Friday, May 2, 2008

DESPERATE: What to do about muffintop


I haven't been able to religiously stick to this NONO diet in preparation for my cousin's wedding overseas (I'm leaving wednesday) but I have dropped another pound.


Ok although I've now lost over 35 pounds and like 3 sizes I still have this really horrible muffin top....actually it's more like a tire. I know we all have them but proportionally speaking mine is pretty bad. My observation has been that most people with my shoulder-hip-butt-thigh measurements do not have a that flabby layer that I do.

The weird thing is when I was younger my abs were NEVER my problem area...it was always my butt and thighs that caused me distress. It might have to do with the fact that I gained weight so rapidly and also the binges of the past that left me with this tire hugging my waistline. The picture above was taken recently and I was totally sucking in as hard as I can.



I tried hiphop abs and it did nothing for me. I did it a few times and I felt absolutely nothing in my abs. I used to do 8 minute abs but I only felt it was working my abs like the first 2 times so I quit that after some weeks. I'm willing to take up new exercises and add to my workout routine I just need something very powerful and effective and I'll totally commit to it. Does anyone have suggestions? particularly something that's on DVD so I can take it with me while I'm traveling.







12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something about the term "muffin top" to describe our bellies hanging over our pants, just makes me giggle. I know, nothing really funny about it, but still!

So I too have a muffin top that I am working on getting rid of. The video that I use is a 10 minute yoga for abs video from exercise tv. It gives me such a great ab workout and I can really feel it working.

The yoga guy is Tom Morley and it's called "yoga for abs". You should be able to download the video and burn it to a dvd, if you like it. Here's the link: http://store.exercisetv.tv/s-59-tom-morley.aspx

Have a safe trip!

amma15 said...

Julie, thanks a bunch! How long have you been doing that for?

Grumpy Chair said...

I say cardio. I always lose my belly/bust when I am walking fast/running on treadmill 4 x's a week.

Also, I heard weight resistance training helps a bunch too.

Anonymous said...

I have this thick waist problem as well. I can lose anywhere but the waist. Try sit ups?

Anonymous said...

hey sit ups do work like crazy. By the way I congratulate you on your weight loss but dont get swept away by the numbers. I dont mean to discourage you but, I am surprised you weigh less than 160 pounds. I am a guy and weigh close to 175 pounds and some people think I am pretty thin (I am 5'11"). A lot of what you lost could very likely be water weight. How about you just eat a very full and healthy 2200 calorie diet for 3 weeks. I will bet money that the number on the scale will drastically rise.

Felicia said...

Congrats on your weight loss and size loss! That is wonderful. Hope you find a work out that works for you!!

*huggles*
=0)

Anonymous said...

Hey girl - thanks for coming by and kicking me in the ass to update. I finally did.

The muffin top - a hard thing for all of us to deal with. Part of it, I believe, is that so many pant styles now are low rise - it really accentuates the MT if you are not a beanpole type. I find that jeans with a slightly higher waist (not gross high-waisted mom jeans) fit better and reduce the appearance of the dreaded MT.

Bottom line for the gut, though, is more aerobic exercise. Use Hip Hop Abs for the aerobic benefits, not the "ab" benefit. Strong abs are great but you could have abs of steel and still not see them because of body fat, which is only lost through aerobic activity - cardio is the answer. I wish it were a different answer but, at least for me, the gut only went when I stepped up the cardio.

If you don't like HHA (so sad, because I think it is damned fun) try Turbo Jam Cardio Party. It will kick your ass. If you do that 5 days a week, your muffin top will be a distant memory. Mine has gotten smaller and smaller but only through slave-like commitment to the cardio.

Best of luck - like I said before, you just have fun at that wedding and don't let the skinny bitches get you down. :-)

R.Shack said...

OMG I felt like I wrote that post... I feel the same way (though I haven't lost 35 pounds yet, congrats btw!!!) but I gotta agree that you just gotta stick to the cardio... it's the only thing to do... stinks though because when I was thin I'd try to cover my butt all the time because it was 'too' big and I'd accept a few inches back onto it to lose some around the middle ;)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on becoming 3 sizes smaller.
The tummy is usually the last thing to go, but cardio and pilates/yoga are better than crunches at that. Good luck and keep going :)

Sonya said...

Totally could have written this myself. Thanks for the headup on those interventions, I'll have to see what others wrote to get some ideas too.

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Anonymous said...

i wanna loose some fat too, help me also.