Post by Night on Jan 17, 2013 21:03:40 GMT -5
The Culprits
Before you learn how to get rid of your muffin top, you have to understand what causes it.
Here is the primary cause: excess body fat.
But there is a catch here – women have a harder time losing this fat because of high estrogen levels.
So your approach needs to address both body fat and estrogen. Otherwise, you could end up putting forth a lot of work only to notice that the stomach fat is still there!
Not fun.
Spot Reducing The Muffin
To get rid of your muffin top, you have to do crunches all day and exercises for your obliques.
Actually, this is the wrong approach because it’s not possible to directly spot reduce your muffin top.
Instead, you need to put your body in a caloric deficit over an extended period of time and wait for the stomach fat to go away.
If you simply try to directly tone the area with exercise, you will end up sorely disappointed.
But how long does it take to go away?
Well, there is no clear cut answer here. For some women the caloric deficit will immediately start reducing the muffin top, others will have to be more patient.
Each body will pull fat from different areas at different rates.
How To Shrink Your Muffin With Circuit Training
So if crunches and oblique exercises won’t get rid of your muffing top, what will?
Answer: total body circuit training with weights.
This type of exercise will create the biggest caloric burn possible and will also lower estrogen more so than anything else.
It’s the perfect tool for reducing your tummy fat.
Even better, because it burns so many calories you only need to do a couple workouts per week.
This sure beats running on a treadmill all day…
So how do you create muffin-top-busting circuits?
It’s simple, just pick one exercise for each major muscle group:
1.Pushing (i.e., knee push-ups)
2.Pulling (i.e., barbell bent over rows)
3.Lower body (i.e., stationary lunges)
Do each exercise one after another to complete the circuit. Then, rest and do it again.
Try to do 3-4 circuits per workout and do each circuit 3-5 times.
As you get fitter, reduce rest periods in between circuits and increase weight.
Just make sure you progress slowly and smartly here. A single injury can sideline you for months.
But I Just Want To Get Rid Of My Muffin Top – Not Look Like A Man!
Ironically, lifting weights will allow you to look more feminine because you will get thinner. You see, fat occupies a lot of space, muscle occupies less.
But you need some muscle (burns lots of calories) to get rid of your fat and by extension, your muffin top.
And remember that you naturally have higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of testosterone. This makes it even harder to gain a lot of muscle.
Hypothetically, even if you were a man (high testosterone) the muscle building process would be extremely slow. It takes time and effort to build a significant amount of muscle, even for men.
Now if you are still super paranoid here, simply keep all your sets to fifteen repetitions or more.
This is outside of the muscle building range and will prevent significant hypertrophy (growth) from taking place.
I don’t recommend this, however, because lower repetitions burn more calories.
It’s your call…
The Rate Limiting Factor: Nutrition
Ignore nutrition and your chances of reducing that muffin top are slim.
It’s simply way too easy to eat more calories than you burn with exercise, even with total body weight lifting.
In fact, a single full course meal at a restaurant can have more calories than you need for an entire day.
So if you want to give yourself the highest probability of success, you have to optimize your nutrition.
The good news is that you should only focus on two things: lowering your levels of insulin and maintaining a modest caloric deficit over an extended period of time.
The reason you have to have this long term, “extended period of time” mindset is because you cannot selectively lose stomach fat first.
You have to be patient and have more of a long term plan. So please don’t follow a crash diet or do some crazy detox that simply flushes water out of your body.
You will not be able to get rid of your tummy fat overnight unless you have surgery (not recommended).
However, if you follow the advice above you should notice results within weeks. So never give up.
Ok, so how do you lower insulin and maintain a modest caloric deficit?
Step one: eat balanced meals.
Step two: control portion sizes.
To eat balanced meals make sure you include protein, carbs, vegetables and fat in each meal.
And to control portion sizes use your hands. Have one handful of protein, one handful of carbs, as many vegetables as possible and one tablespoon of fat in each meal.
If you feel lethargic and sluggish, slightly increase portion sizes.
On the other hand, if fat loss is too slow decrease portion sizes by 15-25%.
Always make small adjustments here. Your goal is to coax your body into fat loss mode, not force it.
Anything too forceful will destroy your metabolism and backfire.
How To Get Rid Of Love Handles Even Faster
There is a way to get rid of your muffin top even faster: by manipulating your intake of carbohydrates to further low insulin.
You just have to be really careful with this strategy because if implemented incorrectly, it can have harsh consequences.
You see, your body uses carbs as its primary fuel source. In fact, your brain can only run on a steady supply of digested carbohydrates.
So once you take carbohydrates out of the equation for too long, life becomes miserable.
To avoid this, simply rotate your carbohydrate consumption.
Here is a potential schedule you could follow:
■Monday: circuit training
■Tuesday: less carbohydrates
■Wednesday: circuit training
■Thursday: less carbohydrates
■Friday: circuit training
■Saturday: less carbohydrates
■Sunday: less carbohydrates
The amount of carbohydrates you can restrict will vary depending on your tolerance. So experiment here, listen to your body and hone in on the right amounts.
