18 pack

[dholbert]

Its me again. Back on the weight loss issues. I am one of those people who have no problem gaining muscle mass in my legs. I was doing kick boxing at one point and had to stop because i could not stand how huge my legs were getting. Yes its a great feature ..... until you cant get jeans over your thighs My question is. I gain all my weight on my stomach... hence the 18 pack comment. Does cycling help or hurt the leg issue and how does it fair on the old abs? Please say it will help my belly

 

[heathb]

You can't spot reduce fat. And as far as your legs go, cycling will increase their size and this should ramp up your metabolism.

As far as abs is concerned cycling won't hit them as hard as crunches, but you need to go on a strict diet to get rid of that fat, and you also should be pounding out some serious miles every day on the bike to keep you metabolism eating that fat away.

I think it's 3500 calories=1 pound of fat. Most men put fat on their abs first and it's the last place to come off. Also you're leg size will reduce when you burn fat off. Fat takes up 2/3 more space then muscle, that's why I see lots of guys lifting weights that think their huge, but if you got them down to 5% body fat they'd look like walking sticks and be a lot healthier for it.

 

[WINGNUTT]

Cycling is so much of an aerobic sport, that it will not result in a lot of muscle mass gain in the legs (look at the best cyclists in the world - basso, rasmussen, etc. - they have toothpics for legs). YOu need resistance to build muscle mass.

For burning fat, as mentioned above, it will come off the stomach from cycling because you can't choose where it comes off. It will come off the same places it went on when you were over-eating, which in your case is the belly.

But, you also need resistance training to build muscle, so you will have to hit your abs hard in the gym to trim that 18-pack back into a 6-er.

Cliffs: cycling to take off the fat, resistance exercises in the gym to build muscle.

 

[NickDavid]

Cycling is so much of an aerobic sport, that it will not result in a lot of muscle mass gain in the legs (look at the best cyclists in the world - basso, rasmussen, etc. - they have toothpics for legs). YOu need resistance to build muscle mass.

For burning fat, as mentioned above, it will come off the stomach from cycling because you can't choose where it comes off. It will come off the same places it went on when you were over-eating, which in your case is the belly.

But, you also need resistance training to build muscle, so you will have to hit your abs hard in the gym to trim that 18-pack back into a 6-er.

Cliffs: cycling to take off the fat, resistance exercises in the gym to build muscle.

+2!

Just like the rest of your body, you're going to lose the fat that is over the muscle.

Take these recommendations to heart man.

 

[dholbert]

man i love this site. you post a thread and within minutes you have all kinds of advise at your fingertips. thanks people

 

[heathb]

He may already have a 6 pack under all that bluber. You need to eat a normal healthy diet and get plenty of excersise.

I used to body build seven days a week and never achieved a six pack until I stripped all the fat off my body and there those cute little bumps on my tummy were all along. 500 miles a week will strip you down in no time and it puts some freaky looking vascilature all over you abs that make you look pretty scary, but no matter what you have to eat extremely clean and accept that you go through periods where you cut and then you not. Staying cut up year round is damn tough and wears you down if you keep it up all the time.

You don't just want to do cardio though. Many people do this and they end up loosing muscle mass and fat and this leads to many endurance guys looking a little flabby and wimpy. I'm lucky in that I spent years lifting weights, so all I had to do was dump the fat that almost all body builders have. I personally lift hard during the winter and then taper back and hit the bike hard during the warmer months to get in shape for racing. I still lift, but it's cut back to three 15 minute power sets where I lift as heavy as I can stand so as to keep my power, but not waste too much energy that could be spent training on the bike, and of course shorter sessions with weights allow for a quicker recorvery with additional protein intake.

 

[cycling_jedi]

I think it's 3500 calories=1 pound of fat.

Is this right? Not questioning your statement just trying to figure out how many calories I need to burn in order to lose 20 pounds..

Everyone is right about targeting weight loss to specific spots.... it can not be done. You will lose weight all over your body at the same time.... but keep excercising and you will lose the gut... that is my goal too.

heathb is right too... you might have a six pack under the belly but you just cant see it... in fact everyone has a six pack... that is the way those muscles are laid out... the problem is that if you want anyone to see them you need to work on them.... I am doing crunches even now. Crunches do not lose the belly fat, but they do work those muscles so as the fat dissappears the the six pack will be there waiting!

 

[RickF]

Is this right? Not questioning your statement just trying to figure out how many calories I need to burn in order to lose 20 pounds..

One gram of fat is 9 calories. There are 453.5 grams in a pound, so it is really closer to 4082 calories per pound of fat.

A pound of body weight, though, is less than a pound of fat, because there is a lot of extra water associated with fat in the body. I do not remember the exact figure, but the 3500 figure might be closer to what it takes to lose a pound of body weight.

 

[heathb]

Yeah I can't remember where I read the 3500 calories=pound of fat, but maybe it was to loose a pound of body weight.

I once dumped 65 pounds in 4 months doing 2 hours of cardio in the morning and 2 hours at night and I'm not talking about limping along. I was killing myself to get that fat off, many people couldn't believe that I went from 238 pounds to 173 in that amount of time. I really ****** off my fellow fat coworkers and guys my own age or younger that had let themselves go were a little jealous.

I have learned though that you have to eat small portions throughout the day to keep your metabolism fired up, if you starve yourself you're metabolism comes to a screeching halt and you're just shooting yourself in the foot and suffering for nothing. When I was loosing all my weight I was eating an extremely high fiber diet and this kept me full, but nutritionally speaking it was a dumb way to approach weight loss and I felt like **** for those 4 months. The good thing is I made this a permanent lifestyle change and will never go back to being overweight again. I just made sure that my diet is well rounded and healthy avoiding fast food and anything prepackaged and processed.

Just don't give up on your weight loss. You'll hit plateaus where you're not loosing the weight, but then a few weeks later you'll move past this and keep the weight loss going. Also don't even bother using the scale, the real test is the mirror....if you look fat than you are fat. You can loose a lot of water weight and fool yourself into thinking you've lost that much fat.

The only problem with loosing weight for me has been finding nice cloths that fit. It seems with the ever expanding waist lines of the american public I can't ever find dress cloths that have a long inseam and a small waist, so I end up having to tighten my belt to hold my pants up, I look like an idiot with my pants cinched, but I've searched high and low and short of going to a tailor and getting custom fitted I'm pretty much stuck with baggie cloths. That and you'll constantly hear that you're way too skinny and you need to put some weight on, it's like being skinny and healthy is out of style and fat a flabby is the way to live. Everywhere I go people are trying to get me to eat something, but they don't realize that I eat about 6000 calories a day of healthy food of course.

 

[mikesbytes]

18 pack = three 6 packs. Not bad. Down under the term 1 pack is often used.

Everyone has a 6 pack under the 1 pack, to expose it, you need to loose fat.
Stomach exercises will make a small improvement, but you should really be concentrating on fat loss.