Hi everyone,
About 3 years ago I was 17 and over 17st. I wasn't particular happy about this but didn't really enjoy any of the exercise I had on offer after school, and although I swam twice a week for my Duke of Edinburgh I wasn't shifting any of the fat (I didn't kid myself that any of it was muscle...)
I didn't know what to do about it, however it was coming up to Lent and although I'm not particularly religious and don't usually give up anything for Lent, I impulsively decided to give up chocolate, crisps, sweets, cakes and fizzy pop...
I didn't tell anyone about it at first but then my family and friends noticed I had stopped after about a week. I found it very hard at first, it is all too easy to pick up a bar of chocolate or bag of crisps when you feel snacky. I found eating fruit helped or things like raw carrot, also cereal bars were good fillers (though be careful you don't eat so many of these it cancels out everything you cut out!)
However, the interesting thing was that after a week or so I stopped missing them I suddenly stopped craving a bar of chocolate etc, I don't entirely know why, maybe my subconscious thought it would give me a hand!
Surprisingly quickly it came to the end of Lent and although I was faced with a stack of Easter Eggs I decided I would carry on not eating all this junk as I felt a lot better in myself and had lot more energy.
In the next 6 months I finished sixth form, went for a month to Ghana to do some aid work and got ready to start Uni, but more importantly I started to lose weight, and went down from a XXL to a L and lost a total of around 3 st ending up at around 14st.
I started Uni and took up rowing on another impulse and found a passion for it I never experienced before. By the end of my first year of University I was in the Men's 2nd crew for my college, was training up to 6 times a week, weighing 13st 7lbs, wearing M or L clothes and loving it! I have since carried on rowing and made it into our college Men's 1st VIII and now have very little fat on my arms or legs, they are pretty much all muscle. I go to the gym regularly...and enjoy it! I've stayed around 13 and a half to 14st for the last 2 years and I have now had to put rowing on hold as I concentrate on my studies (training up to 8 hours at a weekend takes up a lot of your time!) however I now plan to lose my belly and man-boobs!
Although rowing is a fantastic sport for getting you fit and developing your arms and legs, it doesn't do much for you torso, so I am still left with a bit of a belly and man-boobs so if anyone has any tips that would be great!
I try to do an ab workout each day called 'abs of death' that our women's squad do each gym session, you do these exercises in order with no break and for each exercise you do 30 reps holding tensed for 5 seconds on each 5th rep:
1. Crunches
2. Twist Crunches (both sides)
3. Bum lifts (stick legs in the air crossed and lift bum up off the floor with your abs, if you do it right you should really feel it...)
4. Side dips (do a side plank on your forearm then dip you bum using your abs)
5. Plank for 1min (or longer!)
However what would people recommend for doing at the gym? I like an interesting workout and after spending far too much time on the rowing machines I would prefer to avoid these...
So to sum up, I've given up chocolate, sweets, crisps, cakes and fizzy drinks for the last 3 years and still don't miss them (although occasionally I get a craving for Irn-Bru and Wine Gums...) and am looking for some help on losing my belly...

Thanks

David

hi, the best weight loss exercise is slow, long duration running and walking. nothing can beat these x

... don't know about losing your belly, but you're a fine-looking man. You don't happen to be interested in blonde overweight older women, do you???

Fi - talk about SHAMELESS!!!!!

Hellooooo - you're back! And right on form - of course I'm shameless on-line, but in real life I'm just a shy retiring type ....

David thats brilliant!

i found the same with junk, the cravings soon went once I took the plunge and stopped eating the rubbish.

one thing my rowing friend told me was how much they had to eat to have the energy to do all that rowing! so maybe keep an eye on what you're eating - and if possible to cut down a little bit as you wont need all that fuel.

as for the gym i would have thought any aerobic workout would burn more fat, altho not necessarily aimed at the torso.

anything that does burn fat will be good as you will already have the six pack underneath cos those exercise's sound like killers!

Apparently yoga works for those hard to shift areas.

Well done on losing the fat.

You need to actually tone the tummy muscles now. Cardio exercise alone won't do it. I'm a size 10 waist but my tummy sticks out because I haven't been able to do any tummy exercises all winter (slipped disc).

Tummy muscles respond well to daily exercise, just mix it up a bit: crunches one day, something else the next. And they have to hurt (a bit) to work! Start with just a few reps, and build up when you get stronger.

http://www.shapefit.com/abs-exercises-oblique-crun ches.html

hi try using a swiss ball for bench press squats ,feet on it for press ups and crunches bicep curls ,every exercise you can do on a bench is better for your core on a swiss ball ,buy a good book or dvd from human kinetics website the swiss ball will work your middle as you need to balance it will pull everything tight even holding a swiss ball overhead and then doing squats will work your core ie butt ,back ,abs its not a girlie thing its for real thats why a lot of females use it igo to a ball workout class regularly .sit on one lift one leg and then do arm side raises ,or a shoulder press it will work your core at the same time trust me paul