How can I tone up and burn flab away once and for all?

[Anonymous]

I'd say I'm considerably slim and in decent shape, but that's not to say I don't have a few "trouble" areas. I'm a runner, but I still can't seem to flatten and firm my belly as much as I'd like. Have any of you had success with blasting away the fat once and for all? What worked for you?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated!

[wildcat1989]

There is no permanent solution for weight loss. You may do some routine to lose those few extra pounds, whatever it may be, but there is no way anyone could ever guarantee that those pounds would not come back.

Our weight fluctuates throughout our entire lifetime. Through stress, childbirth, decrease or increase in the amount of exercise, and other factors. The ugly truth is, that weight is largely genetically determined. Sure, we can eat a few salads instead of burgers here and there, but it will not impact your overall weight tremendously.

If you do some searching around in research studies when it comes to weight loss diet and exercise only slightly help weight loss in the vast majority of cases. "Working out" and exercising are inventions of the 21st century. People only recently in human history have looked at exercise as a way to lose weight. Shows like 'the biggest loser' promote exercise because they want consumers to start buying gym memberships and workout dvds. The weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, but have you noticed? Still no one is losing weight.

Have you also noticed that America is the most health conscious country in the world and yet we are still the fattest? Does that make since to you? And the notion that other countries eat less than us is totally bogus! In Italy they eat pasta, pizza, bread, and everything else that is processed white carbohydrates, and they are thin. In Germany they consume annually more alcohol per capita than the United States...and they are still thinner than us.

Something else is going on that is making us gain weight. Oh, and I forgot to mention, these countries do not exercise. They do not see the point in it. You will not find a 24 hour gym in Europe and yet they are much thinner than us.

Recently scientist have found other reason for weight gain that has nothing to do with diet. Hormone fluctuations, estrogen inducing foods, sleep patterns, and even neurological thought processes have all been linked to a persons body weight.

Anyways, if you feel like exercise is your only option to permanently lose weight, buddy, you have a long road ahead of you. The ONLY way to insure that fat does not reappear in an area is to have it liposuctioned out. Liposuction destroys and removes the fat cells in an area. So if there are no storage compartments for the fat, the fat will not appear.

But be cautioned, with liposuction you will permanantly remove fat from an area of your body, but if you do gain weight later in your life it will be in other places in your body. Sometimes places it should not be.

Many people who have undergone liposuction and later gained weight, gained it in weird places like their necks, calves, lower arms, but not in the places they had the fat cells removed. The fat will grow around the liposuctioned area. So if you aren't planning on getting every fat cell sucked out of your body, there is no guarentee you won't gain weight someday.

Good luck.

[Habakkuk]

a soft belly isn't a bad thing, if you're a runner I'd imagine you would be in shape, so I wouldn't worry too much.. it's just when your belly sticks way out that it gets bad, but it's not a big deal