Question about Abdominal Fat Loss

Q. A friend of mine said that if you have a lot of abdominal fat, it's best not to work out on one of those ab machines where you lay flat, grip the handle and pull yourself up until you've lost some of the fat from your abdominal area, as the muscle only "builds below the fat" and ends up making you look fatter. Is there any fact in this statement?"

A. There is an element of truth to that. If you train your stomach muscles intensely they become larger, but if you don't burn off the layer of fat that surrounds the waist then the waistline will become bigger even though you are not actually fatter.

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Protein Intake for losing weight

I find it import to frequently eat small amounts of high quality protein when attempting to lose weight.

The body always burns a small amount of muscle protein for energy, this is amplified during exercise AND especially when following a low calorie diet (obviously the body must gain energy from somewhere) Even if you exercise at low intensity and for long duration the body will still use a small percentage of protein for energy. This is a process that we cannot stop.

A net loss of muscle protein will add to the initial weight loss and look good on scales in the beginning, but will always result in an inevitable weight loss plateau as we continue on any diet program. This is because less lean tissue lowers the metabolism and starts off a cycle in which many dieters will lower calorie intake further to continue progress, however, this often results in a further loss of muscle protein as the body struggles to balance a negative energy balance from fat stores alone.

In this situation I would think about increasing energy intake slightly, especially from protein sources to replace some of the lost muscle tissue.

The body also needs a supply of protein for immune system which is constantly on the go. This means further losses from muscles if this is not supplied in a diet, or if not enough supplied as energy needs for the body always comes first in any situation.

I always try to eat some quality protein sources a few times each day to limit loss of muscle tissue.

Some good quality protein sources

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