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Tummy fat

francesk

Well-Known Member
Messages
182
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Has anyone got any good ideas on how to get rid of tummy fat? I'm T2 on insulin, and low carb and trulicity injections are working well on blood sugars and weight loss, but it seems to come off everywhere except my tummy! I have arthritis in my lower spine, so don't find exercise very easy, I use walking as my main exercise. I also had a laparotomy several years ago, which hasn't done much for the appearance of my tummy either! Any ideas appreciated! (Can't afford to join a gym, and would be too embarrassed to walk into one in any case! and don't fancy swimming in the current climate!)
 
There's no embarrassment in going to the gym at any stage. The fact you are willing to go should show others you are taking the right steps, not that it should matter to them anyway. I can remember starting off in the gym not knowing what to do etc and now I have people asking me what workouts etc to do, everyone has to start somewhere.

Exercise is a must, whatever it may be you have to do something more. Also when you say low carb you have to be careful that its not high fat as that will inevitably cause fat gain and unfortunately stomach fat is the most stubborn. Its a gradual process took me a year of consistent hard work to lower my body fat to where I wanted it to be, no easy fix.
 
Hi @francesk

Joining a gym wouldn't be an option with the current coronavirus self distancing/isolation situation anyway. All those sweaty gym machines. Ewww!

I still haven't seen any clear evidence that exercise targets the fat on a particular part of the body. You may cultivate the most fantastic 8-pack, but it won't do anything about the padding above it, unless you tackle that separately. In addition, body fat around the middle is a sign of insulin resistance, so that is something to tackle - and exercise is something that may help with that - but the type of exercise is important too.

There are many, many members here who have lost significant amounts of weight without going down the exercise route.
So while exercise is good, and can help with insulin resistance, it isn't necessarily needed for weight loss.

Since you are on several medications, I would suggest that you implement any changes with care, gradually, to prevent hypos as your insulin resistance changes, and (possibly) your medication needs alter.

Ed. for typo
 
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Thank you for your answers. I'm trying to do low carb without raising my fat intake too much. I've always had a bit of a tummy in any case, I was a slightly overweight child and grew up to be an adult who was always a bit fatter than her friends! I've managed to lose quite a bit of weight in the last two years after being very ill, and in hospital for nearly four months before that. When I came out I couldn't walk at all, and when I did manage to get back on my feet, developed sciatica which lasted for 18 months! While they were trying to sort the sciatica out, they found out about the arthritis in the spine. It means I find it difficult to bend and lift, which is a nuisance as I used to work with horses!
So because of recently going on to trulicity injections I'm monitoring my blood sugar very carefully. I try to stay under 50g carb a day, eat healthily and have lost 5.5kg in three weeks, which I am happy about. I walk, and do exercises on a stationary bike, and use a ring to try and strengthen my arms, and general housework - vacuuming, dusting etc.
I really can't afford to join a gym - every penny counts, at present. I will try to swim again soon, I'm lucky enough to have a friend with her own pool. I just wondered if anyone can suggest any gentle exercises I could include (not sit-ups!) that might help.
Thank you all very much.
 
In terms of losing weight, one thing I have found helpful is intermittent fasting , which I operate as only having one meal a day (dinner, in my case). I find if do this a 2 or 3 times a week it can ‘unstick’ a weight loss plateau, particularly if I do it 2 days on the trot. I also eat keto, so very low carb and higher fat, I find it has worked wonders for me.

Also you might find that the Pilates Hundred exercise would help tone up your core and improve the appearance of your tum while you lose that extra bit of weight. I find that it is a back-protective exercise, done properly, and you can fine-tune it to your fitness level by changing the position of your legs. Just google, it’s simple to do and you may find it suits you.
 
Hi Frances

I used walk 3.5 miles twice a day to and from work and it was perfect for maintaining a fixed weight with a few beers and carby diet.
I imagine if one did same amount of exercise Mon-Fri on a lower carb diet, the weight would come off.
I should add i used fart about on weekends cycle exploring local and further afield pubs, galleries, whatever.
I didnt make a punishment of either exercise. I wasn't competing with myself. But a reasonable distance helps i think.
Be warned though, i got on a friends cycle on Saturday and we rode 12 miles. It wasn't a comfortable experience. I think one should break themselves into slowly. Short trips to the supermarket, the boozer, the cinema first. A carrier's a good idea and not too shiny a bike. And a comfortable saddle.

Good luck.

