I want to lose some inches on the stomach and tone the upper body. Any suggestions.?

Let me describe my situation first. I am 6'1, 175 pounds. I am extremely fit and exercise no less than 5 days a week, sometimes 6-7 days. I don't lift heavy weights because I am a tennis player, but no matter what weight program I ever go on, I never can really increase my muscle mass or tone. Its good exercise yes, but it sucks never seeing anything come from that work externally. I also don't want to lift too much because that descreases flexibility. Secondly, I would like to rid myself of that spare tire. I have an exorbanent appetite. Really I should weigh about 250 pounds for the amount of food I eat. Am I never going to have stomach muscles that pop if I have an appetite like this. To make matters worse, that appetite is a LOT of junk food. My problem is I am a picky eater, so I can't really add in lots of veggies-I only eat carrots, corn, celery and potatoes in the veggie area. Plus I probably go thru 2-3 1 pound bags of candy a week along with a box of popsicles.

Public Comments

1. It sounds like you know the answer to your question. If you keep doing the same thing you will keep getting the same results.
2. I think I hate you.
3. i suggest running combined with crunches and leg lifts in a gym. also stop eatting that much sugar...it is a complete waste. try sugar free stuff.
4. I have only one answer for you and you're not going to like it. You either want to be healthy or you want to eat a lot of junk food. It's just a matter of what you want more.
5. You sound like you're in good shape already. I've recently lost a bunch of weight (and need to lose more) by using a treadmill. But I really started building upper body muscles by doing a lot of push-ups, sit-ups, and some Charles Atlas-type exercises found here: http://bronzebowpublishing.com/exercises.html No weight lifting involved.
6. potatoes hold starch as does rice. eat as much as you can! not fried rice just white boiled. Spuds eat anyway you can. The starch absorbs the fat in your body. Lay off the candy! Lay on the floor face down. hells and toes touching. arms in front of your body and face. now get on your toes and forearms holding up your body. see how long you can keep your body of the ground! the further out and further appart your arms get the better! this is just not upper body. when you do it you will realise!
7. There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below. The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode. Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy. To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine. For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet. Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further. There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive. If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets. Aloha
8. do push ups and sit ups every day.
9. Every time you have a sugar craving, brush your teeth, exercise or drink a really big glass of ice water. These things have no calories and burn them as well. Try to eat sweet potatoes (with out sugar) instead of regular. They are more complex and better for you. Move all the time. Tap your feet while at the computer. Tap your hands while driving, wash your windows while filling the tank with gas. Always moving = Always burning calories = burning fat. Be Blessed
10. I think I might have found my twin...gee! I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I've asked myself your questions and there is a genetic structural answer for it. There are 3 kinds of body types… The Ectomorph This body type normally has a naturally fast metabolism and carries very little body fat. Their appearance is usually that of a lean and stringy nature. This body type lends itself more towards long distance runners and endurance athletes and is the naturally thin person. Their body fat is normally below 7% His body will have a higher percentage of slow twitch fibers, which naturally lowers the amount of muscle mass and gives this body type the name “hard-gainer The Endomorph This body type normally takes on the classical pear shape and has a very slow metabolism. This person type tends to be less active and carry a greater proportion of body fat His body will normally have a plump look and an overall appearance of roundness. This body type will normally have a large build and should focus heavily on high reps at around 70-80% intensity and cardio prior to building mass. The Mesmorphic this body type is the look of the guy who works out but probably only lifts once a week. This is the Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman body type. They will have a naturally athletic look and has less difficulty building muscle and strength. So we both have Endomorph bodies, were our bone structure is smaller and we have more mass than anything. No matter how you work out, you will never get a result that’s equal to the other body types…but YOU CAN IMPROVE IT, YES… Yes, yes, the chocolate, and the popcorn at the movies, it all happens, but it’s not impossible. I’ve heard of many theories to help cravings…like replacing food and saving it for later, but none of it really works… Best thing you can do, fill it up with water, probably you’ve heard that water does wonders, YES IT DOES. Keep it up with the exercise, stay positive, as much as you probably hate it, go for a diet, and start small, don’t hit yourself with the “all you can eat vegetables” plate, just start by minimizing your meals, if you are up to a load of candy, cut it in half…and take it from there… Stay strong! <3 Val
11. a simple answer is crunches but not where you keep your feet on the floor. do as you would normally but pull your legs towards you when you go to lift up so as you would be forming a ball. next try to stay from as much of the sweets you don't have to give it all up but if you keep eating as much you can develop acid reflux I know from experience and try to do other things that build your muscles but if flexibility is what you want you must always remember to stretch before any thing