I have always had a small waist, more of a pear shape than an apple, but I have noticed its getting harder to keep my abs in shape. I am 43 and in April started a highly stressful job. My long hours have limited my workouts to four times a week instead of six. I do have a sensitive stomach which is acting up even more now with this job, also I have a bad knee and cant do any impact. Any suggestions? I hate this extra flab in the middle.
Gaining inches in lower abs
- Thread starter maureen
- Start date
Jenne
Cathlete
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-23-02 AT 06:15AM (Est)[/font][p]I hope you don't mind... I don't have much advice but I can share your misery.
I've always been well-proportioned, with a waist that "matched" my hips and bust pretty well, but about three years ago, I started gaining what ultimately became 50 pounds (50 pounds I could not afford to gain.) With this weight gain has come a huge waist and lower abs that are currently BIGGER around than my hips. I was 27 (and somewhere between a pear and an hourglass) when this all started, so I can't quite blame middle age.
I've heard that stress hormones can lead us to store extra fat around our waist and I've HEARD that to counter it, we should do yoga and meditation and stuff like that. I can't tell you whether that has worked for me. Who knows, maybe if I didn't do yoga, I'd be even fatter.
I also have a sensitive stomach, particularly to sugar, wheat, and soy. When life is going well, those foods don't bother me to the point where I get sick, but if I'm at all stressed or excited, it's painful.
Can you speed-walk? Or swim? Unfortunately, if you can't work out as intensely, that probably means you should work out longer, which you probably don't have time for. In that case, it probably means you have to eat fewer calories (which is never fun.)
I've lost ten pounds of the 50 with workouts 6 days a week (5 cardio, 1 strength), and a very restricted-calorie diet (1200 or fewer calories, 20-30% fat, 15% protein, the rest carbs). It's the ONLY thing that has worked for me since this nonsense started.
Jenne
I've always been well-proportioned, with a waist that "matched" my hips and bust pretty well, but about three years ago, I started gaining what ultimately became 50 pounds (50 pounds I could not afford to gain.) With this weight gain has come a huge waist and lower abs that are currently BIGGER around than my hips. I was 27 (and somewhere between a pear and an hourglass) when this all started, so I can't quite blame middle age.
I've heard that stress hormones can lead us to store extra fat around our waist and I've HEARD that to counter it, we should do yoga and meditation and stuff like that. I can't tell you whether that has worked for me. Who knows, maybe if I didn't do yoga, I'd be even fatter.
I also have a sensitive stomach, particularly to sugar, wheat, and soy. When life is going well, those foods don't bother me to the point where I get sick, but if I'm at all stressed or excited, it's painful.
Can you speed-walk? Or swim? Unfortunately, if you can't work out as intensely, that probably means you should work out longer, which you probably don't have time for. In that case, it probably means you have to eat fewer calories (which is never fun.)
I've lost ten pounds of the 50 with workouts 6 days a week (5 cardio, 1 strength), and a very restricted-calorie diet (1200 or fewer calories, 20-30% fat, 15% protein, the rest carbs). It's the ONLY thing that has worked for me since this nonsense started.
Jenne