Conference rocks::weight_control

    Some areas take lots of time, sometimes almost a year.
    
    I can assure you that if you stick to your eating plan, and continue
    to exercise, the inches WILL come off.  Fat stores in some areas of
    the body (especially the hips on a female) are terribly immobile, so
    nothing short of surgey (liposuction) can speed up the process.

    There is no such thing as a spot reducing exercise.  For example, leg
    raises will tone the leg (area) muscles, but will not do much to remove
    the fat from that area.  The only thing that removes fat is overall
    weight reduction.  And your body will decide on its own exactly where
    the fat will come from.  
    				-jp

    Whats been helping me lose inches and weight is fast pace walking.  I
    walk about 1.2 miles twice a day and notice loss of inches before I
    notice weight loss.  Really weird.  But it works.
    
    
    
    
    Donna

    Hi Donna,
    
    	Can you tell us what your pace is?  When you say 1.2 miles twice a
    day, do you mean every day (7 days)?  
    
    	Thanks for the good news!
    
    				Thanks,
    
    					Kathleen

    I walk at least 1.2 miles in 20 minutes (sometimes 25 minutes) during
    lunch before I eat.  I try to go walking again either before work or
    after work.  If weather doesn't permit it or I'm not feeling well, I
    take a day off from doing it or do an exercise tape like Richard
    Simmons.   I walk 4 miles on Saturday, or what ever I feel like doing. 
    I like Calloways ( a plant store) and there are sidewalks that lead to
    it.  Its 1.9 miles each way, so I walk there and look around the plant
    store for a while, get a drink next door if needed, then head back. 
    Also if I just need a couple of things from the grocery store, there is
    one that I can get to using the sidewalks.  Its about 1.8 miles.  Wish
    they'd put more sidewalks in so I could walk safely to the "other" part
    of town!
    
    Anyway, some days I just don't feel like walking 2 times a day so I
    walk once.  I find if I don't walk every day it makes it harder for me
    to start up again and my legs hurt.   This is just what I've decided to do. 
    I've read that you can walk 3-4 times a week and it be just as healthy. 
    So that is perhaps what you want to try.  I just like to get out there
    and do something everyday.
    
    (fast pace walking doesn't sound like a challenge until you start doing
    it...)
    
    dh

    I'm not sure if I answered .4's question.  I usually walk 6 days a week
    if the weather permits and I'm feeling well. Sundays I do weights and
    exercise tapes.  I've also started working out with dumb bells. 
    There's an article in this months Longevity magazine (with Linda
    Hamilton on the cover) that gives some good weight exercises to do, and
    lists a schedule of what you should do each day.  I just started that
    yesturday.  Really good.
    
    
    dh

    I have a girlfriend who has successfully kept inches off her thys,
    buttox, and waist by walking daily.  She lost pounds initially by
    watching fat intake and started the walking later.
         I also am trying to shed inches but my target area is my stomach. 
    I find that (for me) spot exercises such as crunches, gut busters,
    etc...seem to strengthen the muscles, but I still have the pot-belly. 
    If I diet, I lose weight everywhere and get lighter but stay in
    proportion (smaller size overall, same shape).  People tell me all I
    need to do is sit-ups and my tummy will be history, but I'm sort of
    skepticle...
         Have any of you had stubborn stomachs?  
    
    _Becky
    

    Becky
    
    I have a stubborn stomach but I have been fairly succesful since
    Christmas in reducing it by 3 inches and losing 25 lbs.  This was done
    by using two methods.
    
    One, I started a healthy eating diet called the Hay system which is
    basically cut out sugars and don't mix protein and starches.
    
    Two, aerobic type exercises twice a week.  The sit-ups help a lot but
    they must be done properly otherwise you can increase a pot-belly as
    well as cripple your back.
    
    Sit-ups should be done with you lying on your back and your knees
    raised so that the small of your back is touching the floor and your
    feet are flat on the floor close to your buttocks.  With your hands
    lightly touching the side of your head pull your stomach muscles in and
    then curl your body up so that you are looking towards your knees.  This 
    is a small movement but it all that the abdominal muscles control.  To
    get strong muscles the movement should also be smooth and slow. 
    Variations on this are, keeping the left elbow on the floor sit up
    trying to touch your left knee with your right elbow and vice-versa. 
    Also crunches where you put your legs straight up in the air.
    
    You must pull in your stomach muscles in when doing this otherwise you are
    training them to stick out.  The old way of doing a full sit-up used a
    lot more muscles than the abdominals and could also damage your back.
    
    
    Hope this helps,
    Mike.

No offense to the last noter, but the information is partially bogus.  
Specifically, the statement:

>>   You must pull in your stomach muscles in when doing this otherwise you are
>>   training them to stick out.

That's like saying if I pull out on my biceps while exercising, I'll train them
to stick out further.  Your abdominals are basically a sheet of muscle.  They 
will assume the overall shape of what they hold in.  You can strengthen them, 
but you can't appreciably (in comparison to triceps, for example) change the 
size or shape.  By strengthening them your stomach may be flatter because they
do a better job of holding in your internals.  However, the BIGGEST visible 
factor is the fat on the outside of the stomach.  The only way to get rid of 
this is to lose weight, but...  When you lose weight, your body decides where 
the weight will come from, not you, and not the exercises you do.  If your
body decides to save your pot belly for last, then you'll either have to work
lots harder, or learn to live with it.

By the way, the rest of the last note is right on (the parts about exercise and 
diet, although there are many discussions about the "don't mix protien and 
starch" theory).  You can damage your back rather easily by doing stomach 
exercises improperly.  Probably the biggest offender is locking the fingers 
behind the head and pulling the head forward.

