I've been working out pretty regularly for several weeks and have started slimming down in my legs and upper torso, but my belly, love handles and hips don't seem to be changing at all. Are there specific ways to target belly fat? Are there certain things I can eat (or not eat) that will help with this?

To elaborate a little, I am 220 pounds and 5'5" (so, yeah, I have plenty of belly fat to get rid of). I have been going to the gym an average of 3-5 times per week. When I go to the gym, I usually spend 20-30 minutes on the treadmill (I'm on the second week of Couch to 5k right now, so it's walking and running), 10-20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on the stationary bike. I have not incorporated any weights yet.

As far as diet, I try to eat healthy - five fruits and veggies, two dairy servings, two whole grain servings, two healthy oil servings and at least 48 oz. of water daily. Some days I manage to do this. A lot of days I don't.

So, yeah, if anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate them! (Even if you are just going to tell me I am being impatient ... ;) )

Sadly, no--fat comes off in a general sense and it's just not possible to target certain areas for fat loss, (without a plastic surgeon that is ; ).

Just keep up the cardio, (and consider upping the length of time you spend doing it, as well as interval training--if you're not already doing that), and get into some resistance work sooner than later to make the very most of your training time.

Maybe start messing with your intake ratios (protein, carbs, fats), as certain body types respond more or less favorabley to different levels of nutrients.

Also, calorie-cycling can be a powerful tool to have in your fat-zapping arsenal.

Enjoy your journey!

In addition, I've read that fat tends to come off in the order that it appeared, which is to say that since we humans like to gain about the waist first, then likely this is the place that we see trim down last.

And speaking from experience, I'd say it be true.

"The best for last" and all that...

Lots of belly fat generally means you have lots of visceral fat in and around your guts and organs. There can be exceptions to this rule though. Visceral fat is a side effect of elevated insulin levels, which can be controlled by your diet. Have you ever seen a man or woman that isn't fat anywhere but in their belly? This is visceral fat from elevated insulin levels.

Try eating lower glycemic index carbohydrates in place of your whole grains. Lower GI foods will help to lower your overall insulin levels and at that point you will be more likely to lose some of the visceral fat. You didn't mention anything about your protein intake - make sure you are eating at LEAST 0.7 g of protein for every pound of LBM you have. If you are exercising, you should up that number.

Of course, do your own research about insulin and low GI foods and see if it fits your particular scenario.

Do your cardio first thing in the morning for 45min before eating.
This will boost your metabolism, and burn body fat since there's no food in your stomach.

You need to incorporate weights.

The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn because it makes more energy for muscles to work then it does for fat.

I thought that just doing cardio would work for me but that was a while ago before I had a personal trainer.

To max. your workout do weights BEFORE your cardio. I don't know why, but that's what the personal trainer said and what I have read in most magazines. I wish I knew why but I know it works. I have lost 23 lbs so far so it must be working.

The last place I need to really lose it is in the waist (and some in the arms). I wish it would come off but I guess it will come off when it wants to.

RUN BABY RUN!!!!!

There's a lot of reasons for this, and I started a whole thread about it just to get peoples input, but for me there are two main reasons I lift first: a) I can push a lot harder if I do it before cardio, meaning I can overload my muscles whereas if I run first, I just dont' have the intensity or energy; and b) people are far more prone to injuring themselves lifting weights than getting on an elliptical or treadmill, I figure it's safest to lift while I'm freshest and can focus on form and execution than trying to get on a the bench completely drained. Ideally, you'd space out your lifting workouts and cardio workouts by a few hours, but who really has time to do that these days?

As far as targetting specific areas of body fat, spot reduction is (mostly) a myth. The best way to burn fat is to build muscle. New research has indicated that you can increase fat burning in certain areas by exercising them over long periods of time (ie. a non-stop 30 minute ab routine), but the research is inconclusive and who really wants to be doing a 30 minute ab routine as a guinea pig? Besides, from what I've read here and there, the loss is only slightly increased from doing something like that.

Personally, I'd focus on losing body fat in general and don't start thinking about spot reduction. If you get your general body fat % down, inevitably the fat in those "target" areas will start melting away too. Besides, I'm not sure how long you've been working out, but I'll go with 2 weeks since you mentioned that you were in the second week of couch-to-5k; if you're already seeing noticeable improvements in your legs and upper torso in such a short time, just use that as inspiration to keep going! As long as you stay consistent with your diet and exercise, ALL of your fat is going to start disappearing soon.

Daniel said it....Definatly start weight training.

Link about visceral fat, and impact of weight training:
http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/news/waist.htm

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I kind of thought that it was better to get consistent with my cardio (and drop some of the weight) before I started weights, but it seems to be the consensus here that I should definitely be doing both.

Angie, the info you shared was really informative. I have a few questions. First, what are some examples of lower GI carbs? How do I find that? Also, what is LBM?

I find this Internet thingie to be quite a resource.

LBM = your total weight - body fat. There are plenty of online body fat calculators where you can estimate your LBM using tape measurements. Just do a google search and you'll find a few of them - make sure you're using one for a WOMAN, because a man's results will be lower and inaccurate.

Most vegetables have extremely low GI values - again, an online search will yield a big list of the "best" ones. In order from lowest to highest, here's a list (in general, of course. There are exceptions that you should educate yourself on.)
Vegetables --> Fruits --> Whole grains & Starchy Vegetables --> Highly processed foods

I have done extensive reading on many issues like this and one of the things I see over and over again, is drink/eat milk products. And in fact, it does help.

Thank you for this awesome info!