How to Get Rid of Stubborn Fat | Problem Areas
Almost everyone, male or female, has a "problem area" where they seem to deposit fat. Women want to know how to slim their thighs and how to get a flat stomach, while men want a "six pack". Problem areas often tend to be the places that fat loss occurs last on, i.e. the last 10lbs. Research shows that regional fat loss depends on your sex (not your workout routine!).
In women the first place the fat is stored, tends to be the last place the fat comes off (unlike men).
Where the fat goes:
Women store fat in their lower bodies, this includes the upper thighs, hips and butt (thunder thighs, saddlebags, muffin top?!) and also on the back of their upper arms. However, after the menopause this changes when oestrogen levels decrease and women start to accumulate more fat in the abdomen (like men). Men tend to store fat around their waist and thus struggle with abdominal fat, which includes their lower abs, lower back, and the sides of their waist.
If your weight keeps rising, you simply contiunue to deposit fat all over your body, including your face and even hands.
Where the fat comes off:
Women are inclined to experience fat loss first in their trunk and arms, then lastly their lower body (hips and thighs). Generally weight loss is most noticeable early on in areas where there is little fat, such as the clavicles. Men tend to lose fat first from their trunk, followed by their arms and then their legs. This means that although men tend to store abdominal fat, it is also the first place they lose it.
Why Do Women Struggle to Lose Fat from Their Lower Body?
- Fat cells have two types of receptor:
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Alpha-receptor – inhibits the breakdown of fat
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Beta-receptor – stimulates the breakdown of fat
Women have more inhibitory alpha-receptors in their hip and thigh region than in their abdominal region.
- Women have 3 to 5 times more of an enzyme (lipoprotein lipase) that stimulates fat storage in their lower body than their upper body.
- An enzyme (hormone-sensitive lipase) that stimulates fat breakdown is very slow in releasing fat from the lower abdomen in women.
It is thought that the predisposition of women to storing fat in the lower body is for protection of their reproductive organs.
Why all the information? You are not the only one! It is not impossible to lose the fat! You cannot spot reduce. You cannot, no matter how many gurus claim, pick an exercise and lose fat only from one place. In order for you to lose weight in your problem area you have to lose fat everywhere. Your consolation? By the time you lose your ‘stubborn’ fat, the rest of your body will be looking great.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
1. Lose Stubborn Fat: DISCIPLINE
For you to lose the "stubborn" fat, lose the last 10lbs or lose your "problem" area you need a vast desire, backed up with concrete permanent lifestyle changes. Often when we are almost there, we start to coast and get less strict in our nutritional and exercise program. However, you need to do the opposite. It is now that you have to step everything up. The last bit of weight loss requires you to push harder, be stricter and be more conscientious. It also requires a little patience.
There is only one way to get your ‘stubborn’ area to look great: the right combination of proper diet, cardiovascular exercise, and weight training. In women, often the upper body fat stores have to be almost depleted before the lower body really becomes active.
The best way to change the size of your body is through caloric deficit (diet and cardiovascular exercise). The best way to change the shape of your body is through resistance training. If you want slimmer thighs, flat abs or skinny legs, take note:
2. Lose Stubborn Fat: EXERCISE
Research suggests that while dieting leads to a greater reduction in visceral fat (fat around the organs), exercise has a greater effect on subcutaneous fat (fat below the skin). Subcutaneous fat has the greatest impact on the way you look. Furthermore, the greater the exercise frequency, the greater the loss of subcutaneous fat. Translated this means that shorter sessions (e.g. 30 mins) 6x a week, are more effective than longer sessions (e.g. 60 min) 3x a week. Thus, if you really want to step it up, incorporate 2 exercise sessions into your day, e.g. each 30 minutes long.
You should only be worrying about "stubborn fat", if the rest of your body is looking good, you are slim and there are only one or two areas that you are unhappy with. If you still have a lot of weight to lose you shouldn’t be losing sleep over fat thighs or flabby abs – yet.
