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what is the best way to get rid of a belly? (my waist meausre 40inches around the navel.) what cardio and what toning stuff should i do and how much?

[did you know that people with an 'apple' shape (so belly fat basically) have a greater risk of heart disease?]

Ok to answer your first question, how to get rid of a belly, you need to work on that specific area.

Also, your belly is second priority on your bodies list, meaning that if you do exercise its most likely to burn the fat on your arms and legs first, after thats used up your body will use your belly fat. (but this doesnt mean this will take you ten years to do)

Doing crunches, sit ups and other abdominal exercise WILL give you abs, however if that is all your doing, you will just end up with abs hidden behind a layer of fat. That is why i personally recomend this:

--->Start by drinking more water (water helps flush out toxins and wastes from your body)
--->DO your ab workouts regularily, as in every two days or every day(crunches, sit ups etc... I will post something on how to do them later)
--->DO cardio exercises like biking, hiking, walking, swimming, rowing, running. 6-7 times a week (its a lot but it gives results) just do it! dont get discouraged you cant lose if you follow your plan. Make sure that at least 3 out of those days will be spent doing intense, short cardio.
--->cut out one unhealthy thing in your diet and replace it with something healthy that you love, like a good fruit or vegetable, dont drink things with a lot of calories if its just because you want to.
--->Do some weight training like arms, shoulders and legs four times a week (dont strain yourself, you could end up with a bad injury), if you tone your entire body then you will get better results.

I hope this helps!

thanks for the belly-shedding advice! i've started doing push-ups, they're for the arms but they're a killer for the lower stomach, and they're so hard for me to do cos i've a lot of weight to hold up, so they make me sweat and up my heart beat, so it's sort of cardio for me. maybe you could do a thread in the fitness forum for burning fat/toning different body parts? to be honest, ALL of mine could do with less fat and be firmer, but the belly is my biggest problem area, 40inches puts me at risk for major health problems.

btw, i love your new avatar!

Yeah I heard someone say that if you work too hard you're burning away your muscles and I didn't believe them. So it's good to here that that is not true.

I'm trying to become stronger and faster (for karate), the strength I've already got a fair bit of, but lacking in the speed area and I was advised to loose weight to help with that (plus was told through a fitness assessment that I need to loose some)

I'm just aiming to loose body fat at the moment and I was told to do it, but not how through eating. So I'm pretty confused in that department.

I eat reasonably healthy, like my breakfast, lunch and tea choices are really healthy, it's just my snacking that isn't sad

I'm trying though smile

Do you know of ways to simply keep in shape?
I'm in pretty decent shape at the moment, and I would like to stay that way even after I'm not having volleyball practices (for about a month and a half, starting in a week).
And suggestions?

Does anyone else here (females) have trouble with bulking up?

I bulk up really easily, like I do long distance running and after a while of training, I look like a sprinter I get that muscly. Last time I trained hard, I fit comfortably in my pants at the start, by the end I couldn't fit in them, they wouldn't fit over my thighs the muscles had gotten that big!

Now I have been told that stretching may prevent it, but I haven't had any luck with that in the past, unless I wasn't do it often enough. Does any one have any other ideas on how to prevent this?? Because I am getting back into it all, I don't want it to happen again. Even my mum comment on how muscly I got.

It don't matter if I do the exercise easy or hard and with weights, it doesn't matter if they are heavy or light or how many reps I do. I could do 10 pushups a day for a couple of weeks and my triceps are huge afterwards.

Hmm, damn. Like I don't hate it when I get muscly, it can just become a little annoying in the way of clothing mostly. I'm starting to run again and I get really big when I do it. Long distance running is meant to be slimming stare . Lol, it was funny last time I trained, I started at the same time the rest of my year level did, all these girls were getting toned and slimming down a lot, me, well I was toned, but I had big muscles too, I did not slim down. Well I thought it was funny smile

Well looks like I will just have to deal with it and get over it. I will still try stretching (as I have lost a lot of flexibility in the past 12 months) and see what happens