need some input please...

[screamin chicken]

I am 41 and weigh 180, and I am about 5 10. I have been lifting for about 4 years now, nothing to extreme just trying to stay in shape and build a little muscle. I have finally seen a improvement and the thing that I really would like to loose is my belly. I am a size 34, I do my abs everyday 2 sets of 50 with about 20-40 lbs. on my machine and I just can not seem to get rid of it. I do not eat alot of junk, I work for UPS so I walk at a fast pace , or even run all day. Thanks.....

 

[Gazhole]

Losing fat is all about diet management. You can do crunches until you give yourself a hernia but you'll still have a gut when they sew you up. In fact lots of weighted crunches can actually make your gut bigger by building up the abdominal muscles and pushing the fat even further outwards.

You need to take a look at what you eat, go to:

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

And log EXACTLY what you eat for three days. It'll work out how many calories you're eating, and how those calories are broken up into protein/fat/carbs. This information is very very helpful in deciding what you need to do to see results.

On a basic level, losing fat is impossible if you are eating too much. You need to give your body reason to use that fat, by taking in less energy than you need to maintain your current body composition.

Once you get that info from fitday, we can look at reducing your calories and fixing your macronutrient ratio if needed.

Also, do you drink a lot of alcohol? That can give you a gut on it's own, let alone anything else.

 

[rockhardly]

Yup!

Targeting muscles in areas that has fat in order to reduce that fat is called "spot reduction" and is a myth. Loosing fat is about burning more calories than you consume. But, in order to keep from loosing muscle along with the fat, you should continue weight training.

 

[screamin chicken]

Thanks I will look at the site, and I rarely drink, I think I may have had 3 beers like 3 weeks ago....

 

[CaptainNapalm]

I agree with the above posts for diet 100% however if you are doing weighted crunches I'd consider replacing those with some leg raises or weighted leg raises. I never got any results from crunches or any machines for abs but the noticable results I did get was from leg raises. But yeah diet is key.

 

[screamin chicken]

ok I will try not doing the weighted crunches and start another way....