What's the best way to lose belly fat?

I'm in remission and *ahem* middle age so I have been gaining weight around my belly. I can't do traditional sit ups or crunches because I have back/neck issues as well as diverticular disease (crunches tend to make my "pockets" hurt). So does anyone have any recommendations on how I can gently get rid of this belly fat? I tried looking at YouTube videos but they all seem to rotate around some variation of crunches.

I watch what I eat, I hardly seem to just sit (I'm a bit high strung) and I take my dogs for frequent walks. But I got that whole middle age woman thing going on.

Yes, you cannot choose the place where you want to lose fat. Stomach exercises might make your stomach muscles stronger, but it has nothing to do with losing fat in that area. Because of UC I tried different diets and when I stopped almost completely eating carbs I started to lose weight really fast so you can try that and of course some cardio.

I have had so many incisions on my abdomen and permanent staples inside me holding my colon together, a 30 lb weight restriction as well, my surgeon told me to never do sit ups or use nautilus equipment to flatten my stomach.

I had lost a lot of weight back then after my resection, went from a size 12 to a size 4. I then settled nicely into a size 8 (for a long time, now I'm a 12 again).
During my post op phase (1999) I was happy to be thin again (first time in 15 years), so I figured out a way to tone my stomach muscles and it worked. My surgeon was shocked it worked but quickly approved of what I did. I pulled in my gut and held it in for 10 seconds. Released, let out a breath and took another deep breath, pulling in my gut again. I would do batches of these, 10 or 15 in a row, while blow drying my hair, taking a shower, driving, standing in line to pay for groceries, anytime I was quiet and had time to think about it. I did at least 100 of these exercises total each day. And it worked.

Ack, but now I'm rather lazy and should do these again.

Try it, my surgeon said they wouldn't harm any of the incisions I had.

I'm supposed to follow his advice for life. No sit ups, no nautilus or exercise equipment.

Red_34, belly fat is pretty stubborn. You gotta burn lots of fat off of your frame to get your tummy flat. Pretty much any sort of cardio or fat burning exercise you can stand, along with a healthy diet. It's not easy, takes lots of work. The fact of the matter is you gotta have a low body fat ratio to have a flat stomach. Depending on what you weigh now that might be either a little work or a lot of work.

Yeah, I hear you as it can be frustrating for sure. I've always had a bit of a stomach bump, despite my best efforts. Well, I say "despite my best efforts" yet I'm an on again, off again gym member and I don't have a lot of willpower when it comes to sweets and such. In my case, the desire to eat a brownie wins out over being perfectly fit and trim lol (instant gratification wins out over a longterm goal). Alas none of us look like the idealistic people on the covers of magazines and in movies (a contrived lie that brings us all down).

I have same issue with middle aged belly bulge. (I am ok as long as no one sees me in profile). I agree with cardio plus weights, just keep the weights on the light side in the beginning or you may end up looking a little bigger until you've burned off some of the fat. One thing that has helped me a lot is to suck in my stomach and stand/sit very straight as many times a day as I remember and for as long as I can stand it. Also, any chance your thyroid is off?

Oddly enough, I've heard holding your stomach in for extended periods of time actually burns more calories than when you have your stomach in a relaxed position.

There are lots of ways to work your core without situps or crunches. Planks, bridges, just sitting up in a c position, standing on one leg, lifting your knees above your waist, lying flat on your bag and holding your legs about 6 inche off the ground. There are lots of others too. I had surgery so I stay away from crunches and situps, the also give me a headache. But we do the insanity videos and now I'm on T25, they both have great ab workouts, no situps and lots of cardio in them in fact there is one called cardio abs. See if you can find it on youtube or ebay.

Red the cardio abs isn't that hard, just leave the jumping out and you can modify a lot of those ab exercises to make them easier.
Ot for a minute but has he tried insane asylum sports edition? It makes insanity look like a walk in the park!

Sherry - I have both belly fat and untoned muscles. When I was going to the gym regularly I lost many inches just from toning.... so two years ago I tries hula-hooping! lol Check it out on YouTube.
But... I never could do more than 6 cycles of the hoop without it dropping.
From all I could find, it's supposed to be great exercise, and my lower back always felt great after....!
Now I'm doing a special yoga class for folks with physical issues. It's helping some.

Believe it or not, eliminating wheat from our family's diet had a HUGE impact on the amount of weight we carried around our bellies. We cut all grains, but from research, it looks like it was the wheat that had the largest impact on our belly fat. We didn't cut wheat for weight loss - we started the paleo diet in an attempt to help my UC. It was just a happy side effect that we all started to thin out in the middle.

Skinny is not always sexy 0_o. When I was at my sickest I weighed 107lbs....walking skeleton. I actually take pride when my friends say I look healthy now lol But I don't look overweight at all...except when I turn sideways :(. It's literally all belly.

But I've always like the recumbent bikes....I just never got around to getting one.

You all have very good advice! So thank you very much!

I do have to admit though...I do have a major weakness for carbs. I'm not much a snacker nor do I eat a lot sweets but I love my bread and pastas. My typical diet is usually eggs in the morning and dinner at night. That's it. My dinners are mostly chicken in various forms. I do have the occasional pasta dishes but not too often. I really honestly don't like to eat. I'm not anorexic by any means but after years of having gut issues, it's like the lesson of sticking your hand on a hot stove kind of thing.

But when I started gaining weight a few years ago, I freaked out and since then I've had my thyroid checked numerous times. All turned out fine. So I am thinking that its the middle age woman thing.

Good for you Marsky! :) Since I posted this, I've been doing the sucking the gut thing in. Sometimes just when I'm in the kitchen making dinner I will stand straight and hold it in for 30 seconds. And it seems to be working! But I've been doing that whenever I am idle.