Hey, I posted this question on another board, but I will ask it here too, cuz I REALLY want to know the answer to this one. When I work out, I tighten my muscles pretty fast, but I just cannot seem to get rid of fat. My muscles get firm, but all the flab stays. I do aerobics 3 times a week, and weight training twice (one day upper body, one day lower body). I try to eat the right things and at the right times. Somehow, I just cannot get rid of the fat! It is totally driving me crazy, so if someone can help me out, that'd be great. The sooner I can get rid of all this flab, the better!

i would up my cardio. do 5 days a week of cardio. if you walk say 4 mph. do 5 min at 4mph then 2 min of 5-6 mph back and forth. it isn't the weight lifting and crunches that will get rid of the flab. that will only develop the muscles underneath. it is the cardio. and eating that will get rid of the flab. GOOD LUCK!!!!!

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Hey, thanx so much! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif BTW...I hear that swimming is good for getting off the fat. Is this true?

Originally posted by Angel#7:
Hey, I posted this question on another board, but I will ask it here too, cuz I REALLY want to know the answer to this one. When I work out, I tighten my muscles pretty fast, but I just cannot seem to get rid of fat. My muscles get firm, but all the flab stays. I do aerobics 3 times a week, and weight training twice (one day upper body, one day lower body). I try to eat the right things and at the right times. Somehow, I just cannot get rid of the fat! It is totally driving me crazy, so if someone can help me out, that'd be great. The sooner I can get rid of all this flab, the better!


In order to loose fat, you need to burn off more calories then you take in per day. The reason why your probably not loosing your fat is because of your diet. Beleive it or not, diet is probably 80 to 90% of the equasion of loosing bodyfat (or to gain muscle.) That being said, you want to eat 5 or six small meals per day spread out every 2 to 3 hours. Each small meal should contain protein/carbs and some fat. Dont make the mistake of eating all carbs in one meal and all protein at the next meal. you want balance!!! I recommend you get 45% of your calories from protein, 40% from carbs and about 10% from fats. Proteins should come from lean meats,whey protein, egg whites etc. Carbs should come from complex carbs or fibrous sources like broccoli,oatmeal,whole grains etc. Fats should come from healthy souces such as virgin olive oil, flax seed oil,peanut butter etc. You need to also keep an eye on your caloric intake. If you are loosing more then 1 to 1.5 pounds a week, you are not eating enough and you will loose muscle which is not good for fat loss!!! The more muscle you loose the slower the fat burning process will be. If this is the case, you need to increase your calories. If you are loosing 1 to 1.5lbs a week dont change a thing!!
You should up you aerobics to 4 to 5 days a week in my opinion!!

I hope this helps!!!


GF

Originally posted by Angel#7:
Hey, thanx so much! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif BTW...I hear that swimming is good for getting off the fat. Is this true?


Actually, there have been studies stating that swimming does not help you burn fat. Whether its true or not, I cant say!! The theory is that the body avoids burning fat when exposed to water because of the possibility of hypothermia(sp?)
Now mind you, this is just a theory but it has been documented!!

GF

Swimming is an excellent form of cardio... it's a good heart and lung workout. But, it is not a great way to burn bodyfat. The main reason is that the muscles of the upper body, which bear most of the load in swimming, tend to preferentially burn glycogen (sugars) as opposed to fatty acids during activity. Your legs, on average, prefer fatty acids for endurance type activities.

There's more to it than that... but that is the basic outline as to how it works.

Andrew