Wondering Why Abdominal Fat Is Usually the Last to Come Off?

Let’s delineate between the two types of abdominal fat, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat, for starters. Subcutaneous fat is the fat under the skin (think muffin tops and tops of the thighs). While it may be your enemy, it can have protective effects. Visceral fat is not something you can touch; instead, it is the fat that pads the organs (think “beer belly”). Visceral fat also increases the risks of Type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other conditions. At our weight loss clinic in San Diego, we have helped many patients lose weight as well as reduce the need for their prescription medications for such health problems with the help of the Ideal Protein diet.

Every person has both types of fat and in different proportions. Genetics influence your propensity to where you store fat. In addition to that, diet and lifestyle significantly impact how you gain, store, and lose fat.

Abdominal fat may feel like it’s the most difficult to lose, especially when it’s your “problem area.” However, it initially comes off a bit faster than subcutaneous fat. Aside from helping your clothes fit much better, shedding visceral fat when losing weight is also good for your health as it improves the levels of sugar and lipids in the blood.

Losing abdominal fat

According to a 2008 study published in the International Journal of Obesity, visceral fat is more metabolically and biologically active than subcutaneous fat. When you first cut down your calorie intake to lose weight, your body may start using the fat in your abdomen to produce energy due to its closeness to the liver. But as you keep losing weight, abdominal fat loss reduces. It’s because your body begins to use the subcutaneous fat stores in other regions of the body for energy.

Diet and Exercise: why guidance matter?

A combination of regular exercise and a healthy diet might be the best at helping you lose abdominal fat. A study conducted in 2015 and published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism examined the effects of diet and exercise on the loss of visceral fat in postmenopausal women living with type II diabetes. In this study, researchers found that combining aerobic activity like jogging or brisk walking with a calorie-restricted diet helped the women shed 13% of their abdominal fat compared to 7.5% with diet only.

Important to note that this study was focused on aerobic exercise to help achieve weight loss versus high intensity (anaerobic) exercise. This study reflects common knowledge in exercise science, meaning to burn belly fat, walking, and other lower intensity exercises to mobilize fat as fuel. In addition to helping you lose weight, exercising at this intensity has cardiovascular benefits and also helps with stress relief.

We often find that people who come to our weight loss clinic in San Diego, usually focus more on a strenuous exercise regime to lose weight rather than scrutinizing their diet. Remember, too much cardio or too much high-intensity cardio can have the opposite effect. It may even backfire and trigger the body into storing more fat. This is why we focus on losing fat for our weight loss dieters while maintaining lean body mass.

How do you lose abdominal fat?

Losing abdominal fat may be easier than you think. While it is impossible to spot reduction, reducing your overall body fat percentage will help you lose belly fat. Let’s review a few key points essential to losing belly fat.

1. Caloric deficit

A caloric deficit is vital to fat loss, and believe it or not, too much of a deficit is not going to speed up your fat loss. Every person has a unique Resting Metabolic Rate, and no calculator or trainer can accurately predict that. Determining how much of a caloric deficit you can create is simple. Metabolic testing will let you know how many calories to eat to accelerate your fat loss. Calories are calories in a lab, but the macronutrient ratio is also a factor in the human body.

2. Adequate protein

Consuming sufficient protein is vital to losing belly fat faster. When we diet, indiscriminately cutting calories may backfire if you are not consuming enough protein. While the number on the scale may drop, your body fat percentage can rise, and the rate you lose can slow. We see this with people who do a DIY keto diet or commonly with dieters coming off popular weight loss programs like weight watchers and Jenny Craig. Eating the right amount of protein helps to maintain your muscle mass, which is the metabolic engine that supports your fat loss. Keeping this fire stoked is essential to keep you losing when one a diet. If you hit a plateau, evaluate how much protein is in your weight loss plan.

3. Exercise

Harder is not necessarily better. Movement is vital for fat loss, and exercise has a couple of essential considerations – intensity, volume, and type. The lower the intensity of exercise burns fewer calories but a more significant proportion of fat to carbohydrates. Each person has a sweet spot for targeted fat burning.

The goal is to increase the range in which you can effectively burn fat. The volume of exercise is also essential and specific to intensity. Too much high-intensity exercise can halt fat burning and trigger fat storage – think spin class 5 days a week. When performing lower-intensity exercises like walking or hiking, it’s vital to include more prolonged bouts to increase fat burning. Long weekend walks or hikes can be relaxing and effective tactics in your fat-burning strategy.

Lastly, don’t skip the strength training. Cardio increases calorie burn while exercising but does not increase post-workout calorie burning like strength training. Forget bodybuilder workouts or high-intensity Crossfit-style strength training while you are trying to lose weight. Instead, opt for strength training workouts like barre or Les Mills BodyPump. As a committed weight loss guide, we also suggest using many of the at-home strength training workouts available on apps for losing weight. To name a few, Peloton, Beach Body, and even YouTube. Mix it up and keep yourself engaged and your body guessing.

4. Dietary changes

Depending on your starting place, changing your diet may be one of the most critical steps to successfully losing belly fat. Obvious steps include eliminating sugars and junk food from the diet. Based on your metabolic portrait, you may need a specific macronutrient profile to help you lose weight fast, as oxidation rates are influenced differently in each person.

Like different cars require different types of fuel, so do other human bodies. Determining your biologically suitable diet is most important in maintaining your new physique. For most, following a low-fat, low carb ketogenic diet, like Ideal Protein, can take the guesswork out of making significant changes to help you lose fat faster and more predictably.

Conclusion

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), losing belly fat is more than just aesthetics. A waist to hip ratio greater than .85 in women and .90 in men is associated with increasing your risk factors for chronic diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

If your fat loss efforts stall or hit a plateau, it may be time to look to an expert, like a nutritionist, to help you figure out what needs to shift. If you’re interested in a weight loss consultation and wish to know how a healthy diet can help you lose fat, contact our weight loss clinic in San Diego, California to schedule a complimentary 15-minute appointment.

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