Can I lose a beer belly working out one day a week?

I think the conventional wisom is diet is more important than exercise in losing weight, although I think most people would recommend working out once a week regardless if you would lose weight or not, basically any working out would be positive if you aren't at all, it couldn't hurt to do sit ups and push ups and see where that takes you.

Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. Gym is for strength.

Source: I'm related to a competitive body builder.

CICO

Calories in <<< calories out

You can lose your beer belly sitting on a sofa all day doing nothing, just as long as you're intaking less calories than you burn.

Exercise won’t change much.

What you need to do is eat less calories than you burn — so eat a little less, and you will lose weight.

A beer belly, despite the name, is not exactly from beer. A beer belly isn't specifically from the caloric spikes associated with heavy beer drinking (where a certain amount of alcohol for a certain inebriation is accompanied by a massive intake of simple carbs compared to liquor). It's due in part by genetics. It's called visceral fat, meaning it's intertwined with your torso's organs and muscles. The concern here, particularly when beer-bellied people are heavy enough to show notable fat between their knees, elbows, and faces, is there's likely fat/cholestoral buildup in the circulatory system. The beer belly is a heart attack predictor (but please understand overall weight is part of that indicator, not just location of fat). Some people are prone to adding fat relatively evenly across their body while some are prone to a beer belly. This variance in fat distribution is why skin-pinch based BMI tests are not accurate for health (testing arm skin misses beer bellies) and why weight/height BMI charts aren't either (can categorize distributed-fat risks a little too closely to beer bellied fat).

As for a solution, I support low-carb diets as you've indicated you'll try. They come with risks and peculiarities. As someone with sizable forearms and calves but about 40lbs of beer belly, keto has worked great for weight loss. The consequence of not being careful with eating (counting carbs but not calories to types of fat) is my cholestoral is still high when I do keto stints.

As you consider a low carb diet, I want to point out some misconceptions for keto, since that's mostly what you'll find. Atkins and Weight Watchers are close to keto. Paleo has a similar major component by prohibiting simple processed grain (white flour) but isn't the same otherwise. It's not a high protein diet - eat a normal amount. It's not a high fat diet - higher than the sugar industry-funded diet studies blaming fats will recommend, but still a normal amount. It does push you to choose better fats (nuts, avocado) rather than bad fats (bacon, butter) but fats fare a little better as a snack than proteins.

A major misconception is that fats make you fat and dietary cholestoral gives you coronary cholestoral. Both are indirectly related by directly false. Your belly is not stuffed with butter and cashew oil. It's stuffed with human fat. Fat is a category, not a particular substance. Your body has to convert food into body fat. When you eat lots of sugars or simple carbs (which quickly turn into sugar in your stomach), your body is happy to waste energy converting the other food into body fat because you're rapidly adding energy (sugar) to your blood. While sugar highs aren't exactly real, sugar crashes absolutely are. It's why a big pasta meal can leave you hungry in an hour. So what if you stop eating sugar and simple carbs? You can't put walnuts in your bloodstream. Your body has to take that fat and convert it into body fat, and then that body fat gets converted into blood sugar. It's a lengthy process that costs a lot of energy. It takes a week of dedication to make it work. When you get ketosis in full swing, your body will fuel itself with body fat as it takes time to convert dietary fat into body fat for later. Similarly for dietary cholestoral, you can't take egg yolks and coat your arteries. Your personal cholestoral is produced by your body and is related more to total dietary calorie intake, dietary proportion of saturated fats, and genetic disposition for fat distribution.

Personally, a major benefit from keto is simply being able to confidently turn down all sugar and simple carbs. Beer, cake, cookies, sugary drinks, chips, bread, ice cream, and candy. I can easily convince myself that a little treat won't hurt in a non-keto month but I have poor self control. A little becomes a lot. Part of that is because I'm "cleaning up" carby foods I abstained form during a keto month. But on keto? It's an easy rule to follow since I'm as happy with cheddar as I am with ice cream. While I'll come off for a few months to a year, the monthly keto cycles make my weight chart look like a slinky going down stairs.

Not unless you stop drinking beer, no.

Anything helps, of course. Anything is so much better than nothing.

