Help me get rid of my belly pouch/flap!

[StevieVieth 0]

I am doing everything right, working out and eating right. Getting the right amount of Protein in too. But this dang thing wont shrink. I think I am losing weight everywhere but my spare tire. I have went down in areas around my back because I have had to more the clasps on my bras tighter, my face loos alot better then it use to... Im starting to get frustrated..

I do sit ups, squats and crunches@@@!!! Anything elsee.. WHat are your remedies?:thumbup:

[TCarroll 1]

I am having the same problem... when you find the answer let me know... all I keep hearing is Cardio-- cardio cardio-- well I am doing that and well... it's still there.. I am 10 lbs away from goal and yes it is smaller - but still I need to get this off ! Good luck to you!

[StevieVieth 0]

I am having the same problem... when you find the answer let me know... all I keep hearing is Cardio-- cardio cardio-- well I am doing that and well... it's still there.. I am 10 lbs away from goal and yes it is smaller - but still I need to get this off ! Good luck to you!

Yeah I do lots of cardio and im losing everywhere else.I just want it to go down!

[Blaze21 5]

I have the same problem area. My lower part is shrinking, but the upper belly isn't going away.

[jensmallwood 0]

Depending your your original size (high weight)- it may not go away because what you're partly dealing with is excess skin. You can lose all your excess weight, but if your skin has been stretched out (I know mine has), that will sting hang down. I've heard of people who've reached goal talking about practically "tucking it in" to their pants.

And of course the only way to get rid of excess skin is surgery. :smile2:

Also- exercises like situps and crunches don't do anything to target specific areas of body fat . (It's not possible to spot-reduce).

Sorry to be a downer!

[StevieVieth 0]

Depending your your original size (high weight)- it may not go away because what you're partly dealing with is excess skin. You can lose all your excess weight, but if your skin has been stretched out (I know mine has), that will sting hang down. I've heard of people who've reached goal talking about practically "tucking it in" to their pants.

And of course the only way to get rid of excess skin is surgery. :smile2:

Also- exercises like situps and crunches don't do anything to target specific areas of body fat . (It's not possible to spot-reduce).

Sorry to be a downer!

that stinks, I am at the beginning of my weight loss and if it wasnt for my pouch, I would fit into smaller clothing.. it is getting in the way@

[jensmallwood 0]

Well, if you're just at the beginning of your journey-- you have to wait and see... maybe it'll go away as you lose weight. And you're young... so there's a much better chance that your skin recover!

[BetsyB 9]

You will eventually lose the fat in that region. It will likely require getting closer to a normal BMI---but your fat stores will be depleted as you lose weight. Sometimes it comes off in wacky ways---which is annoying, to be sure.

Whether or not you will be left with excess skin is another issue altogether. That depends on your age, genetics, how overweight you were, and how long you were overweight. It has very little to do with how fast you lose or what you put on your skin.

Muscle laxity in the abdomen can contribute to the belly problem---so continue what you're doing exercise-wise. If you're not doing cardio ---long, steady cardio---I'd add that, too. It will help knock down your BMI faster.

It takes time and patience. (And ultimately, it may also take plastic surgery, if what remains after you reach a healthy BMI is excess skin.)

[Jachut 487]

It may never disappear entirely - if you have loose skin there and stretched out muscles. Sometimes its just where your body likes to store its fat and it hangs on.

Whatever the case, whatever you're left with, you will be really blown away by the results that you get once you lose past that BMI of 25. I thought I had batwings, and I thought I had these weird side boob things that would have to be removed surgically. But all that stuff just melted off me on the journey from a BMI of 27 or so to one of 22. Its that last bit of fat loss that really makes the difference.

[Erin Marie 0]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as spot treatment. When you exercise or weight train, you are doing your body a lot of good by working those muscle groups, but it won't show because you still have fat lying over those muscles. It will take time, but your efforts will show eventually.

Also, "loose skin" is a complete and utter myth. Skin is on average 1.3 millimeters thin. If it is a flap, as in inches, it is fat and can be burned away like any other fat in your body. http://www.bodyfatguide.com/LooseSkin.htm

Edited April 8, 2010 by Erin Marie

[StevieVieth 0]

Thanks for all of the replies and answers. I know it will take a long time to get rid of. I just hope that it is not permenant.

