hi Birdgirl94

I can sympathise with you on your issue, I have struggled myself after having 2 kids lol!

but since starting 5.2 I defo feel less bloated and less stomach fat too!! I would say give it more time, you will loose all over and not just one part of your body…
have you tried crunchies, or a few abs workouts? as well as walking everyday I do a short 10 m workout mainly on my abs,as I don’t want to gain muscle..

another suggestion is water retention often cause by salt, so its worth just keeping an eye on that!
hope that helps a little but am sure others will be along soon to advise you!

hang in there, and good luck 🙂

Hi birdgirl ….when you find out how to really shift that belly fat…could you share the secret? 😀 I’m sure quite a few of us could do with knowing.

And if anyone knows how to shrink boobs without surgery – I’d like to know that too please. 😀

Try to do some weightlifting

I have stomach fat and big boobs and went on this diet to try and get rid of the stomach fat and Michael indicated it was good for that and your memory. It has not helped either unfortunately. I have lost 24lbs since last March and I am extremely pleased but have not lost anything since September last year when I was on fast and slimming world together. I have hardly lost anything on my stomach but lost it everywhere else which other diets did and although keeping fasting 2 days a week has prevented me from putting it back on. It is just like any other diet where you need to exercise and keep your eye on the calories the other day. I think other diets and Just cutting down everyday is not as brutal. I am reluctant to stop the fasting now as I do not want to put the weight back on but I am stuck in a rut! I do not want to do two diets and I would like to just try the slimming world to try and shift more pounds but worried I will start to put the weight back on if I stop fasting. We all have different metabolism and I certainld do not over eat on the non fast days but this diet is not all its cracked up to be. It is like any other diet where you have to cut down on all days and exercise and does not get rid of tummy fat like it portrays. I think it is another diet that portrays it will do this and that and it doesn’t. Not for me anyway and I throught after reading all the books it would. Big sell eh!!!

It absolutely does not! My belly has shrunk since starting 5weeks ago. Was a tight 36 pants, now a loose 34. In 5 weeks. And 11 lbs gone.

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) or HIT as they call it on this site is the very best way to increase fat burning via exercise. In general effort or intensity while exercising is far more important than duration.

I’m always surprise when women say they don’t want to gain muscle, particularly those that are a bit older since they have been losing it since they where 20. Muscle burns calories 24 hours a day. Most of our slowing metabolism is due to muscle loss. Weight training is the only way to retain and add muscle for women or men. It is with out doubt the most important exercise for women to lose fat and the only way to increase your BMR.

Omg I have tried three times to post here and it just keeps vanishing!!

Can I not use rows of dits,emoticons or exclamation marks?So annoying!!

Will try again,I am nearly 63 and have v
Been doing the fast diet for 12 months.i am 5ft 6″ and currently weigh 9st 12 lbs (I hear a lot of you saying ‘what the hell is she moaning about!!) I have skinny arms and legs and no butt BUT I do have belly fat,I have just read an article that says that fasting INCREASES belly fat,is this true?!!!

Thanks for that.It did seem quite a scientific study though!l have recently started swimming again after 25years twice a week for about an hour breast stroke am hoping this will help,also I walk quite a lot but always have because I have never wanted to drive.Anyway will stick with it!

what you did is great .do not push yourself too much .just do it step by step . fast food no ! but you also should mind your nutrition . it is so important for one who is losing weight .metabolism will be disordered if you don’t have enough protein every day .

I think this is sadly one of those things you have to accept. People who have big bottoms wish they didn’t and people who have flabby tummies wish they didn’t. You can’t choose where the weight goes on, and you can’t choose where you lose it from either!

Dear Gail,

You may want to read the book “Wheat Belly.” It is about all the harmful affects (included large bellies) of gluten, but especially wheat. My husband used to have a somewhat distended abdomen until he stopped eating gluten.

Take care.

Going slightly off piste here (but it’s all a means to an end!)…Have any of you good folk had any experience of. Vibration plate cos I have just bought one (well I bought it a while ago actually but it’s being in my gym (shed) gathering dust along side my cross trainer!

I don’t think the science is clear yet on where fat reduction will occur next on our bodies …

I have a theory – that the pattern for fat storage is hard coded into our genes, and that the pattern is a LAST IN FIRST OUT system … The fat that has been developed most recently is the first to reduce …

This is purely anecdotal, but it makes perfect sense in my mind …

In any case- I am 26 months into using the 5:2 Fast Diet, and have lost 96 lbs total so far … My waist size has went from approx 50 inches to 34 inches … I’ve lost approx 16 inches from my waist … It’s a freekin miracle!

Just keep going … Don’t stop – you will be successful if you persevere … Good luck !

