My Belly Sticks Out Even Though I'm Not Fat?

[aznalexluu23]

Ok, so I've been concerned with my belly sticking out for maybe the past 2-3 years? I've done martial arts, push-ups, crunch-ups, cardio, and everything I could think of, yet nothing. I do admit that I've developed SOME muscles throughout those years. I am turning 16 in the next 7 days, if age has anything to do w/ it.

If you look at me face to face, you can see my abs like in this pic. (Btw, this is flexed, but even if I don't flex, you can see A BIT of my abs.)

HOWEVER, if you look at my side, it seems as if I have a beer belly. (This is obviously unflexed.)

Any solution or advice as to what I should do?

 

[Saint Nick]

Sigh.

You need to lift weights. Plain and simple. Eat a lot of food and lift heavy ass weights. Do StrongLifts 5x5, eat a lot of food, and come back to this thread in a year.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

In the second picture, you're just bending backwards. It's probably postural. Things like having a posterior thorax or anterior pelvic tilt will give the appearance of a belly without being fat. You don't look all that muscular, so it may very well be, guess what - fat. That's not anything to be ashamed of, but like Saint Nick said - you need a little bit more than sit-ups to have good abs. You need a lifting regimen.

 

[Pantlegz]

I was going to go with anterior pelvic tilt.. if you walk around like that in the second picture I'm sure you get some goofy looks. Pick up something heavy and put it down. Repeat until strong.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I know I personally get bloated sometimes and that'll give me a gut. That and just putting on 5-10 pounds is the difference between me being flat and not in the stomach/love handle area; it's the natural place for it to be stored. You don't NEED to lift weights to have a flat stomach. I've never lifted them in my life, and since I've been diagnosed with ehlers-danlos it is/would have been actually a bad idea for me : P

 

[goog40]

Looks like skinnyfat to me. Time to start lifting.

 

[KIAman]

Mine sticks out like that until I take a huge dump and my stomach will go down a lot.

I've actualy weighed myself right before I go and I lose anywhere from 2-5 pounds afterwards. Imagine 2-5 pounds inside your gut, then suddenly gone.

Give yourself an enema.

 

[exdeath]

Posture and abdominal wall atrophy. Just the weight of your guts pushing out against a weak\slack abdominal wall?

The fat is just the part you can pinch when you flex your abs rock hard. Anything else is just your guts pushing on the loose ab muscles from behind.

 

[Childs]

A long time ago I used to use a ab wheel religiously, and my stomach started to stick out when I had no stomach fat. It stayed that way, even when I stopped using the wheel.

 

[alyssa76]

agree , weights

 

[wirednuts]

weights? a high paced cardio workout would be better if he wants to lose weight

 

[freegeeks]

weights? a high paced cardio workout would be better if he wants to lose weight

huh, weights are very effective in burning fat

 

[Awkward]

calisthenics are useless, lift heavy shit and eat a fuckton of food. cardio is also nearly useless, at most you should just do interval sprinting.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

calisthenics are useless, lift heavy shit and eat a fuckton of food. cardio is also nearly useless, at most you should just do interval sprinting.

Useless for what? Granted, it's not optimal for getting swole, but it's got its uses. Not useless for being healthy overall and having good cardiovascular function. I don't want people to get the wrong overall idea about cardio.

 

[Awkward]

Useless for what? Granted, it's not optimal for getting swole, but it's got its uses. Not useless for being healthy overall and having good cardiovascular function. I don't want people to get the wrong overall idea about cardio.

i was replying to a specific subject.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

i was replying to a specific subject.

Yet the statement is uncannily general...

 

[Awkward]

Yet the statement is uncannily general...

how would the statement be uncannily general when the entire topic is about one thing...? you were the only one derailing the subject by trying to argue with me. i was piecing bits of his post in my reply to him essentially stating that his methods won't work for his specific issue.

i could make it general if i wanted to though, and still claim it's useless to repeat the same motion continuously and that HIIT is far better than cardio for heart and lung health.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

how would the statement be uncannily general when the entire topic is about one thing...? you were the only one derailing the subject by trying to argue with me. i was piecing bits of his post in my reply to him essentially stating that his methods won't work for his specific issue.

i could make it general if i wanted to though, and still claim it's useless to repeat the same motion continuously and that HIIT is far better than cardio for heart and lung health.

People here, in my experience, don't take what's posted in one thread to be only applicable in the given situation. I'm not trying to argue - I'm just making sure everybody knows that's not true in the general sense.

Also, you can state that, but you don't take into mind musculoskeletal health. For untrained or sedentary individuals, HIIT elicits too great of forces on their poorly conditioned bodies. This results in skeletal, muscular, neurological, and other injury. Sure, HIIT is great, but 1) it's not for everyone, 2) it does improve heart function but it does not give the same benefits (for example, reducing cholesterol with exercise is duration-dependent. Meaning, you have to exercise for longer to actually lower your cholesterol), 3) it likely increases the risk of injury. You gave the standard bodybuilding forum response. I'm presenting another side of the argument, which has support in research as well.

