Flat stomach exercises?

1

11firecrackers

New member
What are the best ways to turn a pudgy belly--disgustingly reminiscent of that of a pregnant woman--into a flat stomach?

I'm 16, 5'2" and 109 pounds (female) but I don't even look like I weigh so little. I've been told I look pregnant because of how big my stomach is, but I can't get rid of it no matter how much I try. My total exercise routine consists of 600 jumping jacks, 300 situps, and 300 pushups per day. I used to only do about 60 situps, and strangely enough, ever since I started doing 300 it seems like my stomach is only getting bigger. It's horrible.

Can anybody fill me in on some effective exercises that will burn away my stomach fat?

Thanks!
 
There is no way to spot reduce. Always remember that spot reduction is not possible, so losing flab only on your abs or thighs or glutes is not going to happen. However, once body fat reduction takes place, your abs will look better.

For your abs to become leaner and tighter, your overall body fat must be reduced through a combination of proper nutrition, exercise and consistency. Following a calorie-reduced healthy eating plan and excercising should help you lose body fat and get the results you want.

Check out the link below for some ab excercises; again with this in mind that spot reduction does not work.
 
If that is truly what you do (and I doubt it, smells almost trolling) then it is your diet that is the issue, not your exercise routine. Monitor your calories.

On an aside, your stomach is not that big, as you are 109 lbs. It doesnt help us help you when you exaggerate.

Michael
 
Are you sure you're not actually bloated? Ie your stomach sticks out not because of excessive fat but poor digestion?

IF IT'S BLOATING
If it's that, consider cutting down on junk food and fizzy drinks, and WHITE unrefined carbs. If that doesn't help, I would consider searching for food intolerances. For example, when I eat wheat or have too much lactose (found in diary), I blow up and look pregnant. My friends used to pat my stomach and ask when it's due lol - they know about it and well, and I've learnt to laugh about it!

IF IT'S NOT BLOATING
You have a BMI of 20, which is tiny and what most women would dream of. It's at the light end of healthy, so consider yourself lucky. Take a mirror, and have a decent look at yourself - I seriously doubt you have much excess fat around your middle. Learn to love your body and realise that you actually look pretty hot! I was determined I was fat when I was your age (I'm 21 now) but really I was very slim at that time (about BMI of 20), but because I thought I wasn't, that's when my dieting/bingeing started, and now I have a really hard time keeping my weight down - don't let this happen to you!!

You don't need to do that many sit-ups etc. In fact, it's not usually recommended, especially every day as your muscles need to recover. I would suggest just staying active and doing whole body exercises. Here is a suggestion:

- Every 2-3 days do 12x2-3 (2-3 sets of 12, slowly, breathing well, and leave 30 sec rest in between) of one or 2 abs, pushups, lungues, calf raises or similar exercises often found in women's magazines
- Try doing a team sport, or walk/run every week

Good luck, and remember eat well and love yourself :)
 
@ExercisePhysio: If I were a troll, I'd put a great deal more effort into my gimmick. Is that amount of exercise seriously that weird? :T

Anyway, as far as my calories go I eat about 1600 per day. For a while I starved myself and lost about 30 pounds (was 140) but I've increased my caloric intake since then, but even when I was crash dieting I couldn't seem to lose the pudgy belly. I stay away from sweets and junk except for tiny bites here and there, I'll never let myself have as much as a quarter of a serving of that stuff; the only real "guilty" pleasure I have is Starbucks every once in a while.

I guess it'd help if I posted a picture, just to get some opinions.



That's how my stomach is without having eaten anything that day. It gets crazy big as the day goes along.

I'm not sure if digestion is the problem.. :T I wonder, does the fact that I exercise soon after I eat mess with my digestion?

Also, thank you all for the site and the tips.
 
Looks like bloating to me, not fat! Could be a wide range of things, like food sensitivities, IBS, poor digestion etc.

I'm intolerant to many foods which make me bloat and blow up, thanks to a shitty digestion system. I'm less bloated in the morning then I blow up like mad during the day, nighttime being worse, if I eat stuff that triggers bloating for me. I developed this in my late teens. This is what I'd recommend:

- Avoid fizzy drinks, even diet ones as they've got bubbles in them, and cut down on caffeine
- Avoid processed food, refined carbs and junk food
- Avoid long periods without eating, avoid eating big portions in one go, eat regularly
- Avoid broad spectrum antibiotics like Keflek, which really disrupts the bacteria in your gut
- Take probiotics via live yogurt or supplements

TRIGGER FOODS
Hard to tell what they are. Common trigger foods are wheat and lactose (yogurt usually ok, milk full of it, hard cheeses not so much), so try cutting back on these and see if it improves. Do you also have other symptoms, like too frequent or infrequent bowel movements?

MANAGING BLOATING
If you're bloated, the key is to improve digestion. For a few days, avoid raw veggies and fruit. Basically cook them, and eat "mushy" food. For example, try porridge/oatmeal for breakfast instead of "harsh" cereal. Avoid insoluble fiber (can irritate sensitive bowels - insoluble fiber can be a bit like sandpaper - so no all bran, and why it's better to cook veggies and fruit, as it softens the fibers). Have rice with a bit of veggies and lean meat, or soup. Have 4+ small meals a day.

