Losing weight can be difficult for a lot of people, but what if you don’t want to lose any more weight because you already feel skinny. Instead you want to lose belly fat without losing weight because you’re already at a decent weight and if you lose any more you may look like a bean pole.
I call this the “skinny fat” dilemma. You are scared to lose any more weight because your arms and legs are already thin, but your stomach sticks out like you’re pregnant. Having extra chub on your belly can be really embarrassing, especially if you want to impress someone but you’re scared they will see what is hiding behind the shirt.
I know you have tried various
diet and exercise programs and you may be scared if you lose weight, you may lose your lean, toned
muscle which you have worked hard for. This can really be a tough situation to be in.
How Can I Lose Belly Fat Without Losing Weight?
You have unwanted belly fat and are already slim or skinny. You don’t want to lose any more weight because you’ll be too skinny but you need to lose your belly fat because it’s too much.
Every method of dieting and exercise causes you to lose weight, but now you’re at the point where you don’t need to lose more weight. You just need to get rid of the belly fat. So far nothing seems to work and you are scared that if you continue what you’re doing you will still have excess belly fat and be even skinnier. This will cause you to look weird and be undesirable to the opposite sex.
Why Exercise is Not Working for You ?
You’re tired of having all the belly fat so you do more crunches and abs workouts. If anything, this makes matters worse. Instead of crunching away the belly bulge your stomach begins to stick out more because you’ve now developed
abdominal muscles hiding underneath a nice layer of stubborn fat.
We turn towards exercise as a solution to lose fat because it’s something actionable that we can do right now; It’s “in our hands”. Sometimes we get caught up in exercise as the only magic bullet and start to overdo it. This is when we fall into the overtraining trap.
Logically we think that if we do as many crunches per day the belly fat is sure to fall off. The problem with this theory is crunches won’t burn fat. Instead all we are doing is building up the abdominal muscles. We are adding muscle to our abs and causing them to stick out more. Yes your abs are getting stronger, but you still have a layer of fat covering those strong
ripped abs!
When we don’t see any results from
ab workouts, we normally turn towards doing more cardio like running, and also try programs like Insanity and P90X to get rid of the belly fat. Now I don’t think that these programs are a bad thing, but for your situation, they won’t help. Doing tons of cardio will not help you lose the stubborn belly fat. In some cases you actually make it worse. If you are doing
long distance running, you will be burning a lot of your hard earned muscle. Just look at cross country runners.
Why “Dieting” is Not Working for You
So when crunches and cardio fail, we normally resort to diet. The word “diet” can have many different meanings to a lot of people. My opinion of “diet” would be a healthy balanced nutritious eating style. In this case I will refer to diet in a negative light. Most people will normally cut back on how much they eat thinking that the less they eat the smaller they will get. They think “I can’t get fat if I’m not eating”. This is where most of our problems really begin. We restrict our calories in hopes of starving our fat away.
I see a couple problems when it comes to people trying to restrict or lower their calories to lose belly fat. They restrict their calories too much or they only eat 1-2 times a day and eat too much of the wrong foods in those meals.
I call this extreme dieting. It’s when someone lowers their total daily calorie intake way too low for their body to maintain what it needs. Or when they eat 1-2 times and day and eat too much in those meals. If all this sounds failure, keep reading on, I have your solution.
So now the problem is you’re not eating enough food, PLUS you are now over training. A Double NO-NO for fat loss.
When you repeat this process for some time your body comes to a catabolic state where it’s eating its own muscle because of the extreme combo. The body has to have a source of energy and a way to protect itself. The energy source normally comes from food, or glucose. When glucose is depleted, your body will then use your stored fat as an energy source.
This sounds great except fat is what protects your organs so your body is reluctant to give that up. After stored fat, your body then breaks down your proteins into amino acids. The amino acids are then released into your blood steam and your liver converts it to glucose (sugar). Your body will then begin to use its muscle as an energy source. Your body can spare muscle but not fat. This is why we fall in the skinny fat zone.
Workout Less and Eat More
If you want to get your body out of starvation mode you will need to work out less and eat more. Yes you heard me right. I know that sounds like the complete opposite of what you’ve always heard, but right now you are trapped in a vicious cycle and need to get out.
Limit Your Time in the Gym
If you’re someone who loves doing cardio and taking as many fitness classes as possible, chances are you are burning way too many calories. I know some people who would spend two hours in the gym!
What you need to do is limit your time in the gym and be specific about what you do. I would limit cardio session to 2-3 times a week for a max of 30 min. I would also start doing strength training 2-4 times a week for a max of 45 minutes. The time you spend in the gym should be focused and intense.
Increase Your Meals and Calories
First I would look at how many times a day you are eating. If you’re the person eating 1-2 times a day, you need more meals in your day to assure you’ll get enough calories without eating too much in one meal.
Try eating 4-6 times a day about every 3 hours. By doing this you will help keep your blood sugar levels stable which will help you from gaining fat. By eating 4-6 times a day your meals will be smaller and you’ll be able to get more calories in throughout the day without gaining fat.
As far as how much to eat, I can’t exactly state that due to all the different people. Everyone has different needs. As a rule of thumb I would eat to where I’m just under content. So in all the meals you eat you want to walk away feeling like you did eat but you could have ate more. I never want to get to the point where I’m full and definitely don’t want to get to the point where I’m stuffed. That’s a guarantee to storing body fat.
Make the Switch
If you’re not already eating healthy, I would make the switch to do that. The last thing you want is to be changing your exercise and diet plan and be eating all the wrong foods. Foods that are high in preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and other chemicals should be avoided. Food that is genetically modified should be taken out of your diet as well. These types of damaging foods may be the biggest reason for people getting fat and sick.
If you want a complete list of power foods, moderate foods, and damaging foods you can download my eBook for free at (insert URL).
By following the actions steps below you will be able to start losing belly fat without losing weight and gaining fat.
5 Strategic Steps You Can Take:
Step 1– Eat 4-6 times a day, every 3 hours
Step 2– Eat more calories per day.
Step 3-Avoid damaging foods and focus on power foods
Step 4– Do strength training 2-4 times a week for a max of 45 minutes.
Step 5– Limit cardio session to 2-3 times a week for a max of 30 min.
Your body has to know that you are not going to starve it and that it will get enough food to be safe. If your body knows that you’re not giving it enough calories it will then turn on its defense mechanism and store as much fat as it needs for survival. Most of this fat will be stored in your belly.
So if you want to lose the flabby belly without losing weight, follow the 5 actions steps I have given. This will help you turn your body’s defense mechanism off by eating enough calories and workout less so you’re not burning up all the calories you consume. If you keep working out too much and continue to limit your calories, the belly bulge problem will continue to get worse.
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