exercise JUST for stomach

[lucyshandbag]

please can someone help me.  i have been underweight for 4 years now.  since going on the contraceptive injection in feb, mainly to help me gain weight, i have been happily gaining weight.  however,  it is mostly staying on my stomach (as it does) and i can't wear jeans without my stomach bulging over the top of them, or if they fit my stomach they hang off my bum.  i'm really out of proportion and need to exercise my stomach without burning calories off thus stopping the weight gain entirely.  please please help.

[Emily Ball]

If you do abs excerises lucyshandbag, you will firm up and develop your abdominal muscles but you won't lose weight as muscle weighs more than fat, so get cracking !

[Impret-Sir]

It is a very common misconception that doing abdominal exercises will reduce a flabby belly. It will not. Abs exersices will firm and tone and maybe even develop the muscles of the abdominal wall, but will have no effect at all on the layer of stored fat that lies above it. In fact, if your abs become very deveoped it will actually increase the aparant overhang, because the muscles will push the flab forward. The only way to reduce the stored fat layer on the abdominal wall is aerobic exersices, (running, swimming, cycling etc) , plus calorie reduction.

[hannahjo]

Unfortunately when you exercise to burn fat, you can't target specific areas of the body. You�ll need to exercise to burn fat all over, then you can focus on toning up your stomach with lots of sit ups and crunches.

[camille79]

Try finding an exercise class based on Pilates techniques.  I found that this helped my posture as well as firming my tum so, even though the belly is still there, you automatically hold it in all the time!

[catmat]

Yes, I agree with other posters too. I was very underweight a couple of years ago. When I got well enough I started to go to the gym, because, like you, I wanted to gain weight but not just on my belly! So, I did a mixture of exercise - mainly jogging, rowing and weights. I put on muscle fairly evenly over my whole body. :-) I advise that's the way forward.

I completely agree about posture, too. I had singing lessons and found my posture improved immensely - loads of people commented on it and a number of people actually asked me if I was a dancer! O_O My figure is not that of a model - it just goes to show that looking good is actually a lot to do with the way you hold yourself and move, and your confidence and style.

Good luck with the exercise!