Round tummy - any suggestions?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Round tummy - any suggestions?
4
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 1:16am
So now I'm at my target weight (currently 119 pounds for a 5'4" frame). I power walk half an hour or more almost every day and go to a Pilates class once or twice a week (and have for the last three years of so).

All my life I have had a round tummy and I have also produced two children in the last seven years, so I don't know how much I can do about my basic shape. There seems to be more fat on my abdomen than in other areas of my body but my abdominal muscles are pretty strong from the Pilates. Can I exercise the fat off my tummy? How? I don't really want to drop much more weight (I'm down to a 34A bra size already and I don't want to disappear!)

Thank you

Laura

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-18-2003
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 6:05am
Is it really fat or is it skin?


 








 
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2004
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 7:50am
I don't know if this is factual or not but I've been told American Indian females are prone to have a pop-belly, I'm guessing that's what you are calling a round tummy. I don't know if it is true but I am part American Indian and have always had a pop-belly, even before puberty or before giving birth to children. I am 5' 6" and weighed between 110 & 115 (too skinny for the height) up until I was 27 years old, I'm much older & heavier now. So maybe it's genetic???

If anyone knows if there is any fact to this please let know.

Alice - The Betty Boop

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-27-2001
Sat, 08-07-2004 - 8:51am
A lot of the articles I've read lately have said that as we age, we women gain fat in our tummy area.
Nancy

"Make Choices that bring you joy"  cl-Patty


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2000
Sun, 08-08-2004 - 11:19am
Ads may lead you to believe otherwise, but you cannot "target fat" areas to lose - it's sort of an all or nothing proposition. Too bad, for I've always had a pouffy tummy even as a teenager weighing considerably less than I do now. Nancy is absolutely right in that we have to remember that we are no longer in our 20s. To hope that we can be our age with our very different hormones and while having the body of someone in their 20s may be a bit of pipe dreaming for most of us. Yet we can be just as pleased with our 40s (or 50s) body knowing that we're probably in better shape than we were in our 20s. That's my story and I'm sticking with it! Still, you can target those muscle groups to *tone* them which can make them look sleeker (no additional loss of fat, just definition). If your Pilates has been strengthening your abs, then you're already doing that. Sometimes switching routines helps. Have you tried some traditional crunches just for variety? I don't do Pilates, but I do about 14 minutes of 6 styles of simple crunches whenever I work my abs (for variety, I'll switch to J. Kries' pilates tapes). Before I became pregnant in 1998, I was starting to get 6-pack abs. Having had a kid since, there's no 6-pack in my future, but I can can still get definition in my abs.

Incidentally, I'm 5'4" and range between 121 and 126 pounds - depending on the time of the month and how many snacks and sweets I've been munching on, LOL! Despite my exercising, the tummy pouf never completely goes away, though it sure looks better than it did. I also tend to think we're our own worst critics: pouffy tummies always look pouffier when you're looking down on them. Try a profile view instead - you might be surprised ;^)!












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