The Last Step
There is one last step here to get rid of your muffin top: take action.
Before you learn how to get rid of your muffin top, you have to understand what causes it.
Here is the primary cause: excess body fat.
But there is a catch here – women have a harder time losing this fat because of high estrogen levels.
So your approach needs to address both body fat and estrogen. Otherwise, you could end up putting forth a lot of work only to notice that the stomach fat is still there!
Not fun.
Spot Reducing The Muffin
To get rid of your muffin top, you have to do crunches all day and exercises for your obliques.
Actually, this is the wrong approach because it’s not possible to directly spot reduce your muffin top.
Instead, you need to put your body in a caloric deficit over an extended period of time and wait for the stomach fat to go away.
If you simply try to directly tone the area with exercise, you will end up sorely disappointed.
But how long does it take to go away?
Well, there is no clear cut answer here. For some women the caloric deficit will immediately start reducing the muffin top, others will have to be more patient.
Each body will pull fat from different areas at different rates.
How To Shrink Your Muffin With Circuit Training
So if crunches and oblique exercises won’t get rid of your muffing top, what will?
Answer: total body circuit training with weights.
This type of exercise will create the biggest caloric burn possible and will also lower estrogen more so than anything else.
It’s the perfect tool for reducing your tummy fat.
Even better, because it burns so many calories you only need to do a couple workouts per week.
This sure beats running on a treadmill all day…
So how do you create muffin-top-busting circuits?
It’s simple, just pick one exercise for each major muscle group:
1.Pushing (i.e., knee push-ups)
2.Pulling (i.e., barbell bent over rows)
3.Lower body (i.e., stationary lunges)
Do each exercise one after another to complete the circuit. Then, rest and do it again.
Try to do 3-4 circuits per workout and do each circuit 3-5 times.
As you get fitter, reduce rest periods in between circuits and increase weight.
Just make sure you progress slowly and smartly here. A single injury can sideline you for months.
But I Just Want To Get Rid Of My Muffin Top – Not Look Like A Man!
Ironically, lifting weights will allow you to look more feminine because you will get thinner. You see, fat occupies a lot of space, muscle occupies less.
But you need some muscle (burns lots of calories) to get rid of your fat and by extension, your muffin top.
And remember that you naturally have higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of testosterone. This makes it even harder to gain a lot of muscle.
Hypothetically, even if you were a man (high testosterone) the muscle building process would be extremely slow. It takes time and effort to build a significant amount of muscle, even for men.
Now if you are still super paranoid here, simply keep all your sets to fifteen repetitions or more.
This is outside of the muscle building range and will prevent significant hypertrophy (growth) from taking place.
I don’t recommend this, however, because lower repetitions burn more calories.
It’s your call…
The Rate Limiting Factor: Nutrition
Ignore nutrition and your chances of reducing that muffin top are slim.
It’s simply way too easy to eat more calories than you burn with exercise, even with total body weight lifting.
In fact, a single full course meal at a restaurant can have more calories than you need for an entire day.
So if you want to give yourself the highest probability of success, you have to optimize your nutrition.
The good news is that you should only focus on two things: lowering your levels of insulin and maintaining a modest caloric deficit over an extended period of time.
The reason you have to have this long term, “extended period of time” mindset is because you cannot selectively lose stomach fat first.
You have to be patient and have more of a long term plan. So please don’t follow a crash diet or do some crazy detox that simply flushes water out of your body.
You will not be able to get rid of your tummy fat overnight unless you have surgery (not recommended).
However, if you follow the advice above you should notice results within weeks. So never give up.
Ok, so how do you lower insulin and maintain a modest caloric deficit?
Step one: eat balanced meals.
Step two: control portion sizes.
To eat balanced meals make sure you include protein, carbs, vegetables and fat in each meal.
And to control portion sizes use your hands. Have one handful of protein, one handful of carbs, as many vegetables as possible and one tablespoon of fat in each meal.
If you feel lethargic and sluggish, slightly increase portion sizes.
On the other hand, if fat loss is too slow decrease portion sizes by 15-25%.
Always make small adjustments here. Your goal is to coax your body into fat loss mode, not force it.
Anything too forceful will destroy your metabolism and backfire.
How To Get Rid Of Love Handles Even Faster
There is a way to get rid of your muffin top even faster: by manipulating your intake of carbohydrates to further low insulin.
You just have to be really careful with this strategy because if implemented incorrectly, it can have harsh consequences.
You see, your body uses carbs as its primary fuel source. In fact, your brain can only run on a steady supply of digested carbohydrates.
So once you take carbohydrates out of the equation for too long, life becomes miserable.
To avoid this, simply rotate your carbohydrate consumption.
Here is a potential schedule you could follow:
■Monday: circuit training
■Tuesday: less carbohydrates
■Wednesday: circuit training
■Thursday: less carbohydrates
■Friday: circuit training
■Saturday: less carbohydrates
■Sunday: less carbohydrates
The amount of carbohydrates you can restrict will vary depending on your tolerance. So experiment here, listen to your body and hone in on the right amounts.
The Last Step
There is one last step here to get rid of your muffin top: take action.