I'm not responding because I don't agree with you. I much prefer circuit HIIT training myself to long cardio, but it's not the answer for everyone for the above reasons.

 

[Awkward]

it's common sense that if you never exert yourself, your lungs are never expanding and you're never using reserve oxygen. that reserve capacity is what gives your heart and lungs the ability to pump enough oxygen.

resting in between helps a lot, and endurance exercises don't allow this which causes lungs to shrink.

of course someone obese shouldn't go balls out right away, but it's also not recommended for them to run or jog for extended periods of time either. such endurance exercises have been linked to cause sudden cardiac arrest as well.

it's not about how long you exercise at all, it's about how much you exert yourself.

 

[Kaido]

calisthenics are useless

Some people would beg to differ.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

it's common sense that if you never exert yourself, your lungs are never expanding and you're never using reserve oxygen. that reserve capacity is what gives your heart and lungs the ability to pump enough oxygen.

resting in between helps a lot, and endurance exercises don't allow this which causes lungs to shrink.

of course someone obese shouldn't go balls out right away, but it's also not recommended for them to run or jog for extended periods of time either. such endurance exercises have been linked to cause sudden cardiac arrest as well.

it's not about how long you exercise at all, it's about how much you exert yourself.

That common sense is completely incorrect. Your lungs don't adapt at all due to exercise - they are unchanged. Your diaphragm, as a muscle, can become more efficient. Mostly, the reduced burning and discomfort in the lungs is due to metabolic changes at the cellular level within the musculature. Changing total lung capacity, vital capacity, etc doesn't effect performance unless you're participating in something like free diving. So anything you have to say regarding the lungs doesn't really effect exercise, unless you want to start talking about pathology.

I specifically don't suggest running for obese individuals, but even HIIT in cycling is a bad idea. Plus, there's the whole adherence issue due to the discomfort it can incur.

Certain things are exactly about exercise duration, as proven by research regarding total blood volume, red blood cell concentration, lipid profiles, stroke volume, etc. Yes, exertion does predict exercise adaptations, but timing and average intensity changes result in different end-routes.

 

[Awkward]

That common sense is completely incorrect. Your lungs don't adapt at all due to exercise - they are unchanged. Your diaphragm, as a muscle, can become more efficient. Mostly, the reduced burning and discomfort in the lungs is due to metabolic changes at the cellular level within the musculature. Changing total lung capacity, vital capacity, etc doesn't effect performance unless you're participating in something like free diving. So anything you have to say regarding the lungs doesn't really effect exercise, unless you want to start talking about pathology.

I specifically don't suggest running for obese individuals, but even HIIT in cycling is a bad idea. Plus, there's the whole adherence issue due to the discomfort it can incur.

Certain things are exactly about exercise duration, as proven by research regarding total blood volume, red blood cell concentration, lipid profiles, stroke volume, etc. Yes, exertion does predict exercise adaptations, but timing and average intensity changes result in different end-routes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2407468
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8028502

The resting period is absolutely crucial for strengthening your heart and lungs, it's simple anatomy.

I don't even get what point you're trying to make as everything you pointed out is significantly worse with endurance training when compared to hiit, as proven by research. You're making your argument for me and you've been completely wrong every step of the way.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2407468
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8028502

The resting period is absolutely crucial for strengthening your heart and lungs, it's simple anatomy.

I don't even get what point you're trying to make as everything you pointed out is significantly worse with endurance training when compared to hiit, as proven by research. You're making your argument for me and you've been completely wrong every step of the way.

Psst. The article you cite refers to highly trained individuals (i.e. world class athletes) and horses. Horses ARE limited by their pulmonary function, as are those individuals who are near-max human capacity. For the average individual, the lungs DO NOT limit exercise tolerance. I haven't been wrong whatsoever. You're just misconstruing what research is actually saying.

And the research you posted was for cellular metabolism. I said that with HIIT is similar or superior to long, steady state cardio. But what I mentioned specifically are heart and blood value measures. I'll be back here a little later today to provide research, in the population that we're talking about - not the superhuman.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

In response to your post about lung function:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22267571

Recent article confirms what has been said for years. Pulmonary function is not the limiting factor with exercise so your "common sense" statement is unfounded. Your explanation also doesn't explain how exercise induces increased fitness whatsoever.

I've repeatedly said that HIIT is better for musculoskeletal adaptations. However, endurance exercise is renowned for inducing changes in blood volume, red blood cells, etc. I have more stuff to do today, but will try to find an article on HIIT and these (it seems researchers don't care as much about these adaptations).

 

[RapidSnail]

Although I cannot see from the angles you gave too well, you may have mild pectus excavatum. It is a relatively rare genetic deformation of the sternum, which results in a sunken chest. This can cause the lower ribs to poke out and give the appearance of abdominal distension when muscle tone is actually normal.

However, it seems more likely to me that you simply need to increase muscle mass throughout your entire body, including hips and core. Squat, deadlift, and do other similar big compound movements and you should begin to see you posture correct itself and the problem disappear.