Join the war against genetics!

March 25, 2006 10:51 AM

I want to maintain my weight, but continue to lower my body fat percentage. Should I lower caloric intake or just increase my exercise, or both?

I am a male, 24, 5'10" and 173 lbs. I've lost a lot of weight through eating right and exercising, and I am happy with where I am, weight-wise. However, I've still got a pear-shape, which i seem to have inherited from my mother's side of the family, as all of her brothers are the same shape. Right now, I'm extremely happy with the shape of my legs, satisfied with my arms and shoulders (and up), but not so happy with my belly and rear end.

Basically, I'd like to get rid of that gut. I know the best way to do this is to reduce my body fat percentage, but I am wondering about the best way to go about this. Should I decrease my caloric intake, or continue that at a maintenance level and just continue to exercise? Or should I increase my exercise (which could be difficult as I cram in as much as I can to begin with), or something else?

Right now for working out I run 5km 3 times a week (I am working on increasing my distance here), use the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes a week, ride my bike for 30 minutes a week, and do resistance training (full body) two of those days. On the days I don't work out, I walk for about 45 minutes. As far as food goes, I'm eating the right amount to maintain my current weight with that level of activity.

So, I know that there's no such thing as spot training, but it is frustrating to me that my extremeties are doing so well but my mid-section seems to be slacking off. What's the best way to go about this while maintaining my weight?

posted by synecdoche to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

According to your BMI of 24.8, you are at the highest point of what's considered to be normal weight. Just keep doing what you're doing, and don't fret if you drop below 173. You could drop considerable weight (below 150) and still be in that normal range. My thinking is that, from your described regimen, if you continue, you will eventually both lose the gut and lose a few pounds, as the fat is replaced with denser muscle.
posted by frogan at 11:03 AM on March 25, 2006

If you do want to maintain your weight, you'll have to add some lifting to yoru schedule as you slightly increase your mileage and keep your calories the same. Or, you can up the intensity of what you're doing aerobically, google High Intensity Interval Training. The basic thing here is that if you increase calorie burning without adding wieght lifting you will lower you bodyfat percentage but also lose weight. The only way to put on non-fat weight is to start lifting.
posted by OmieWise at 11:05 AM on March 25, 2006

This is going to be very difficult while maintaining your weight. What you want to do is referred to as cutting, and is usually associated with mild to moderate weightloss. You do it through weight lifting, aerobic exercise, and eating fewer calories than you need.

Since, basically, you are putting in the same energy in food that your body uses, it has no reason to tap into its stores of fat.

What I'd recommend (and have done in the past) is go through a cutting phase to get down to the body fat percentage you want, and then go through a bulking phase to get back up to your ideal weight. Bulking would be eating more calories than you need to help the development of your muscles (as well as put a little fat back on, it won't be comparable to what you loss, though), while doing a lot of weight training and sticking with your cardio routine.
posted by Loto at 11:08 AM on March 25, 2006

IANAD. I also have a gut, and am successfully reducing it.

Do lots of lifting exercises, and don't do much cardio. I'd say about 3 days of each. [Gym hearsay alert:]When lifting, use a load slightly below your maximum (from what I've heard, this optimizes for mass, while using the maximum load optimizes for strength).

Since you say you're coming from a overweight, and still have some gut, I won't recommend increasing your calorie intake right now -- only consider upping it when your BMI is coming closer to 20. And yeah, you probably are already doing it, but keep away from refined sugar or white bread.

And if you want some supplementation, get some high quality whey protein (whey can be isolate or concentrate, and isolate is better. The version sold is usually a mix, so check for protein percentages, and get the highest possible, or pure isolate, if you can find it). It can do wonders when combined with a good lifting training.
posted by qvantamon at 6:58 PM on March 25, 2006

Oh, the gut going away last is normal: that's the main fat-accumulation spot in the male body, it's the first place to accumulate fat, and the last to let it go.

But, also, a big gut while the rest of your body is lean can be postural. I used to have a big gut and be underweight at the same time, all because of posture. It became a lot better with some sessions of phisiotherapy (Global Postural Reeducation, I don't know how it's called in english). That is, until I gained some 20 pounds and got a real gut :). It's easy to differentiate the two: an overweight gut is somewhat distributed, along the sides and the front (spare tire). A postural gut is concentrated at the front.
posted by qvantamon at 7:10 PM on March 25, 2006