My belly has gotten bigger with exercise

[Anonymous]

What about HRT? I've heard it can help with early forties belly fat...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop eating so much and it will solve your problem. It's not the exercise it's the food.

When I increase my workout load, I get stronger, not leaner. When I change my diet, i.e. less food, I get leaner. It's not really what you eat, it's how much you eat.

Total ignorance in this post re: hormonal changes in women’s aging bodies.

No. You have to adjust food intake with hormonal changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop eating so much and it will solve your problem. It's not the exercise it's the food.

When I increase my workout load, I get stronger, not leaner. When I change my diet, i.e. less food, I get leaner. It's not really what you eat, it's how much you eat.

Total ignorance in this post re: hormonal changes in women’s aging bodies.

No. You have to adjust food intake with hormonal changes.

It does change where fat is stored.

Peri and post meno benefit greatly from weight lifting. It will give you more leeway in caloric intake than cardio It also helps protect against bone loss.

And yes, HRT can help with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My belly blows up huge whenever I eat rice or pasta. it's really hard not to since I am vegetarian.

To the OP- I think hormones have a lot to do with it. Work on engaging your core as you walk, lift weights, etc.

To the PP- I’m vegetarian and have pasta less than once a month, and rice maybe only once or twice a week. It’s not hard to do at all. As to not derail this post, I’ll comment in the food forum if you want ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone! I appreciate the kind words. I am actually just fine with my body, even if I gain weight (which, based on my mother's history, I will as I age). I expect it and accept myself as I am.

I just hate shopping for clothes, and I realized that I don't fit into my favorite pair of nice shorts and a bunch of skirts that I've had for decades! I try to be a minimalist, especially with clothes, so I don't have much in the way of extra clothing to fall back on. Sigh, I guess I will need to suck it up and go shopping as necessary. Now THAT's going to be hard to accept, lol.

It's the food. You can't out exercise eating. I don't really eat carbs at all anymore. It has been a gradual process, but my stomach has not gotten bigger, while my friends have not had the same fate. I'm 54 so right in that age range where it really starts to happen. You really have to change the way you eat. I went on vacation last week and gained 6 pounds - just like that! When you get older, you have to be extremely careful or you can't avoid it.

And no, I actually don't miss carbs. I just don't crave them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I (43F) have an hourglass figure although my belly has always stuck out a bit. When the pandemic started, I began doing a 30-minute walking video (Leslie Sansone) in the mornings, followed by 10ish minutes of Pilates (Trifecta Pilates). I eventually found Bailey Brown's videos (focused on abs, butts, and inner thighs) and have mostly been doing those instead (I have a list of probably 30 YouTube videos I rotate through). So about 40-45 minutes total of working out every morning.

At first, the soft pooch that I had (in addition to my stomach) went away. Great!

Now, three years later, my stomach has actually gotten bigger and I'm having trouble fitting into some of my clothes (shorts, skirts). I HATE clothes shopping and have been the same size (8 or 10) since college, and I don't want to go out and buy a new wardrobe now.

I generally eat healthy; I intermittent fast and have yogurt w/raisins and another protein, along with another piece of fruit, for lunch. Dinner always includes at least one vegetable, a protein, and a starch (which I try to eat less of). We mostly eat vegetarian during the week, so a lot of beans.

Any suggestions to get my stomach to go back to its somewhat smaller size? I'm probably only looking to lose an inch at the most, but it would make my clothes so much more comfortable!

TIA!

Too many veggies and fruits.

[Anonymous]

I experienced something similar. I was in a calorie deficit, working out 4x each week, and eating foods appropriate for my goals. Yet, my stomach was growing larger and larger. It turns out I had multiple fibroids growing in my abdomen, two of which were the size of grapefruits. The fibroids made my stomach protrude to the point I looked like I was in the late part of my first trimester. All that to say, go get a check up. Make sure it’s not something undetected causing the issue.