How to Become A Last Half Inch Belly Fat Blaster

Do you know that last half inch of fat that sits on your belly? The fat that doesn’t really shift even if you go to the gym, or workout, do loads of cardio or weights? It just doesn’t shift or it comes back time after time?

Well, I spent the last 8 or more years running, climbing, working out in various forms and I still had a bit of a belly. I know what it’s like to look at yourself in the mirror and to hear yourself saying ‘well it’ll always be there’. ‘I can’t do much about it..sure it’s the start of middle aged spread’.

Now I am pretty slim build, 5′ 10”, weigh around 72 kilos / 155 lbs, so I have never really been overweight or faced the same challenges as someone who is overweight. But I still had that half inch thick fat layer around the belly. I remember the feeling of having to go up a jean size two years ago just because the cut of the jeans at what is my ‘typical’ waist size (30″) for my build, wasn’t fitting. Some jeans were too big, some were too long, but ALL of the jeans at 30″ were too tight!

So then what is this post about? It’s not about NOT losing this fat layer obviously. It’s about how in the last 90 days I have managed to become a Last Half Inch Belly Fat Blaster. What I’m about to describe is how by doing 3 things over the last 90 days, I managed to finally get some definition in my abs. Get the oblique muscles. Even start getting the ‘V’ around the pelvis. I just blasted the fat off. Finally something that works!!!

And that I know that if I just kept up with my twice a week running or even climbing and free weights, I wouldn’t have lost the fat!

I’m on my way to a proper 6 pack and more importantly..I don’t have that half inch fat layer around my belly. It’s practically gone! Oh and by the way, as I write this I’m less than a week away from my 35th birthday so middle aged spread…not so sure!

So how did I come to find out about this? I’ll keep it short because I’m sure you’re dying to get to the meat of it.

In January I decided I was going to try and get better definition and a six pack because I never really had one before. But because I rock climb I didn’t want to bulk up or do intense weights that wouldn’t be any use to me in climbing. I was training for a half-marathon so for the moment I just looked around on the internet. I also thought the running training would help.

Come March, the half-marathon over, and even with all that running I didn’t shift the half inch fat layer. I would pinch it while standing just to check. Yep, still there.

I was interested in doing some free weights to tone for climbing, so I bought some 20 kg variable dumbbells and found an article on Men’s Health about a workout. I started doing this. It helped a bit. There was some improvement, but slight.

Then I had a breakthrough. There’s a website Bodyrock.tv that I found via YouTube where there is this very toned pretty Czech girl called Zuzana doing these exercises. So being a man, at first I was interested for aesthetic reasons, but quickly became intrigued. She mixes a lot of body weight dynamic exercises with skipping and some weights. Recently she has just moved onto body weight exercises alone. Well, I thought I would try some and mix it in with a bit of running and some occasional weights. This would be my workouts for the weeks ahead.

Well, by combining some these types of workouts, by changing what I was eating 6 months previously only slightly and being disciplined and sticking to a workout schedule and keeping a log, I started burning off the fat layer.

And I’m still going…

So here is how I did it:

These 3 methods will have you working out each week for a maximum of 90 minutes and only changing your diet by 10%. In 90 days, in fact in about 60 days, you’ll notice a difference. Now it is up to you if you want to do more intensity, but I would recommend you take small changes first. Also this works best for guys (and girls) who have that last bit of fat on their belly. I don’t know how it would apply if you had more. So:

Change what you eat by 10% and add an extra ‘meal’ at 3.30 to 4.00 pm in the day

Do 4 workouts per week – 3 higher intensity (up to 20 minutes) and a 30 minute 5 km run or weights

Keep a log of your times and for the first 30 days what and when you eat

And that is all I did for my core workouts. Now I did go climbing from time to time and run longer distances, but this is the routine I got into.

My high intensity workouts vary. I have around 6 different types that I took from Bodyrock Tv and modified. I learned to skip as well and often I exercise in the morning.

Before I didn’t normally eat a lot of carbs each week like lots of potatoes and pasta. I ate more bread and rice, with occasional chips and potatoes. I ate vegetables and meat and generally had a good diet. But I would eat a chocolate bar or a slice of cake almost every day though. I changed this.

So cut out the cakes and chocolate (you might have it once a week) but apart from that just replace 10% of the white bread and chips with wholemeal bread and rice. Take 10% less portions for your standard meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and add a 3.30pm to 4.00 pm extra meal – for me usually a nut bar or pistachio nuts with some fruit. Something with not a lot of processed food or really sugary.

The log for the first 30 days is to help you become disciplined. It helps ingrain a habit and you will be able to record workout times. You may want to buy an digital interval timer. It helps and only costs about 7-8 dollars or 5 pounds.

BTW I’m doing a post soon about how fruit can help you save money. This was inspired by my fitness regime.

So if you want to start burning that fat, you need to start doing something. My advice: plan the next 7 days. Go find some high intensity workouts and fit them to what you can manage. Pick a route to run. Think about what habitual snacks you can replace with some fruit and nuts or some oats and yogurt, if you can’t eat nuts, and add that extra meal in the afternoon

I’m still improving and I can see how if you tweak what you eat you can get even better results. But for now I’m happy to be A Last Half Inch Belly Fat Blaster!!

Good luck

Micky