    When you say "work much harder" do you mean doing more crunches?  I am
    at a point where I don't think I want to continue losing weight (just
    maintain).  Thanks--
    
    -Becky

    re:.9
    
    Like many health-related statements, the one about abdominals is
    not really correct, but it's on the right track.
    
    The reason to maintain a contraction in the muscles during crunches
    is two-fold, 1: you'll get more work from the muscle in a more con-
    trolled crunch that is less stressful on the back muscles, 2: you'll
    get in the habit of holding your stomach in slightly, which is better
    for posture.
    
    Will doing situps without holding your stomach in make your stomach
    muscles bulge outward?  Not in a million years.

>>    When you say "work much harder" do you mean doing more crunches?  I am
>>    at a point where I don't think I want to continue losing weight (just
>>    maintain).  Thanks--
>>    
>>    -Becky

If you don't want to lose any more weight, you have two basic choices:

	1) Convert fat to muscle

This involves increasing the amount of muscle building exercises you do.  More
crunches won't help, since your abdomenals won't grow in size.  You would have
to concentrate on other areas like arms, legs, back, chest, shoulders.  You 
might even find that you will gain weight while shrinking your size, since 
a pound of muscle takes up less room than a pound of fat.  During this process,
you would still have to watch your dietary fat/caloric intake.  

Now, your current routine might be taking you in this direction, even if it's 
at a very slow rate.  So you can continue to work at your current level of 
effort, or do more to pick up the pace of the "conversion".

	2) Learn to live with your pot belly

If you don't want to convert fat to muscle, and you don't want to lose weight,
then you should probably learn to live with the pot belly.  This may take even
more effort than exercise, because you have to convince yourself that it's both
normal, and OK.  ((The first step is stop watching commercials, especially milk
and beer commercials...average people really don't look like that)).

I suppose there is a third, but liposuction would make you lose weight...

				-JP

    I'm doing low-impact aerobics 3 times a week, and starting 1 step class
    each week.  I was getting the feeling that my legs and buttox were
    getting worked harder than my abs...but then I've only been doing this
    for a couple of weeks so it's too early to tell.  I also just started
    maintenence at weight watchers.
    
    By the way, how are you doing Sandy?  Have you tried walking yet?
    
    -Becky

If you read Covert Bailey's Fit or Fat, he says to do what you are doing.  
According to him, an AEROBIC (as opposed to anerobic) workout of the large 
muscules (i.e., Thighs and Butt) is the best thing you can do to burn fat.  
He says it also "trains" your metabolism to burn fat easier (forgive the gross
oversimplification).  You just have to give it time.  

    I'm facing the abs problem, and the conclusion I came to was basically
    what JP said.  I've reached goal weight - my nutritionist tells me I
    should not go any lower in terms of % body fat (I'm at 15%.)  So both
    the losing weight option and the option of significantly increasing my
    muscle weight without also increase my fat weight is out. 
    
    I could, if I were so inclined, lose more weight/% fat, but my body
    isn't made to do that.  My weight "set point" is at my current
    level...any more weight I lose will be temporary. (If you try to lose
    weight past where your body is "naturally" you will have to work
    constantly to keep it off.)
    
    So I am starting to change my attitude around my body.  My body is not
    perfect and never will be.  And besides, a woman's body *should* have
    fat on it...women's bellies are naturally soft.  On *most* women, a
    flat belly is *not* naturally (your mileage may vary, of course.)  A
    soft belly doesn't mean you are fat, nor does it mean you are out of
    shape - I have nice, strong, defined abs, and I am not fat...there's
    just a roundness of belly that I am learning is part of what makes me
    appear womanly.
    
    Same thing with broad hips, large breasts and thighs that touch.  I
    will never be rid of these things, never look like a cover girl - but
    that's okay, because I like my body the way it is.
    
    Diana

.12>	1) Convert fat to muscle
    
    Physically impossible.

>>.12>	1) Convert fat to muscle
>>    
>>    Physically impossible.


Not at all.  Excercise will do it.  Your body's fat provide the energy required
in the muscle building process.  

Of course, if you didn't read the whole reply, you might have thought I was
talking about some miracle chemical that transforms fat cells into muscle cells.

	It might be better stated "replace fat with muscle" ...

	I had the same reaction as Mike when I read your note, and
	I read the whole thing.

	Karen

    
    re:13 
    
    I'm doing pretty good. I've been on a 1200 cal diet for 2 weeks, lost 2
    lbs down to 119! I have walked a couple times in the last 2 weeks but
    not much time on my hands to do it more often than that.  I still fit
    into last years spring pants though! it felt good to get the old white
    jeans out of the closet this morning and put them on without effort.
     I think stating tonight I'm gonna give my Jane Fonda tape another
    shot, I lost 20 lbs last year and about 6 inches total off my waist and
    thighs by doing her workout 5 times a week.
    
    It may be happening slowly...but it's happening!!
    
    Sandy
    

>>	It might be better stated "replace fat with muscle" ...
>>
>>	I had the same reaction as Mike when I read your note, and
>>	I read the whole thing.
>>
>>	Karen

OK... I suppose it's also more accurate to say "replace my dollars with pounds
Sterling", but most people still use the word "CONVERT."  

    re:.18
    
    Exactly.

I'm sorry, I guess the world is wrong and Karen and Mike are right... can you
see you way by to forgive us all.

	Sorry,

	I wasn't trying to be condescending or be "right".  The
	reason the phrase draws a reaction is that there are still
	a lot of people out there who mistakenly believe you can change
	actual fat cells to muscle cells.  Mike and I were only trying
	to clarify for those people...

	Karen

    re:.22
    
    No, your terminology was wrong.

    Let's not get into terminology wars. A simple corrective statement is
    far less emotive.