h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We just bought ourselves an exercise bike at home and looking at other gym-style exercise equipment I keep seeing these things where you seem to stand on them and they vibrate.

Apparently this is an aid to slimming and a machine can easily set you back a few hundred squids.

So what's that all about then? Do they even remotely work?

They are apparently very good for toning you up, but most of the ones you can get for the home (unless you spend an absolute fortune) aren't that good.

Basically the idea is that as the plate vibrates your muscles make small contractions to stabilise you against the movement so doing all your strength/tone work on one of these should make your core really, really strong and help to tone and define your muscles. I haven't been to a gym with one in so haven't had a chance to try it out though, only going on what my super-fit gym bunny friend has said about them.

An exercise ball that you habitually sit on (while watching TV for instance) would probably do as much.

Horse riding is the best toning for core muscles I ever had. It also tones your inner thighs like nothing else. Well. Maybe skiing.

...or sex

The latest hype here are those shoes I forgot the name of, which are said to tone your bum just by walking in them. If you believe in it and do a lot of walking as a consequence, you might end up slimming a little.

They sound more likely to give you a bad back.

Thing is, you can exercise for core muscles, but I find just *using* them regularly works better. I'm not a gym bunny, but no matter how much I force myself to go, I never got the results that I achieved with an hour's horse riding under instruction once a week.

Finding a hobby that you can afford and fascinates you that is also active is the easiest way to keep fit and shapely I think

"Finding a hobby that you can afford and fascinates you that is also active is the easiest way to keep fit and shapely I think"
Exactly... Its just a pity that sex doesn't burn more calories

You're doing it wrong then...

Seems to me that most often when people are looking for ways to slim, the issue is with persistence and motivation rather than method.

The woman behind reception at my local club said excitedly told me that she'd bought a running machine. I asked her yesterday how it was going ... unfortunately she's been too busy to use it ...

Oh I spent 3 years going to the gym five days a week until last year when circumstances changed and I could no longer go at the times available to me. I went swimming at the same frequency before that too. Running does my knees in now and I tend to knacker regular bikes as I'm very hard on them so hence the indoor bike.

I will use the bike, believe me.

Apologies Orcus ... it wasn't a comment directed at you ... just a generalisation ...

I used to like the rowing machine. Good for legs, arms, chest, shoulders and cardio. No impact.

Yes I thought so and I agree with you.

The vibro-plate is, to me, clearly a waste of time and money - you can't possibly burn any significant calories and that's what I want. Not really so much slimming as in fact, cardiovascular fitness although the slimming will be nice too.

What's the best bit of exercise equipment for getting rid of a belly?

If you're asking about spot-reducing (i.e. toning a particular area of the body whether belly, bum or thighs) it can't be done. When you exercise the fat will go gradually from all areas of the body at the same time.

So to get rid of a belly you will need to burn off more calories than you take in.

You can raise the number of calories your burn off in two ways:
1) go and do some weights to pack on some muscle. Added muscle will need extra calories to be maintained.
2) go and do cardiovascular work.

In terms of best ... personally I'd say running. You're bearing your own weight whereas in swimming, cycling and rowing; your weight is carried by the water, bike or rowing machine. BUT running is tough for people who haven't done much of it. I found rowing to be very good because it's cardio and it builds muscles all over the body.

Whichever type of exercise you do, you need to build up gradually the amount of time you're doing it. I'd definitely recommend going at a pace where you could hold a conversation with someone. It'll allow you to exercise for longer and probably won't hurt anywhere near as much.

Ultimately the key is to get out there consistently and keep exercising.

The best bit of exercise for getting rid of a bit of a belly is exercising that bit of self-control that tells us not* to ahave the large portion of this, or the second helping of that... Its far easier in many ways to just not put the calories in in the first place, than it is to then attempt burn the=m off...

There isn't really any exercise that will specifically make you loose weight/fat from one particular body part, that isn't really how it works; however, doing anythign that will increase the tone and strength of the abdominal muscles will make you look* like you have a bit less of a tummy as you can more easily 'draw it in' as it were... but even doing exercises that specifically exercise the abdominal muscles won't directly mean your necessarily goign to use up the 'fat reserves' in that area any quicker than anywhere else...

blimey... I mean just think what may happen were that the case... any bit of your body which got a lot of.... err exercise would... err deminish in size

I've lost about 1 and a half stone this year; seemingly virtually none of which has gone from my ... not so 'tiny' belly/tummy area
(actually the most obvious palce I noticed the weight leavingn was on my back )

As the others have said, you can't get rid of fat from just one are but bellies look loads better from just a bit of toning/core work. An exercise ball (for less than a tenner) on which you do a few sets of crunches and other tummy exercises a day can do wonders.

I think those vibrating plate things are good, but not for cardio work.

The usual reason for a beer belly is that the liver is processing fats inefficiently, and so any excess fat in the diet is shunted into storage. Because for most of our evolution we have been starving, the body is very reluctant to let go of fat once it is in storage. So, to lose that fat, you've not only got to burn more calories than you are taking in, you've also got to get your liver working properly, which means giving up alcohol completely for at least six months. Preferably longer.

Good luck with that.

Six... err months? well... I'll jsut have to learn to live with the gut then

The only exercises I ever did regularly were stomach exercises, and I had a flat stomach for years. Fat flabby arse, but I couldn't see that.

It only vanishes when I started drinking a bit too much in my 30s (which I'm sort of pleased to see justified in the posts above, although I was drinking before that, just not so regularly) and I've never got rid of it again as I just don't have the same dedication and desire for crop tops now I'm older.

I keep looking at those shoes with the amount of walking I do, but the places I walk probably do the same thing anyway, because I don't walk on flat surfaces very much.