Q: Hey Mike, first and foremost thanks for your advice. I am a 40 year old I am 5.7ft and about 2 months ago I was 76KG and extremely unfit. I ate whatever I could eat, junk, chocolates absolutely anything. I was very unfit and miserable. So I decided to change my life, I joined a gym and for the past 2 months have been working 5 days a week. 30 min on treadmill, 30 min on cross trainer, then I do 5 different excersises for abs after that I do weights as well. I am happy to say that I have already lost 6 kilos and I am trying to get my weight down to 67kilos, that was my weight 10 years ago. But I have one major problem, when I look myself at the mirror, I can see that I have lost weight from most of my body however I just can't get rid of my fat belly. ALthough there is fat there but I feel like my stomach is bloated and it is like this all the time. I have around 2000 calories of food a day. I don't eat junk food and I eat lots of fruit, lean meat, chicken and salad. My question is do you think if I carry on the way I am doing will I one day get rid of the nasty fat belly? or is this bloating caused by sommething else? Thanks in advance for your advice.

A: Congrats on your recent weight loss and on making positive changes in your life -- great job!!! As far as your stomach looking bloated, unfortunately it's next to impossible for me to tell you exactly what's going on over the internet. There's no question that belly fat is always the last to go so your stomach will also look 'softer' than other areas. But even if you have very low body fat, when standing or sitting in natural relaxed pose, your stomach will still bulge out somewhat. It will bulge out a lot more after you eat or drink a lot. It can also bulge out more if you experience upset stomach or indigestion. So it could be any number of factors.

More importantly, however, is that it really does not matter -- you clearly have a good program now and are making good progress with it. You may not have your ideal goal physique now and you may not even have it at 67kgs but you still made great progress from your starting point and did the best you could. Once gain, great job and just keep it going!