a difference stimulus might be just the thing.
Its nice to think in terms of gettign a little bottle of soemthing to add to the mix - but its more changing the mix that will get the results --> and that means taking a look at her lifestyle --> diet & training.
I do know about the age thing - i"m looking at 41 next month --> but I've also successfully dieted down to 8% bf naturally for competition starting at age 35. I did experience a noticeable hormone change around age 37, but the fight w/ estrogen has always been there is probably the source of my 10 extra lbs my whole life.
I would say - get her to post up here -- post up the daily meal plan and lets start there. It would be great to see it listed here in specific detail, e.g.:
Meal 1: 8 am
1/2 c egg whites
5 oz chicken
1/2 c oatmeal
Meal 2: 11 am
1 oz almonds
3 oz chicken
etc
This can also go into a food counts program like www.fitday.com to see exactly what she is eating - i.e. total calories & macronutrient breakdown (%, grams protein / %, grams fat / %, grams carbs). Then we have something to talk around specifically. I would suspect w/ her activity level that it would only require some small tweaks.
Also does she do any resistance training? One thing that people who do shitloads of aerobic stuff may enounter is muscle catabolism - if her diet doesn't include enough protein to support muscle maintenance and / or her fuel does't support the energy demands, the muscle mass willl suffer - thus you get the distance runner look - stringy, maybe skinny/fat.
These are my thoughts and I think this is the place to start before looking for supplements to make the difference. It just so happens that the old mid-section is where estrogen likes to deposit fat so that's what you are going to be fighting against.
Thank you very much for that post. I will get her to read that and see if we can't get her to post her diet, etc. She does work out, but only occasionally with weights. Maybe that is the trick. Her diet seems very clean to me, if not undereating even, but i know she is very fond of natty pbutter on those rice cakes.
Sassy69
New member
kgarto said:
Here's a thought on "very clean diet" -- if you already eat a "clean diet" but its not getting the results you want, "clean" isn't enough. Its time to look at it and optimize or change it. Diet isn't static. When people say they "eat clean" but not getting the resuts then start looking to supplements to make the difference --- wrong. NEed to revisit the diet all the time. Start from basics. The diet is the driver of 80% of results. That's why there's such an art to competition diet - I eat 1000% "clean" for months at a time, but that doens't mean I'm goign to make my competition weight. I have to constantly track, measure, tweak & try to get where I'm going. No new supps -- just diet.
So I think you're saying that changing her diet combined with changing the way she does her workouts (say, adding more resistance training and doing some stair running instead of straight jogging) will give better results than just throwing in a supplement. Thank you again, that sounds like the type of answer she'll have confidence in too, and will give us more avenues to do exercises together.
kgarto said:
That is 100% what she is saying and 100% true.
Supplements only SUPPLEMENT an already smart training and diet. Training AND diet should be constantly revamped and changed. NOTHING works forever. There is no ONE WAY to do things.
WIth no resistance training, and that much cardio - no wonder she is having BF issues. Not building muscle can reduce your metabolism. No amount of supplements can help that. Only building some muscle will help that.
Sassy69
New member
kgarto said:
I tried posting this before but I'm having a lot of trouble w/ my cable modem right now ---
I wanted to say this is the sort of attitude that I LOVE to hear. When people go looking for a supplement and find out it doesn't give them an immediate miracle then they are so offten willing to just resign themselves to being fat &whining about it the rest of their lives. Or if people say they already "eat clean" they never want to go back & take a look at what it is they are eating. Diet is the easiest thing to change - but no one wants to spend the time to look at it and make the change. It doesnt' cost any more than it does already and just takes a little bit of time to examine for some easy changes.
The training adds new things to the repetoire and its just common sense that your body would want to be challenged w/ something new. Even if you "eat clean" and "are active" - that has set your body's norm -- it isn't even relevent if its "clean" relative to the shitty diets most people eat - if you haven't changed it in a while & its not giving you the result you are looking for - doesn't that tell you it ain't working? Just tweak it some. Same w/ the training.
And finally w/ the age thing - as much as we hate to admit it, it does introduce little things that just mean you have to do just a little extra or get creative to get better results. I guess the good news is that the little bit of bodyfat that she's seeinig is the most likely stuff - its more "not her" but rather just nature doign what it is supposed to do. So just tweak some for better results, but w/ the right attitude it becomes more just a new adventure that adds a broader range of activity to your lives vs "OMG I HAVE TO CHANGE WHAT I"M DOING !"
Definitely keep us updated on this! Would love to hear the progress!
