Ways to tone my stomach area up?

Question

In the last six months I've lost around 34/35kg. Though I'm skeptical myself a lot of people have told me that I've lost a lot of weight and they can see it. My initial goal was to get to 75kg and reassess my options there. However I'm now considering starting exercises to tone up my stomach area as of the start of next month (the time I usually add a new exercise to my regime) and was looking for advice on how I go about doing this.

I'll list my current exercise regime in case it can assist at all/for general feedback on what people think of it.

• Walking around 5 kilometers a day (Can vary)
• Running 300 meters three days a week (Varies now since I run a bit more)
• Running 700/800 meters two days a week (Also varies, did three up until this week)
• Kettlebell swings (6 days a week, 3 sets, 10 reps, 16kg) (Did this in an attempt to improve my back, I was in a car accident and it got pretty messed up two years ago and was a source of a lot of pain so I wanted to work on it and fix that, looked into it when I started as even the little running I was doing was resulting in my back hurting a lot, has gotten better as times progressed though)
• Leg curls (6 days, 3 sets, 10 reps, 40kg) (Started doing these this month. I decided to try these to see if I could tone my legs up a bit and make them stronger. Initially when I started this exercise regime at the beginning of the new year and I was doing a little bit of running and my legs and ankles were in agony. Though this had improved drastically in the months since I thought adding leg curls might be helpful as I am determined to increase my running distances over time)
• Continuous running (Saturdays) (Did 1km Saturday, would've had 2 or so small breaks looking at my distance, weak as I know. I was aiming to do 2 kilometers when I started but unfortunately I just caved in too easily. I'll build up to 2 kilometers and reassess when I get there)

I do a rest day on Friday so I'm going six days a week normally. If I'm really busy or the weathers really bad I'll sometimes not do a full six day week.

It's also probably important to add that I've been dieting and still am. At times you could also most likely say that my dieting had been very aggressive.

Current diet:

Breakfast: One yohurt, around 90 calories and low fat, flavors and exact calories vary

Lunch: Salad sandwich, sometimes there's also chicken in it maybe once a week

Dinner: Salad alongside a main meal containing some kind of meat (Varies, use to just be salad normally until I started my leg curls)

Drinks: Water, two coffees a day (completely cut out sugar with my coffee now), green tea with lunch and half a cup of milk after I exercise (No alcohol now unless I'm out with friends)

(If I'm out with friends the diet can fluctuate, coffee count can also if it's during the day. Never see them anymore though so it's hardly relevant unfortunately)

Additional info:

• 6ft tall
• Started at 117kg
• Around 83kg now, just went into the healthy weight range BMI category
• Gained a lot of the weight in 20 months but not all

Any advice or feedback is gratefully appreciated. If you need any additional advice please let me know.

Answer 1

Firstly, congratulations on your weight loss, that is really good what you have achieved and you should be proud! First step is always the hardest.

Diet

Your diet is pretty good, maybe add in a bit more protein like chicken breast and other lean meat. Potentially when your workouts get a bit more aggressive, you might need to add in a little bit more carbohydrates to give you energy,

Working on your core

Now, if you want to work or tone up your stomach area, I would suggest beginning to work on your core as well as your cardio.

Please follow this link here: http://greatist.com/move/best-bodyweight-exercises-abs

This details different exercises you can try out from your own home and so you can try at your own leisure (I usually throw in core workouts at the end of my regular workout).

Just from home, my favourites are the "Bicycle kicks", "Flutter kicks", "Reverse Crunches", "Leg Raises", "Russian Twists" and planking. After a 3 or 4 weeks you can see results if you work the core once every couple days, and depending on your body fat percentage. I usually do 30 seconds worth with 30 seconds rest per exercise (3 or 4 sets). You can up the difficulty when you begin feeling more comfortable.

However, everyone is different, so just experiment with the different types of ab exercises and see what suits you :)

I would also recommend using Youtube to find different types of ab workouts when you feel confident :)

Potential lifestyle changes

Also have you considered going to workout at the gym? Different free weight exercises and exercises that target specific areas like bench press (chest), squats(legs), or even shoulder press (shoulder) all work the core as a secondary muscle as well (granted not as much as the target muscle). If not, maybe its time to start incorporating a strength workout into your routine? Start with pushups and see how you feel after that?

Lastly, you could take up a team sport. Nothing helps to motivate me than knowing i'm part of a team! I'm pretty rubbish at most sports but when people see how badly you want to win, and how much effort you put in, they're really inclined to help you to do well and continue on with the sport! For me, it is basketball and football, and both are quite cardio heavy.

Other misc advice

Furthermore, can you measure you body fat percentage? It might not be accurate, but could be a decent indicator as to what we are working with. You could google what a 10% body fat percentage person looks like, and a 20% body fat percentage looks like, just to see how you rank with your own bf% percentage.

If you feel like you have too much skin so your abs cannot show, you may need to consult a doctor to see what you can do. They may also be able to calculate your body fat percentage.

Additionally may I ask how old you are?

Any other queries please feel free to ask me!

Answer 2

Ways to tone my stomach area up?

First, read the top answer here: What exercises should I perform to reduce fat on a specific area of my body?

That said, you do need muscles there and will need to work out. The optimal exercises for building muscle your core muscles are:

• Ab Wheel (kneeling or standing)
• Hanging Leg Raises
• Kneeling Cable Lift
• Exercise Ball (weighted) Crunch
• Turkish Get-ups
• Plank

Make a circuit out of some or all of them. They are in order of importance/effectiveness. However, you could adjust your weights routine to mean you don't need to do many isolation exercises like above (more info below)

General Feedback on Routine

• Walking/Running: Try to incorporate interval training, walk for 500m then jog for 200m and then repeat. Shorten the walks and lengthen the jogs over time until you are comfortable with jogging/running for 5k. Check out the Couch-to-5k program.
• Weights: Kettlebell exercises are fine and leg curl is a ok assistance exercise but if you really want progression and to build strength then check out the Stronglifts (5x5) Program (and ditch the leg curls). As a minimum you should do: Barbell Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press. Squat and Deadlift (and Overhead Press) all work out your core as it is used to stabilize during the lifts. Alternatively, join a crossfit/body-pump/kettlebell class at your gym and go twice a week. If you a program designed just for you ask in the comments here and I'll draw one up.
• Diet: Overall looks good for losing weight but I would be concerned that it is not sustainable, track the calories and macronutrient value of your daily meals and ensure you are getting what you need. IIFYM.com can help tell you your needs and myfitnesspal.com (and app) can help you track.

Answer 3

Unless you want to end up being as thin as a chopstick I would suggest that you don't drop below 80kg as this is pretty much around the ideal weight for someone standing 6 feet tall.

To tone your stomach area I believe it's best to stick with HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) from the training perspective and Intermittent Fasting for your diet.

Read more about the effectiveness of the combination of the two here.

If you follow a HIIT training schedule combined with Intermittent Fasting for about a month, training twice a week, you will be able to shed 3-5kg of fat from your body and allow your abs to start showing themselves.

If you add up a day or two (depending on how much free time you have) to train your abs and strengthen them, at the end of the month you will have some very promising results.

Some effective ab exercises:

1. V-Crunches
2. Russian Twists
3. Plank
4. Oblique Driving-Knee Crunches
5. V-hold

Diet:

You already do a decent job with your diet keeping the sugar intake at a minimum, but you should consider increasing the protein intake throughout the day and also, get a good dose carbohydrates after your training to replace the lost energy.