I can have a 6 pack, and a protuding stomach

[gmano]

As the title says, and the pictures show. I'm having a hard time trying to get a flat stomach at all times.

I'm 6ft4 and 200 pound/90kg, the rest of my body is pretty lean in my opinion except if I'm not holding in my stomach, it protudes a fair bit. When I hold it in it looks fine, however when I let go of all my adominal muscles I look like a pregnant lady!

Is it water retention? Is it stubborn body fat and I could do to lower my percentage? My diet is clean, and I weight train roughly 5 hours a week, consistant for the last 16 months or so.

I have been relativley overweight within the last 3 years, but not obese by any means so I wouldn't expect it to be excess skin.

Any advice or constructive criticism appreciated!
(Sorry the photos are pretty average)

[gmano]

Yes I am aware i spelt protruding wrong also.

[Bignik92]

i dont believe your 200lbs and your stomach is just bloating from eating alot of food/ drinking alot i believe.

[gmano]

i dont believe your 200lbs and your stomach is just bloating from eating alot of food/ drinking alot i believe.

I am 200lbs my friend, as according to my scales, and the gyms scales, I have no reason to lie I eat 6 small meals also.

[TonyHoliday]

op post this in the misc (srs)

this is insane..

a lot of people are going to tell you to do stomach vacuums and planks

[JZT]

Try eating even smaller meals but increase the frequence, it's either bloating in your digestive system or bad posture. Also, hit your abs directly with weighted planks.

[j0sh]

wow, is it like that when u wake up? before eating/drinking

[gmano]

wow, is it like that when u wake up? before eating/drinking

Actually no its not, in the morning its probably 75% gone I forgot to mention this, its not like im gorging or drinking 20 litres of water during the day though.. I eat small meals every 3-4 hours.

Also the photos are taken within seconds of one another, they aren't at different times.

[gmano]

Try eating even smaller meals but increase the frequence, it's either bloating in your digestive system or bad posture. Also, hit your abs directly with weighted planks.

My have to try this, however work restricts me alot of the time. At the moment I do high reps (60-120) sit ups with 5-10kg plates/medicine balls. Sorry if its a dumb question but what do you mean when referring to weighted planks?

[Scha4]

My have to try this, however work restricts me alot of the time. At the moment I do high reps (60-120) sit ups with 5-10kg plates/medicine balls. Sorry if its a dumb question but what do you mean when referring to weighted planks?

A plank is when you are almost in a push-up position. Instead of your hands in contact with the floor, you use your forearms. Keep your forearms approximately shoulder width apart. A weighted plank is when you have weight (25,35,45,etc) on your back while doing a plank.

[ukbutler]

i think your pushing your stomach out? my dad had a friend who could do that, he was skinny and when he breathed out hard could look pregnant

[Brad155]

holy ****

[elmariachii]

OP, i have the same thing, probably due to eating large amounts of food than normal, im 150 lbs and by 11:00 PM, i look like a pregnant lady.

You need to watch your sodium intake, and to a lesser extent your fiber

[BlitzKrag]

im going to have to say bad posture and/or some kind of food allergy. good luck bro

[michealmyers]

dude, mine does the exact same thing. Now thats fully fully relaxed and your kinda pushing it out. And I guarantee you if most of the people on here did that and took a pic they'd have some kinda pooch sticking out. But yeah man I feel your pain, mine does the exact same thing. I think it's water and some bloating. I'm not eating a ton of food, but I do drink a lot of water. Mine seems to come at different times....sometimes I feel lean, other times bloated, just comes and goes. I don't think your doing anything wrong....just keep after it as I'm doing the same trying to hit the abs hard right now.

[BigBadWolf00]

As the title says, and the pictures show. I'm having a hard time trying to get a flat stomach at all times.

I'm 6ft4 and 200 pound/90kg, the rest of my body is pretty lean in my opinion except if I'm not holding in my stomach, it protudes a fair bit. When I hold it in it looks fine, however when I let go of all my adominal muscles I look like a pregnant lady!

Is it water retention? Is it stubborn body fat and I could do to lower my percentage? My diet is clean, and I weight train roughly 5 hours a week, consistant for the last 16 months or so.

I have been relativley overweight within the last 3 years, but not obese by any means so I wouldn't expect it to be excess skin.

Any advice or constructive criticism appreciated!
(Sorry the photos are pretty average)

Hey man, its somewhat genetic based. I don't know how hard you work specifically work on your stomach but I rarely do abs and have a six pack but not to mention thats not where I hold my water/fat. Its in my longer back and legs.

Also listen to bodybuilders, some of them bulk up to 280-300lbs and say, I still have a 6 pack. Don't worry about it man, its natural!