PS

Hows the Trulicity. Do the benefits outweigh the reverse?
Thanks

 
Perhaps Nordic walking poles might help. I used them after an injury made me a bit wobbly on my legs and found that I could walk with far more confidence, and it improved my upper body strength and my stamina as well, plus it made walking far more enjoyable.
 
Hi and well done on your weight loss in spite of being on meds and restricted in your exercise!
As a PT, I'd say do fill up on the fat that naturally comes with the low carb food you are eating. If you try to double down on both fat and carb, you will be hungry and may be depriving yourself of vitamins and minerals which need fat to help them get absorbed.
Trulicity is supposed to help weight loss by stopping you from making quite so much of your own glucose via the liver and isn't linked with weight gain so that's good.
Exercises that are good to burn fat:
  1. Sit to stand - how many can you do in 1 minute? Use the sides of the chair if needed but work towards no hands!
  2. Push up against a wall - hands at shoulder width level with chest then lean into the wall with your head up and push back. You can progress to having the hands lower e.g. a kitchen worktop or onto the floor!
  3. Sit in a chair and lift something heavy above your head e.g. 2 tins or weights or water bottles
  4. Marching on the spot if your sore joints allow it
  5. Squats holding onto the back of a chair keeping head up with knees shoulder width apart and keeping the weight in your heels
  6. Lie on your back and lift the hips up whilst squeezing your bottom muscles.
  7. Find reasons to use the stairs especially after you've just eaten and need to get rid of the energy in your muscles (glycogen) to avoid storing any carbs as fat.
There are a few ideas and if you were to look on the internet you 'd find lots of ideas for those who are less fit or have knee issues e.g. chair based exercises.
 

Frances, I'm just going to comment on the specifics of our tummy.

Murphy's Law states clearly that weight, when lost, will be lost from the least desirable areas, wheter that might be face and neck, or lady bumps or ;egs or arms, of whereever we sort of like.

Murphy's Law equally states when weight is gain, it will go onto the least desirable areas.

What Murphy is less sharing on is the usual situation whereby when we lose weight from one of said favourite places, our bodies often smooth that out over a while.

When I trimmed up (I didn't have huge amounts to go, I hated that I post from my lady bumps, arms and legs, but still I didn't have a smart little waistline. One day, whilst dressing, I noticed the change, to a iddy, biddy waist, which I have kept.

It is helpful if you can exercise, but you can only do what you can do.. YouTube is a great place for exercises, whether sitting, using household items, yoga or whatever. Using that you could choose what you do and when you do it.

Fingers crossed for you.
 
Thank you all for your varied and interesting suggestions! I will certainly try the exercises.
And the diet suggestions.

Caius 2x8 - regarding the trulicity - at present I'm not sure about the injections, I've taken 3 injections so far (one a week) and my appetite has decreased, I've lost weight which is great, and my blood sugars have stabilised. On the downside, however, I still feel quite nauseous from time to time and in the last few days have developed skin rashes and REALLY bad itching (hives?)
I've left a message with my diabetic consultant to see if he advises antihistamine, or whether to stop taking the injections. I'm writing this answer at 12.40am, because I can't sleep, the irritation is so bad. So the jury's out on the trulicity, for now.
Thank you all again, and I shall start trying out some of your suggestions tomorrow!!
 
I do like to convince myself fruitcake is part of my carefully controlled diabetic diet, and sensible eaten it can be. But how often I fall, tumble, fail at the words sensible and fruitcake. I have on occasion purged my kitchen of cake, but I then switch to honey or jam sandwiches, or other delicious and tempting nibbles.
But when I do have the will power to say no and keep walking many thousands of steps, fat falls off the legs, the chin, even the fingers first - and finally the tummy.
Then I think, just one slice and then maybe two.... and before I know it...
 
DCUKMod said:
Murphy's Law states clearly that weight, when lost, will be lost from the least desirable areas,
Click to expand...
I'd like to politely disagree with this. I have always, always carried any (early) excess fat on my middle and I now think this is because it is the only place I store healthy fat reserves. Fat elsewhere turns up as intramuscular or liver fat and makes me ill. Since low carbing the fat in my muscles (and hopefully liver) has reduced much faster than my tummy fat, I think my body knows where it's best for me to store fat (middle) and keeps this. I think I'm not good at storing fat. So the fat in my tummy will be the last to go, first to return and is an indicator of how I'm doing, when it moves to the muscles and liver I'm in big trouble! Maybe people who store fat healthily in their tummy only are at greater risk from carbs? Either way my tummy fat doesn't make me ill like muscle fat does and liver fat does so yay to my body for losing that first.
 
