Any tips on how to lower belly fat? I cannot lose it no matter what. I have a sedentary lifestyle so that doesn't help!
YES! Brace yourself, this is a long one haha...
It’s a common fitness myth that you can “target” fat loss. I die a little bit inside every time I see stuff online that says “lose arm fat with these 5 moves!” or “lose belly fat in 2 weeks!”... you can’t... otherwise you’d see morbidly obese dudes with six-packs because they do crunches all day in between their binges.
Our bodies carry fat in different ways for a number of reasons. Stubborn belly fat for women can be hormonal (birth control, or Cortisol - a stress hormone) but the majority of the time this is lifestyle based.
There’s 2 very different fats in our midsections: subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat is body fat; that’s the fat rolls that we can visibly see. Visceral fat is a hormonal fat underneath the muscle that lies around our heart and abdominal organs. It’s an extremely dangerous fat - when you see middle aged men with “beer bellies” and they’re keeling over from a heart attack at 40-50 years old... that’s visceral fat! or party girls with skinny arms and legs but puffy midsections... visceral fat.
Visceral Fat has been linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s, Type 2 Diabetes, various cancers, heart attack, stroke, and hormonal disruptions which causes you to hold on to even MORE body fat... It’s nasty stuff!
How do we lose visceral fat? You made a great observation about your own lifestyle!... A Harvard study a couple years ago found that about 70% of visceral fat loss is associated with exercise. Losing body fat is the opposite - diet is 70-80% of what works for body fat loss - but as long as you’re staying consistently active, visceral fat will come off quickly and stay off.
That other 30% of visceral fat loss is going to come from diet, primarily alcohol consumption (HUGE trigger for both visceral fat AND body fat - it immediately stunts your thyroid stimulating hormones hence slowing metabolism), tobacco has also been linked to higher visceral fat, as well as stress, and sleep quality.
SO... How to lose belly fat? It’s all about finding that balance of both diet (BF) and exercise (VF). I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear - we all know diet and exercise is the answer - but it’s the honest truth if you’re looking at fat loss as a science. There’s no miracle pill or crash diet that will do what this will.
We don’t get to choose where fat comes off, some people are apple shaped, some people are pear shaped, and when we have that last 10 pounds of stubborn fat to lose around the belly, it’s all about cleaning up our lifestyles from toxins like booze and tobacco, eating a minor caloric deficit, getting enough sleep, staying active, reducing stress.