If you haven’t been working out but you’re in good shape and have now decided that you want to get rid of some flabby bits, then you’ll probably lose fat in your "problem area" without too much difficulty by simply reducing your calories and exercising. However, if you have been losing weight for some time through diet and exercise and are nearly there, you are going to have to step things up A LOT and change a few things (and NOT optimistically stay the course). If you exercise regularly, increase your workout session by about 15 minutes AND change your workout routine. Changing the type of exercise you do, the duration, frequency and/ or the intensity gives your metabolism an extra boost and helps to burn extra calories. Your workouts should be at least 30 minutes in duration (unless you are doing interval training).
If you are really committed and have already been working out more than 5 days a week, you can add another session to your day. Try not to workout for much longer than 60 minutes, since the risk of injury increases considerably. Also, your weight loss benefits are greater if you add a second workout to your day, as opposed to having one long workout.
When you start a workout routine, the weights and exercise are challenging and you lose weight. However, after a time, your body cleverly adapts to make the stress (i.e. exercise) you are exerting on your body less demanding and your workout becomes less productive (you lose less weight or none at all). Combine four groups of exercise into your weekly workout program:
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Aerobics (cardiovascular exercise of moderate intensity and long duration)
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Interval training. By mixing intense bursts with slower periods, intervals torch calories faster than exercising at a steady pace. A study found that after only two weeks of interval training, women burned 36% more fat!
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Cross-training (combining several exercises to work various parts of the body)
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This will help you inject a variety and variability that will help overcome any weight loss plateau and start shifting the last few pounds of body fat in those stubborn areas.
3. Lose Stubborn Fat: DIET
You need to get strict with your diet, which doesn’t simply mean reducing your caloric intake further.
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Eliminate all processed food (simple carbohydrates).
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Low-glycaemic nutrition (complex carbohydrates and protein).
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Good supplementation.
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Lots of water.
Macronutrient Ratios: Carbohydrates, Protein, Fats
Total calories determine HOW MUCH weight a person gains or loses. Macronutrient ratios influence WHAT a person gains or loses. What does this mean? Macronutrient ratios are important if you are going to lose fat and retain/ gain muscle tissue and not just lose weight (i.e. both fat and muscle loss). The difference: thin shapeless legs (lose fat and muscle) and shapely thin legs (lose fat and retain muscle).
Try manipulating the ratio of macronutrients in your diet:
- LOW FAT diets tend to be successful, in terms of weight loss, in the obese.
- LOW CARBOHYDRATE diets are great for weight loss in women who are already relatively lean already.
Analyze your Diet
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If you have been on a weight loss plan, it may be that you have become a little relaxed with your program. Try keeping a food diary for a week, writing down what you plan to eat for the day and ticking it off as you go along. This should make you more conscious of what you’re eating and help you regain some control.
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If you have successfully been losing weight through low calorie dieting and now reached a weight loss plateau, you may have triggered your starvation protection mechanism. Make sure that you haven’t lowered your calorie intake too much.
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Often, when someone loses enough body fat, so that they are only complaining of one or two "stubborn" areas of fat, they are actually suffering with the effects of an excessively restricive diet. This meBy the time someone loses enough fat overall to be down to that last localized “pocket” (the place they put it on first), most people have caused metabolic and hormonal damage from overly restrictive dieting. THAT is what makes the last fat harder to lose; not because the thigh/butt/tricep/ab fat cells themselves are more stubborn, but because you’re simply not burning as many calories as you used to.
4. BELIEVE!
Our beliefs really do affect how we behave. If you believe "I can never get slim thighs" or "I can never lose my final 10lbs", chances are that you really wont. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Behavior is determined in part by your perception and the meaning you ascribe to the situations you are in, rather than by the situations themselves. Once you convince yourself that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, you will take very real actions in consequence. We behave in a way that makes our belief a reality. However, if you think with absolute certainty "In one month I would have lost my last 10 pounds" you will work to make that belief a reality. This is a very real and there is much study on this topic of sociology. Now, you can understand it, turn it to your advantage and make it work for you, or you can ignore it and let it control you. This does not apply just to weight loss, but all aspects of your life. Spend some time analyzing your beliefs and perceptions - it will be worth your while.
