Everything is leaning out except one place. Your face is thinner, your arms are coming in, your clothes fit better almost everywhere, but the lower belly, the pooch, will not budge. It seems to swing with your stress, your sleep, and your cycle, and no amount of ab work touches it. So you start to wonder if that one stubborn area is ever going to go.
There are two different fats
There are really two groups here. The first is visceral fat. That is the metabolically active, bad fat, the fat wrapped around your organs, and it is what will damage you and eventually kill you. A lot of it you cannot feel, and when you can, it is hard. If you push on it and it is firm, that is visceral fat. You see it on people who look skinny-fat, or on certain builds, a hardened belly, almost a bowling ball ready to pop.
The second is subcutaneous fat. That is anything squishy, the layer at the surface of your midsection, and that is always the last to go. And rightfully so. Your body wants to get rid of the visceral fat first, because that is the dangerous stuff.
You can't order off a menu
There is no telling your body where to take the fat off. You are not ordering off a menu. What typically happens in a deficit is the fat comes off from the top down. You notice your face thinning out first, then your neckline, your shoulders, even your arms. Then it works its way down. By the time it reaches your midsection, the squishy overflow you are still seeing there is the subcutaneous fat, and that is the last to go.
This is why endless ab work and targeting claims do not deliver what people hope for. That has been put to the test. In a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, people did abdominal exercises five days a week for six weeks and saw no reduction in belly fat, because the only thing that lowers it is an overall calorie deficit. What you should start to see is definition near your sternum and your diaphragm, flattening out and looking better, and your clothes and your belt fitting better even while the lower belly is still soft. That is real progress, even though it is not the spot you were staring at.
Your belt is your metabolic scale
The circumference of your waist is one of the best measurements of losing the right kind of fat, and it is also a measure of your metabolic risk, for cardiovascular disease and for diabetes. So if your waist is coming in and you are pulling in another notch on your belt, there is your metabolic scale, right there, instead of standing on a bathroom scale. That will show you progress, and there is really nothing to do about the rest but keep going.
Lose it the right way and your skin comes back
The other thing worth saying is about how you lose it. People who lose weight very aggressively, through other means, put a big stressor on the body, and when the weight comes off they are left with a lot of excess skin and a flabby result. If you lose it the proper way, through natural movement and consistency, your skin tightens up and you have less loose skin. I would rather have a little bit of a gut and let my skin retract as I lose the weight than have excess skin just hanging there. Doing it consistently gives your body the chance to recover.
Ask how it got there
You have to remember how the weight went on in the first place. Was it stress? Was it sleep? Was it nutrition? Were you nutrient and vitamin deficient? These are all pillars in your metabolic arena, which means you neglected your body somewhere, and now you are trying to pay it forward and give it back. That takes time.
For me, going from a heart attack and type 2 diabetes, both diagnosed for the first time within a few days, I realized looking back that I had neglected my body for a couple of decades. I knew the journey back was not going to be easy, and it was not going to be fast.
So when you see fat on your body, or you are stressed, or you are not sleeping well, those are warning signs. They are telling you to take control back, hand it to your body, and fix up your lifestyle, because it is lifestyle that got you here. Those are small, incremental steps in the right direction, and it does not happen overnight. Looking for a quick fix just adds more stress to your body, and it is not consistent, so you fall back and gain the weight again. That is the yo-yo effect. People join the gym every New Year to lose the holiday weight, and most of those memberships fall off by February or March, because they cannot keep to it. You have to find something that aligns with the interests you already have and the movement you actually enjoy.
The lower belly is the last to go, and that is normal. Watch your belt, not the mirror, and keep going.
~ Foster
By Foster
Questions people ask about this
Can I target my belly fat with ab exercises?
No, you cannot spot-reduce it. There is no telling your body where to take fat off. In one study, people did abdominal exercises five days a week for six weeks and saw no reduction in belly fat, because the only thing that lowers it is an overall deficit.
Ab work builds the muscle underneath, but it does not burn the fat sitting over it. What reveals your midsection is lowering your total body fat, not crunches.
Why is my lower belly the last place to lose fat when everything else is leaning out?
There are two different fats down there. The squishy layer at the surface is subcutaneous fat, and it is always the last to go. Underneath, wrapped around your organs, is visceral fat, the hard and dangerous kind.
Your body is smart. It burns off the dangerous visceral fat first, and fat generally comes off from the top down, your face and arms before your midsection. So the lower belly being last is completely normal, and it is not a sign you are doing anything wrong.
If I can't trust the mirror or the scale, how do I know I'm making progress?
Watch your belt. The circumference of your waist is one of the best measures of losing the right kind of fat, and it is also a direct read on your metabolic risk for heart disease and diabetes.
If your waist is coming in and you are pulling in another notch on your belt, that is your real metabolic scale. It beats the bathroom scale and the pooch in the mirror every time.