In reply to Fuerteman:
> If you are burning more calories than you are taking in will your body always take excess fat and turn it into Carbs / sugars etc. or will it take muscle before fat in some circumstances?
Keeping things simple, whilst you have fats and carbs available your body will use these for moderate exercise. Once you go into intense exercise (long duration or very high intensity) your body may start to metabolise proteins if your muscle carbohydrate stores become depleted. As I say, keeping it simple. If you eat properly and don't overtrain this shoudln't be a problem.
> The main point of my question is a friend of mine (a Doctor) told me that there are certain fats that your body will always store around the stomach and unless you reduce or eliminate these types of fats there will always be a degree of fat around your stomach.
He is sort of correct. It's not fats that are the real problem though, but more likely carbs, especially simple carbs (processed carbs such as refined sugar, biscuits, white rice etc) that if not used are converted into fats and, in males, stored around the stomach (a process that happens more easily with age unfortunately). Visceral fat (as it is known) is a leading indicator of overweight and obesity related disease and illness in males.
Goods fats are good for you. So are carbs in moderation. The problem comes when you eat more carbs than the body can store so it converts them to fat.
Personally I eat plenty of carbs on exercise days, and recovery days after intense exercise, but limit them on rest days. It's a balance that works for me as I don't have a regular training plan as such. I have a higher fat diet now (good, natural fats from nuts, organic whole milk, olive oil, etc), which fuels day-to-day activities and moderate exercise sessions, and top it up with carbs when doing more intense sessions.
Keep running, keep eating at a small calorie deficit (500 calories a day as a rough guide) and the fat will come off. It's a slow process around the gut though. Forget about the 6 pack at your age though, it'll take way too strict a diet to achieve!