I did 5:2 last year and lost a stone, then weight loss stalled for ages, meaning I had to reassess my TDEE etc. Unfortunately my other half then quit the diet January this year and my will power dissapeared

Fortunately I’ve only put on 2 pounds since January. But my 36″ belly has not budged the entire time I’ve been on 5:2 (am 9 stone 4 and 5’4″). I want to exercise but fibromyalgia and hyper mobility makes that very difficult. I walk as much as I can, but I need to build muscle which, for me, is not as easy as it used to be before I got ill.

I have a two pronged attack which I feel I can stick to:

1. Water only fast Monday to Friday until a normal dinner and snacks in the evening. I’m three weeks into this and finally, this week, I don’t feel like hell.

2. Body weight/core strength type exercises. Definitely going to try planking, potentially press ups when a wrist injury heels. Squats etc. I expect this is all going to make me hurt and feel like crap but it has to be done.

I hate my belly, I used to be in the military and was super fit, it makes me feel pretty bad about myself now.

Hi there, I only recently started the 5:2, but I have been doing some serious abs exercise since about 8 weeks now. I do it with the fitness blender videos on youtube. There are tons of them online, I find them really great as you can do them at home, they are free and it is really motivational to follow the lead of a person that tells you exactly what to do. Now that I have added the diet to the abs workout, my belly fat is finally disappearing. I still cannot believe it that I actually might succeed in getting rid of it. So, I guess the answer to the problem is the diet coupled with some very targeted exercise. By the way, you dont need any equipment for these exercises, which is great as well. I am not a big fan of lifting weights. Hope this helps.
Good luck
Karen

Down to 8 stone 12 and not an inch off the belly. That’s 18 pounds lost but from everywhere else it seems 🙁

Well I’ve reached my goal weight – 8 stone 7. But the belly remains. The good news is that it’s gone from 36″ to 33.5″ – on average 3/8″ per month lost. Because I’ve lost so much weight everywhere else I’m still having to wear low rise maternity jeans. I’m going to keep going for now, rock bottom healthy weight for my height is 7 stone 10 but I have a very small frame and very little muscle so not concerned yet – no ribs or hip bones showing at all currently. Excercise other than walking still problematic – whenever I try gentle resistance work I end up having to pay a fortune in chiropractor fees to fix the damage, which I can’t afford. Diet is it for now.

Well, if you still have belly fat then you simply need to keep going … Don’t stop …

I have two mottos or creeds in 5:2 Intermittent Fasting:

1) “I can eat that tomorrow ….”

2) “Keep going – don’t stop!”

4 years later, I am down a solid century 100# … I started strength training a good two years into my 5:2 career … The ab work is bringing great rewards … However, the excess skin, while slowly shrinking on its own, is going to always be there, even if just a small pocket or two …

My advice to you?

‘Keep going – don’t stop’

PS: I am happy to report to all of you … I was about 115 # over my high school weight when I started … I lost a good 36% of total body weight, and, while I was worried about the excess skin problem, much of it has rebounded and is growing normally now … Since it took four years to lose that much, it’s plenty of time for your body to repair itself … Not perfect, but better than expected … Good luck!

Part of the answer to the question about belly fat depends on what you are calling ‘belly fat.’ No, I’m not a lawyer, but 2 things are at play.

Stand straight and pull in your abdominal muscles as hard as you can. Push gently but firmly with your finger tips on your abdomen. do you feel that ‘solid’ surface? That is the abdominal muscle wall.
[BTW, if you don’t feel the muscle wall, then you need to do sit-ups, crunches, planks, anything to build up those muscles. They hold in all your organs and help to define your body outline.

1. Is the extra flesh that you want to get rid of outside the muscle wall? Ok, then that can be due to 2 things. A: if your are post-menopausal, it could be to hormone changes [increased testosterone vs estrogen]. Because of that, diet and exercise will not affect it much. [if you are a man and you drink a lot of beer, there’s your reason] B: If you are younger, than what you have is extra fat and dieting will deal with that. Be aware that some foods affect some people differently: beer and rice make me hold on to weight.

2. Is the extra flesh inside the muscle wall? Then again there are 2 possible causes.
A: Abdominal fat which will reduce with Fasting the 5:2 way.
B: Bloating, caused by certain foods. If you are otherwise slim, with a low Fat Percentage, the issue is bloat. Otherwise, back to 2.A. {The foods that cause bloating in you may not cause them in me. Experiment.}

I lost 2″ off my waistline and 2″ off my hips that I didn’t know were there to lose, but that was not the same as abdominal fat. Am at a good BMI for me and 13.5% body fat, all due to Fasting.

Good luck

Marta, here we lose weight and change body dimensions by diet and exercise — neither of which costs money. Those are short-term changes and do not teach you how to reeducate your body around eating.
There is no magic bullet.