Stubborn body fat

Stubborn body fat		terrorequalswin
		Jul 24 2008 17:19
I'm 5'10, male, weigh 145-155, (varies daily, no joke). I run about 15 miles a week, work out at the gym about 4 days a week (hard, exhausting workouts). I do 200 crunches followed by 40 pushups a night. I'm working very hard on (I know, bear with me) six-pack abs. I try to get 300 crunches some nights, but meh. I can't seem to lose this bit of fat towards the bottom of my stomach. I try and eat well (I work in an office so my lunch options are limited as are my opportunities to burn calories outside of work). I have (this'll sound weird) like the top 4 (?) but I can't seem to get rid of this fat at the bottom. My daily caloric intake appears to be ~1300-1500 (more on days I work out), which I'm trying to get higher to be healthier, but I just can't lose this tad bit of fat and it's getting really quite annoying to me. Any help with this?

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#1	floggingsully	Jul 24 2008 17:42
What does your weight lifting routine look like? All the crunches in the world won't burn fat on your stomach.
#2	jarredwayne	Jul 24 2008 17:55
I would take a break from "cutting" and focus on a bulking period for about a month...this would mean eating around 2200 cals a day full of protein and healthy fats (+omega 3, 6, 9)..and non processed carbs...Break this up into 5-7 small meals throughout the day to get your metabolism stoked...your work outs should consist of mostly full body exercises that serve a duel purpose (i.e. lunge+military press)...take a break from the jogging and crunches...try HIIT on an elliptical trainer to re-challenge your body...after doing this your body will be a fuel burning high octane engine and when you go back to a cutting period....your fat will melt right off.....the deal is that you can't just diet forever because your metabolism eventually adapts and caloric burn slows down.
#3	dakatz	Jul 24 2008 18:33
Doing all the crunches in the world won't help you if you have been doing this routine for a long time. Your muscles stop responding if they get into a habit over a long period of time. You need to shake things up and try different ab exercises that hit the muscles from all angles. There are tons of great exercises to work on the abs. You need to shake things up a bit and results will be sure to follow.
#4	melkor	Jul 24 2008 20:55
Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. And all the crunches in the world won't help you - you're doing far, far too many as it is. You work in an office, you spend most of your life hunched forward. There's no reason to do even more trunk flexion training unless you're aiming to become the next hunchback of Notre Dame. And seriously. When you can do more than 12 reps of any exercise you need to increase the resistance - you're doing like 25 times more. Knock it off already, you're destroying the fast-twitch fibre and overstraining your CNS - use a swiss ball and do weighted crunches if you absolutely feel you must, but stop with the overkill, it's holding you back. Also, real core strength comes from squats and deadlifts, with a side order of planks and rollouts. Quit doing crunches, start doing planks, hanging leg raises, stability ball pikes, and rollouts, do squats and deadlifts, and your abs will come popping out. Assuming you've got the diet thing down, that is.
#5	waelkd	Jul 25 2008 00:33
i 2nd melkor
#6	imccarthy	Jul 25 2008 14:36
At 5'10" and ~150 pounds you are already thin and thus should focus on putting on some muscle. Throw out the situps and do plenty of squats, deadlifts, bench presses, chin-ups, etc. Heavy compound movements. This combined with plenty of calories and protein as well as rest. The fact that you are eating less than 1500 calories as a male suggests you have slowed your metabolism and thus you are going to need to work to get it back to normal. When I was ~125 pounds when I first started lifting I was eating 3500-4000 calories daily and very soon found myself on 5000. 1500 calories is a starvation diet. Staying at 1500 calories and chasing after abs will leave you skinny-fat at 150 pounds, digging yourself even deeper into a metabolic pit.
#7	kmr122791	Jul 25 2008 16:50
How long have you been doing crunches? Well heres something that works for me. Im a teenage girl who is small, and i wanted to get more muscle...I was doing 600 situps every night and it worked. I then started doing situps on an incline after the 600 crunces. I would do about 100. I then added weights on my chest and did situps on an incline. I have been doing this for a little over a month and it seems to be working... It might work for you... try it..and increase the amount of weights on your chest/ dont over do it though. Hope that helps..good luck.
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