How to flatten one's tummy/reducing weight & improve badminton fitness!!

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by crazy_smasher, Feb 16, 2004.

  1. crazy_smasher

    crazy_smasher Regular Member

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    Hi all,

    Can anyone suggest an effective way to lose weight especially in tummy area?

    I play 3-4 times(2-3 hour session) every week of badminton, 75% quite intensive games. However, still cannot manage to flatten the tummy.

    I realise compare to last time(3kgs less - 67kg), i move slower on the court (especially going for net shots) nowadays due to my added 3 kgs. I also wants to reduce my weight to reduce pressure on my knees

    I heard that doing sit-ups do not really help coz it build muscle below the layer of fat.

    Aerobic exercises with a lot of twisting will help remove the fat, but i thought that badminton is a heavy aerobic exercise with a lot of twisting already.

    Running is good i heard but is it true that only after extreme exhaustion when all water is lost from the body, then the fat will be burnt off? For example, only the last 1 km from 5km run, then u lose some fat?

    Diet-wise, normal diet, very little fatty / oily foods, enough vege, average rice, some fibre, maybe too little fruits.
     
  2. cappy75

    cappy75 Regular Member

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    Do you want to lose weight or lose fat? There are number of ways to lose weight, but fat? Lifting weights by gives me the best results... increases the muscle mass and it'll naturally burn away the fat by itself. Dieting helps too... not eating less, but rather being picky about what goes into your stomach and striving to maintain a balance diet. If I were you, I would focus on strengthening the legs, back and abdominal muscles. Less on arms because it'll screw up your touch.
     
  3. Nanashi

    Nanashi Regular Member

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    for me, it's all about diet.... depending on what i decide to eat, it decides if i got my mini 6 pac or my massive keg.... right now i'm on the massive keg stage... cuz i've decided to get... well... fat and lazy (just in time for provincials!!)

    anyway, i think if you watch what you eat, and play as much badminton as you say you do, you'll begin to lose fat around the stomach area....
     
  4. Traum

    Traum Regular Member

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    I agree with cappy that weight lifting is gonna help burn off the fat. However, to start burning fat, I think you need to trick your body into using up your blood sugar first. Do some cardiovascular exercise as warm ups for 1/2 hour or so, and then start pumping iron!

    Of course, diet is very important too.

    -Rick
     
  5. crazy_smasher

    crazy_smasher Regular Member

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    Hi Cappy,

    i thought fats are the only thing u can lose when u lose weight? :D

    What do u mean by:

    Lifting weights by gives me the best results ....increases the muscle mass and it'll naturally burn away the fat by itself

    how can increasing muscle mass burn away the fat? :confused:

    I heard that the fats on tummy is a deposit on ur abdomenal muscle, building muscles below it by sit-ups will not remove the fat :)

    Yeah, i am picky on diet also, high fibre, less carbo /sugar, less fats, maybe not enough fruits though :)
     
  6. ants

    ants Regular Member

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    One way to lose fats especially around the tummy area is to reduce carbo. Eat meat before you play badminton or any sports. After your activity.. try not to eat , just drink water. Do some sit-ups. This is the best and the most effective way to lose fats.
     
  7. delmonk

    delmonk Regular Member

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    lifting weights builds muscle, if you eat a lot of protein while lifting weights when you get sore and rest your muscles heal themselves off the protein and get stronger, the more muscle in your body the more energy your body uses up so you burn carbs faster. When your out of carbs your body starts burning fat instead.
    If you don't have big muscles, then Dieting and low cardio activity for long periods of time is key for losing weight, which is why I always have a problem losing weight because I get bored so I can't jog on a treadmill for 1 hr and get sick of eating the same stuff. You will burn more jogging slowly for long time then sprinting until ur tired for short period of time. Sports r great, but there is too much resting time and u will burn more just jogging for long time.
     
  8. bluejeff

    bluejeff Regular Member

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    From What I have heard, swimming helps to make your body shape to look good :)
    Also, swimming burns lots of fat out if you swim 2 hours (I think)

    Lots of my friends went to swim for this reason. They think swimming is the least cost thing to reduce fat in the shortest amount of time.
     
  9. cappy75

    cappy75 Regular Member

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    Muscles weigh more than fat but muscles burn up fats for maintenance. So don't worry about weight gain in the beginning of regime, it'll stabilize later. As for fat in the abs area, it'll reduce itself once you start working on the muscles. You'll see guys in the gym with great looking cuts (or definition, or six packs), they do lots of reps to tone their abs muscles. Impressive looking but they may not be stronger than the regular weight lifer, size of the muscles counts too.


    For baddy, best to do more strength training on lower body parts (ads, legs, etc...) and generally more toning (more reps with lighter weight) for your upper body. Also, very important to train stamina too... playing longer rallies might help but nothing beats proper aerobic training for stamina.

    Agreed with bluejeff, swimming is really good and fun way to build stamina and lose weight.

     
    #9 cappy75, Feb 16, 2004
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2004
  10. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    There is an old BB's axiom that you must keep in mind: six-packs are built in the kitchen, not in the gym.

    With that in mind, let's take a look at your goal: loose fat. (I don't you seriously wanted to reduce your lean body mass, which would increase your body fat percentage at the same weight.)

    Your goal can be achieved using two ways:
    1. reduce caloric intake
    2. increase base matainance calories.

    1. This is a misnomer because it isn't so much about eating less as it is about eating right. Starving yourself is counter productive and i'm sure you know that by now. Sparring the complex details, you only need to remember this one thing: avoid eating carbs and fats together. (Well, also remember that eat carbs and protein together, along with multivitamins and any supplements you're taking.)