[Achilles-]

lol op i was looking through the first two pictures and was thinking " hey looks good man, nothing's wrong" then i loled at the third. that's thw weirdest **** i ever saw.

i think your pushing your stomach out? my dad had a friend who could do that, he was skinny and when he breathed out hard could look pregnant

I have a friend who can do this, he has a beer belly look and hes pretty skinny everywhere else. he doesnt have a 6 pack though
he also smokes pot, do you smoke pot op? maybe that's it? or smoking? it looks like there is gas stuck in there or something, like you know when impoverished african children have bloated stomaches from the gas in their belly filling up? it could be too much of some gas in there

[Coldrin]

op post this in the misc (srs)

this is insane..

a lot of people are going to tell you to do stomach vacuums and planks

What he said. Stomach vacuums did alot for me. Take a look at my before and afters so far.
And I'm not sucking it in.
I'm new in the fitness world, but in my case I felt like I had a "lazy" stomach. I had to train my muscles to hold it up. Now I have to push it out to get it to look like that.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121514761

[Aconnors]

Chuck Liddell comes to mind

[SEAviator]

i think your pushing your stomach out? my dad had a friend who could do that, he was skinny and when he breathed out hard could look pregnant

This... A friend of mine could do that too.. We all can if we fully relax, bend a little bit, and push out our stomach..

[Aconnors]

Actually no its not, in the morning its probably 75% gone I forgot to mention this, its not like im gorging or drinking 20 litres of water during the day though.. I eat small meals every 3-4 hours.

Also the photos are taken within seconds of one another, they aren't at different times.

Do me a favor.



Eat very little for 2-3 days. increase fiber. If your hungry, we are headed in the right dierection.These guys will be like POMG you will lose muscle if u dont eat 458587 calories and 2325 grams of protein.


LOOK, it dosnt hurt to experiment - I had a similar problem until I had to starve myself to make weight for a tournament, and have never looked back.

[Irishman16]

I think its an ectomorph thing,judging by your pics op you look like one.I have the same problem as you so i feel your pain.Ive being bulking since may and put on a good bit of weight but my belly still protrudes like it did when i was skinny.Like you when i hold it in i look good but if i let go,KERPLOP,out it comes :///
Hopefully someone can help us fat bellys out plzzzzz!

[SEAviator]

Oh, that also happens to my cousin.. She wakes up kinda skinny and throughout the day her belly gets bigger.. But its also related to her having a hard time taking a dump

[Brad155]

also stomach vacuums will train the muscles holding your stomach in. and to clarify, are you pushing your stomach out in that pic or are you just fully relaxed? i can do that too if i push my stomach out as far as i can.

[Jakelab06]

try going a few days w/o eating gluten, i bet it clears right up.

99% sure its a gluten thing, look it up and try it.

[SHADY86]

thats fully relaxed? looks more like ur purposely pushing out. thats odd

[madkad]

As the title says, and the pictures show. I'm having a hard time trying to get a flat stomach at all times.

I'm 6ft4 and 200 pound/90kg, the rest of my body is pretty lean in my opinion except if I'm not holding in my stomach, it protudes a fair bit. When I hold it in it looks fine, however when I let go of all my adominal muscles I look like a pregnant lady!

Is it water retention? Is it stubborn body fat and I could do to lower my percentage? My diet is clean, and I weight train roughly 5 hours a week, consistant for the last 16 months or so.

I have been relativley overweight within the last 3 years, but not obese by any means so I wouldn't expect it to be excess skin.

Any advice or constructive criticism appreciated!
(Sorry the photos are pretty average)

well mate when I was young and thin I know I had this problem, and now that I am cutting to I hope 6-10% bf I hope that the problem has gone, but I don't think it will have.

My son is the same as me, its like we have bellies like pot belly pigs, wonder what can be done?

do we have to walk holding our stomachs in all the time?

[gmano]

To clarify no I'm not pushing my stomach out or trying to make it stick out further, all I'm doing is relaxing my adominal muscles.

95% of the time I can hold my stomach in to make it look flat, without even consciously trying to do so, and I normally can do this all day. However if I'm bent over it will hang out and if i compleley relaxed my stomach it will hang out.

Sometimes if I'm bloated, I can't hold it in at all but this is rare.

Thanks for the comments and advice, I'm thinking its just stubborn body fat and excess water retention, currently looking into some of the things mentioned as well though, thanks again.

Also, what body fat do you guys think I'm at roughly?

[Doramonster]

It's probably the stomach expanding from eating / drinking too much, especially if it goes away in the morning.

You are def. under 10%. My guess is 7-8% BF?

[ezra76]

Same thing happens to me. I'm trying to bulk though so don't care. I have a 6pck. in the moring and looks like a beer belly in the evening when I'm 3-4 lbs. heavier.