So in short what I'm saying is, you won't lose weight from your tummy until all the other bad fat is gone because your body is looking out for you.
 
copilost said:
So in short what I'm saying is, you won't lose weight from your tummy until all the other bad fat is gone because your body is looking out for you.
Click to expand...

copilost, I don't think we're saying anything too different there, but hey ho. No worries. Let's not derail the thread.
 
Oh dear! So it doesn't look like I'm going to have a lovely flat tummy anytime soon then.
Maybe once we're out of lockdown and I can get some decent exercise in, and really knock my eating back into shape again, I might feel more positive about it.
Thank you for all your interesting answers.
 
Hi @francesk - I was a typical type two/insulin resistant diabetic with a big tummy since I started putting on the pounds in my mid 20s, off and on along with weight loss and gain (the idea being that those who store their fat foremost around their middles are at much greater risk of being insulin resistant, and with metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for diabetes and CVD, for some years before diagnosis). Both my parents also put fat on their tummies first and foremost, my father in particular which is quite often the case, so this body type and fat storage pattern seems clearly inherited to me.

When I was diagnosed with type two I stopped eating wheat flour/based food, and I was astonished to see my pot belly go away, never to come back in all its large extended glory. (I also stopped drinking milk.) Whenever I eat wheat/flour based food on treat days now, a wee belly appears again. From this information, along with the fact I had terrible skin rashes when I was child, I believe I have a food sensitivity to wheat, and my body reacts with inflammation in the digestive tract. It may be a reaction to the new wheat called dwarf wheat, that has been the wheat we have been eating since the 70s, or I might be just one of the many in the world who are sensitive to this plant generally (in that our bodies have a tough time digesting it, and this causes inflammation.)

healthline, a website I like, says "Food intolerances and sensitivities are extremely common and seem to be on the rise. In fact, it’s estimated that up to 20% of the world’s population may have a food intolerance..."

How can you tell if it's a food sensitivity or 'merely' fat storage? If your belly is firm to the touch, is my understanding.

I share this with you just in case you have a food sensitivity and did not know it. How to find out? Try food elimination diets - go at least two weeks but preferarably a month without eating the foods that cause the most inflammatory responses - peanuts, dairy, and wheat. (also soy, corn, gluten of course, caffeine, meat from animals that have been fed a lot of soy and corn accordeing to some websites, and healthline mentions eggs and sulphites also).
 
@francesk - I re-read your posts, and thought that something engaging and inspirational on losing tummy fat could be what you would like? There is a very well written book with lots of personal stories and cheerful notes on food, many good recipes that even we can eat happily and safely, and, how you don't need to exercise to get a flatter tummy unless you want to see muscle definition -

'Flat Belly Diet: A flat belly is about food and attitude. Period. (Not a single crunch required)' by (the lovely) Liz Vaccariello, with Cyntihia Sass.

it's a 'wonders of MUFAs' pov, and advocates five wonder foods which I find a bit much - avocadoes, dark chocolate, oils, olives, and nuts and seeds. But olive products and avocadoes won't hurt! And plenty of those with diabetes incorporate chocolate into their food-life (either as high percentage cocoa dark chocolate, or stevia sweetened milk chocolate).

But I find it a delightful book, and bought it in recent years just because I was interested in this topic so much because of my own belly fat scenario - you know - a 'what do the self-help books say about this?' and 'maybe I could recommend this book to people who ask me about getting rid of belly fat?'.

I'm a fan of food-journal writing whenever you are going to change your way of eating dramatically in any way, because food (and drink) is so intensely personal and important to most if not all of us. And this book has a guided food journaling section which looks very engaging.

Anyway - have a wee look at it online? And see if it might be just what the tummy-doctor ordered.
 
Hi @francesk . I found out recently that my spine curvature gave me my stick out tum. In fact my tum is no larger than most but due to posture from being overweight most of my life and mild arthritis in my spine I often look pregnant, even after losing 7-8st. Of course hormones and liver disease amongst many other conditions can cause a protruding tum.

Could your spine curvature have yours looking more obvious? Your spine x-ray is where you'll find the answer.
Also having babies widens the hip bones, every time you carry any babies.

My expectations for a flat tummy has been slowly worn away. My bone structure and gait let's me down. However I have accepted who i am, warts and all. Not saying I have any warts mind. Luckily I've always had partners who love the 'real woman' look. Expectations seem to be the answer for body image conundrums. For me.
 
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