    2. Cardio is a waste of time because it only burns calories while you are doing it, and it doesn't even burn that much. The typical gym goer reading their newspaper on the treadmill or stationary bike would actually burn more calories eating a high-protein meal than exercising. Lifting heavy weights will burn about the same amount of calories during the workout, took less time, and has one very very important advantage: it will damage your muscles by ripping apart a lot of muscle fibers. This stimulates your body to build new muscle fibers, which takes up a HUGE amount of energy. This will burn far more calories than any cardio you do, and has the added benefit of making stronger and raising your base caloric maintaince as well.

    Finally, remember to eat lots of small meals. This steadily feeds your body so that most of the energy is spent upon muscle repair, while at the same time raising your metabolism.

    Most of the points i made has already been covered but i figured you want to know a little more about why. Thus.
    1. lift heavy
    2. eat lots of small meals
    3. eat protein with carbs, but not carbs with fat.
     
  11. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    That's actually a myth. ;)


    ps. crazy smasher: if you go on a starvation diet like most girls do, you will find that you will lose almost entirely muscle and no fat at all. Upon eating little, your body will think there's a famine and try to burn up muscle to lower our base maintaince caloric ammount. The fat will stay. It works quite well in ensuring your survival in a famine, but is only counterproductive in loosing fat.
     
  12. Traum

    Traum Regular Member

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    Point well made, BRL. Now only if the ladies would believe us on that one. :rolleyes: :eek: ;)

    -Rick
     
  13. Neil Nicholls

    Neil Nicholls Regular Member

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    You can't choose where to lose fat from. You're body decides for you.

    Not true

    I thought there were plenty of studies that show that after as little as 15 minutes exercise, your metabolic rate remains raised for quite a time after you have finished exercising

    Not true. It's not that simple. Your body uses different energy sources, sometimes concurrently, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise.


    there is plenty of stuff on the web, you've just got to find it. And then decide what to believe.
    Try
    http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/burning_calories/burn_more_calories
    .htm

    or better still
    http://www.powerandintensity.com/trainingtips/muscle_Fuel.cfm
     
  14. Neil Nicholls

    Neil Nicholls Regular Member

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  15. mindfields

    mindfields Regular Member

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    As it's been said you can't target areas of fat to loose.
    To get a sixpack you have to get you overall body fat below 10-12%

    Doing situps will increase the size of your abdominal muscles but it won't sepcifically reduce the fat in that area as it will be taken from the whole body.

    I think some of the things said are misleading & taken out of context. The big issue is how your body gets it's energy.
    Exercising uses energy, this energy is in the form of ATP (Aminotriphosphate I IRRC).
    The body produces this ATP according to demand & the ease of production is as follows;
    Sugars, Proteins, Fat.

    The body stores limited supplies of sugars in the form of Glucogen in the blood & muscle tissue.
    When you start exercising you will burn this 1st.
    Once that is depleted the body will look for alternaltive ways to get ATP to your muscles.
    It takes time for your body to metabolise Fat back into glocogen & ATP so if the intensity of the workout is high then the body will turn to canalibisation & convert muscle bulk into energy.
    There is an equilibrium point where your bodies energy requirements are the same as the rate of fat conversion. This is often quoted as a percentage of heart rate (as it's a linear relationship to oxygen requirement). The easiest way to reach this state is through Cardio exercise.

    High intensity workouts like Playing Badminton for an hour will burn the same amount of fat as low intensity cardio workouts.

    Basically
    1. Your body has to realise it's energy requirement has gone up & needs to start converting Fat into energy.
    2. Your body can only convert Fat at a certain rate.
    3. Any requirements above that rate will be satisfied by Muscle canibalisation (which will be rebuilt later either from body Fat or food).

    This is why Cardio is still the best "Fat-burning" exercise. Going above the fat conversion rate just means your body looks for energy elsewhere.

    On the issue of elevated metabolism levels. Yes your body will have a higher metabolism & your energy requirements will be raised as you rebuild "thicker" muscle fibre BUT if you eat straight away your body will quickly turn the sugars & carbohydrates & Protein that you've eaten into energy/ATP before it turns to bodyfat.
     
  16. jamesd20

    jamesd20 Moderator

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    As mindfields says, Cardio is the best way of burning energy, to burn fat you have to excerise yourself at a constant level (some percentage of max theoretical heart rate. This excercise will burn fat directly, however the excercise must be for more than about half an hour for this to work. I think swimming is the best, as running too strenous/monotonous for 1hour, but swimming keeps you about the right level, and isnt that hard to do for an hour. Just thiunk about footwork patterns whilst excercising, passes the time.
     
  17. 123justin

    123justin Regular Member

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    I have the answer for you my friend.

    DDR

    It's amazing cardio and it's FUN! You will seriously do it for hours on end. The longest I've done DDR for is 5 hours straight.

    Hopefully you have a ps2 or an X-box, so you can just buy the game and buy a DDR pad ($15 canadian)

    Like I said, amazing fun cardio plus it works your leg muscles. Improves your reaction time, improves eye-leg coordination.
     
  18. Neil Nicholls

    Neil Nicholls Regular Member

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    I concur. My gf played on her niece's over Xmas so we got one for our ps2 to help her lose weight. She hates that I am better at it than her. She clomps around on it like an bull in a china shop, but I am light on my feet because of badminton.

    (and no, James, this isn't how I injured my ankle; it was WRC2 and running - honest)
     
  19. bluejeff

    bluejeff Regular Member

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    The most effective way I can think of now is to get a knife and cut out the fat yourself:eek: (it might hurt a bit)

    Hm.....too much of discovery channel tonight.... :p
     
  20. cappy75

    cappy75 Regular Member

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    Hey BRL,

    You might wanna clarify which part of my quote is a myth;). What I stated were my observations in the gym.


     

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