DIARY
Keep a diary for a while, and write how your stomach reacts every day. After a few weeks, things will improve I'm sure. As I'm writing, I look about 6 mo pregnant :banghead: as I had 2 wheat biscuits the other day, but at least I know what caused it! You'll soon manage to pinpoint what triggers your bloating, and how to improve your digestion.

Hope I helped!
 
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It doesn't look like fat.

Its either bloating or 4 months pregnant, the skin looks like its stretched tight. If your 109lbs and your stomach looks like that (when it shouldnt be like that at that weight), go see your doctor.
 
This is just my opinion based on personal experience.......I'm 5' 103 lbs and my belly looks exactly like yours when I indulge in sugar free products like Splenda. I was using sugar free hard candy and lots of tea with Splenda over Christmas because I had a sore throat from a cold. My belly was huge!
Not to mention gross. In my situation I found the sugar free sweeteners caused the bloating. I dropped the SF hard candy and started using honey to sweeten my tea. It's only been a couple days but I have noticed a major difference.
 
Also, don't do those oblique exercises, as you can't spot reduce and this will only make this area look larger.
 
Your in the right place for som direction

I realize it probably was a bit difficult to post pictures of a problem you are not happy with, but in doing so it makes it much easier to offer help.

It would appear to me that your tummy looks tight. The second thing I noticed is no love handles. A flabby tummy will have at least some form of LH especially when you have on tight fitting pants.

I would say you may want to see your doctor and discuss it with him/her. That way you can talk about things like regularity and menstruation cycles/hormones and such.

The amount of reps you do could also contribute to the problem don’t do more then 2 or 3 sets of 12 reps of any exercise and make sure you take a day of from working that area again to give the muscle time to recover.

Home that helps
 
Simple answer - work your TVA muscles

It seems to me like you have weak TVA muscles which is casuing your belly to poke out. You won't flatten your tummy with crunches or situps and in your case diet won't help since you're at a low weight already so if you have time....
and you it wouldn't hurt if you also took some time to

(depending on your Computer - you may have to wait 5-10 secs before the video starts playing)

Both of these video demos should solve your problem and TVA exercises can be done a lot and you should see results rather quickly since most people like you don't train or even know what their TVA muscles are.

What are TVA muscles? - (excuse my spelling) The TVA or transverse abdominus muscles are located behind your rectus abdominus (your 6pack).
 
Yes & No...

If she's knows how to do deadlifts, olympic lifts, & squats then her TVA muscles will contract naturally to support her spine but...

I just thru in those 2 video demos because in my experience most people hate doing those type of exercises anyway but either way...

Doing TVA exercises along with the ones I listed above will help strenghten (flatten) her abdominals
 
Well hopefully it's just no.

Not yes.

You aren't going to target the TVA in isolation. It is connected via the linea alba to the obliques and rectus abdominus, and contracts in concert with them and other intrinsic core musculature to accomplish the task of core stabilization.

Furthermore, it's been shown in research by Basmajian and others that the TVA fires reflexively in movement, not as a result of any conscious decision to do so.

You are right in that the exercises you listed above will stimulate contraction of the TVA.

I'm just not a fan of picking out one muscle in the entire complex, with little information, and saying this is The Problem.

For example, research has clearly indicated a clear link between gluteal function (or dysfunction) and abdominal muscle dysfunction. So to say one muscle isn't working, especially without any sort of viable means to measure such activity, is dubious at best.
 
Well, I don't have sound on my computer. Are the directions below the video basically everything that's going on?

And I've read about the TVA muscles, but briefly; I came across a few articles that explained how pulling in your stomach like that was a way to exercise the TVA, so I have been doing that (though not consistently). I probably haven't been doing it correctly though. Although Steve, do you mean that I should not be trying these things on my own?

As for seeing a doctor about this specifically, that might prove to be a little difficult. Like I said I had starved myself for a while and she's focusing on making sure I'm healthy, which I am, all except for my period which I haven't had for a while. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I doubt it--I'm guessing that maybe it's because I lost a lot of weight pretty quickly, like 30 pounds in less than a half year (which isn't the most extreme case of weight loss, but still...).

Oh, and I can definitely tell you that I'm not pregnant (to the person who suggested that).
 
Yes - the instructions to the video start where it says "Exercising your TVA is easy. All you have to do is ..."
 
It's not the case of telling your doctor you want a flat stomach - it's a case of getting healthy as you said, hence mentioning your bloating! Just tell the doctor that you are really bloated and that it bothers you. Bloating is NOT healthy!! In fact in some cases it can be a sign of digestive illness.

You can do however many exercises you want, but at the end of the day, if you have poor digestion, the problem will never go away and will worsen with time. You have to prevent the bloating by monitoring what you put in your mouth, which is where digestion begins.

I completely messed up my digestive system, although obviously it's part genetics, by starving myself when I was about 17, binge eating episodes and stress, among other things. It's made me VERY sensitive to certain foods, so the earlier you realise that you have a sensitive digestive track, the better, as you'll actively do something about it to prevent further problems, AND you'll have the flatest stomach and nicer skin etc.

By the way, unless your doctor is specialised in nutrition, then they might know very little about digestive concerns, so you might want to start researching about it in your own time.
 
Oh and just like Steve, I strongly disagree with going2. I don't know how on earth he can *magically* tell from these pics that you have weak muscles (don't see why you would).

The most common causes of stomach distension and bloating are constipation, IBS, pregnancy obviously, fat obviously, and fluid. We've already established that it's not fat or pregnancy. See
 
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