I was heavy when I was younger but then I was at a healthy BMI and I only weighed 120 lbs. Unfortunately that was still heavy for my height. I have never really been at a normal weight for my height. I also did the unhealthy eating disorder way of losing weight when I was still in my teens.

This is Karma's way of getting back at me. I gained 80 lbs during my pregnancy, even tho I worked all day on my feel moving around, and ate right. My son will be 2 on the 23rd of this month so it will be my 2 years being heavy.. bouncing weight from 209-180 and back. My highest weight is 209 one week before surgery, then 200 day of and 194 on my week post op.

I go in for a fill next wednesday!

[BetsyB 9]

Also, "loose skin" is a complete and utter myth. Skin is on average 1.3 millimeters thin. If it is a flap, as in inches, it is fat and can be burned away like any other fat in your body.

Utterly untrue. It's true that many people do seek corrective surgery while they still have significant fat stores beneath redundant skin. However, this does not mean that redundant skin is mythological!

Skin that has been stretched, long-term, by large amounts of subcutaneous fat may (and often does) remain stretched when the subcutaneous fat is lost.

The link you posted may apply to a handful of bodybuilders, but let's be honest--it is not written by someone who has any expertise dealing with bariatric patients and their unique issues.

Edited April 9, 2010 by BetsyB

[Drasan 23]

I completely agree with Betsy. Let me bring to mind the pictures you may have seen in a National Geographic of naked people of all ages. Do you recall seeing breasts on older women hanging practically to their knees? As women age the fatty tissue in the breasts break down and what women are left with is loose skin.

Gravity can be such a downer. :biggrin:

[Erin Marie 0]

You're not giving skin enough credit. It's an organ like anything in your body and has an incredible bounce back ratio. It certainly does lose some of it's elasticity in old age, but if you're talking 20's, 30's, 40's and even 50's, it's ridiculous to suggest that there is nothing you can do short of surgery.

Why is it such a ridiculous notion to gain lean muscle when you get to a "goal" weight and then lose the fat? It's not that the situation is unfixable. Your body composition is just altered and it's a matter of altering it again.

[BetsyB 9]

Skin is remarkable. And for some people---those who have not been morbidly obese long-term, people who have not gained and lost repeatedly in their lives, people with just the right genetic makeup, people who have not had multiple pregnancies, and so on---skin can and does quite often rebound beautifully. The website you cited shows a lot of these people (if, in fact, their claims about having had no plastic surgery are true).

I think it's reasonable to assume that there are some people on this board who could expect similar results if they got their BMIs way down and exercised at that level.

But would most? No. They would improve their appearances dramatically. They would reduce the degree to which a surgeon had to intervene. But they would still be left with redundant skin.

Why is it such a ridiculous notion to gain lean muscle when you get to a "goal" weight and then lose the fat? It's not that the situation is unfixable. Your body composition is just altered and it's a matter of altering it again.

Who suggested it was a ridiculous notion to lose fat and gain muscle?!

I did not even begin to suggest there was nothing to be done for a belly, short of surgery. My first recommendation was losing extra subcutaneous fat--which often results in the person determining the "problem" is largely solved, making surgery unnecessary.

Next, I recommended exercise.

Both of these yield awesome results for the body.

Adding lean mass, however, will do absolutely nothing to address skin redundancy. As you stated yourself, skin is an organ. But then, you suggest that you can somehow change its composition.

And that is where your thinking become skewed. Skin is skin. Muscle is muscle. And never the twain shall meet. You cannot replace redundant skin with lean muscle. All you can do is create a beautiful scaffold for the skin. Will this achieve an aesthetic that obviates the need for reconstructive surgery? Sometimes.

No one other than you is suggesting an either/or approach to achieving a healthy, appealing body. The fact is that diet and exercise are crucial. But even with these, the skin may not rebound. When this occurs, plastic surgery is an alternative. And this, really, is indisputable.

If you're interested, there is lots of peer-reviewed literature that addresses the topic.