You are skinnyfat, yes? You don't want to lose weight, you want to add lean mass. Weights are what do that best. Ideally you would want to lift heavy at least thrice a week if you are trying to shape up.

I can only lift once a week lately (lady, mid 50s) but do yoga 4x/week too. It's maintaining me reasonably lean.

I have been where you are (single working parent) and what I did back then was wake up at 5am and run, because that was the only time of day nobody needed anything from me, and running is nearly free, just shoes. It sucked, but the days I ran I did feel better later on, it was worth it overall I think. If there is any way you can wake up a half hour earlier and do something vigorous, and then add weight training once a week I think you will get good improvement. Just maybe not as much mass as you ideally want.

Going from doing nothing to something one day a week will have dramatic effects. But didn't expect it to happen overnight or to have the same effect as going 3 or 4 times a week. Even just doing however many pushups you can once per day is a very good way to start condition yourself so you can handle and enjoy getting into a gym eventually. Sit ups are pretty trash. Six packs are made in the kitchen is a common adage for a reason. If you can't work your core any other way I'd suggest planks over sit ups though. If you can, get a pull-up bar and power blocks. I would strongly recommend intending to get to a gym eventually though. From personal experience having a home gym was a bit of self sabotage

Cook, shower and then I’m exhausted AF.

This probably because you don't exercise. Exercise gives you energy and is an excellent anti depressant. Starting is always the hardest part but you'll have more energy the rest of the day.

And more than anything, even what you're doing, stick with it. Results take time. You'll have days you think it's doing nothing, you'll miss days and think what's the point of starting again, you'll be disappointed with rate of progression and that's always the biggest test.

Do strict keto, the majority of a beer belly is water which bonds with fat at a 3:1 ratio so when you're burning fat as your primary fuel you'll piss half of it out in the first month without any change in physical activity.

Alternative: Teach kids to cook, on the premise of being a good dad. THEN kids cook ALL the meals!

Yeah! I made your life easier!

I agree with the comment saying that 130lbs doesn’t sound overweight, unless you’re 5’0 or under. Does your belly look obviously big to you in photos, or has anyone else ever mentioned it? Your perspective when you look down at your belly will make it look larger to you, so it might only be you that sees your belly as too big.

Keep in mind as well that in any photos of men you see who are body building, they have often dehydrated themselves to make their muscles stand out more. If you’re properly hydrated you’re never going to look like that, even if you exercise every day.

But strengthening your core muscles is really good for your back, so it’s probably not a bad idea to do sit ups and push ups.

What you’re talking about would help, but not as much or as quickly as you’d like.

As others have said, changing your diet would help much more. Beer bellies are correctly called beer bellies because of all the carbs.

Don’t try to change too much at once. This is preventative, and not a major emergency, so you can be a bit kinder to yourself. At first, merely reduce your intake of unhealthy foods. Completely eliminate them later on. Wean yourself off things rather than trying to go cold turkey. Dieting is very much a mental game. When you get used to eating less unhealthy crap, there’s a good chance you’ll crave it less.

Don’t eat mindlessly out of habit or boredom; ask yourself if you’re genuinely hungry, and if there’s a healthier option available (and make sure there is. When you go grocery shopping, buy more healthy snacks to make up for the junk you’ll be buying less of).

You’re very smart for paying attention to this now. It’s much, much easier to adjust your diet now than it is to try and correct things once your weight has become a serious problem.

Lastly, I’m no expert. Search “diet plan for beginners” for more suggestions. Talking to your doctor wouldn’t hurt, either, especially if you’ve got a condition we’re not aware of.

Trying to do a set amount of exercise games in VR helped me get more fit. I'm not good at sticking with something but pretty great at playing the same sections of a video game telling me what movements to do everyday.

Just having things to do/try as exercise everyday was more fun/rewarding for my brain.... But I had to make sure they were exercise too.

Then I'd do more as I got healthier, and eventually I attached weights to my wrists and legs.

But if you're a mechanic you might want to ease into it, because of your back.

P.S also what everyone else said about diet is true... And both options, dietary changes and exercise will leave you feeling tired or lethargic until your body falls into line... So a lot of results come from mental discipline and committing to never missing a day or cheating yourself. Gotta hang in there and do your best to firgive and recover when you faulter.