The Best Way To Lose Stubborn Fat

If I had a magic wand I would wave it and make all of our clients lose their initial pounds in their bellies and thighs.

We’d have a never ending stream of praise and testimonials and we’d raise our prices to $1,000 per month because of this superpower. Then Blakley would buy a new MasterCraft Ski Boat and I would buy the fanciest T-shirts on the Rogue website.

Ok, back to reality.

The fact is that usually the places we want to lose fat the most are the places that it seems to melt off of last.

For men that tends to be our bellies and our love handles. Even at my leanest at ~8-9% body fat I could grab some fat on my love handles even though the rest of my body was pretty lean.

Ladies tend to lose their last few lbs of fat in their hips and thighs.

So why the heck would this be?

The fact is, not all fat cells in our body are created equally.

See when we are eating fewer calories than we are burning (a negative energy balance) our bodies know to go after stored fat to make up that energy difference. We release stored fat as fatty acids (lipolysis) and then we burn those fatty acids as energy (oxidation). To get this process going our bodies produce chemicals called catecholamines which attach to receptors on fat cells to free their energy.

Remember how we said that not all fat cells are the same?

The fat cells in our stomachs, thighs, and hips are not as sensitive to these catecholamines as other parts of our bodies because of the specific receptors in the cells.

Bummer, right?

I know what you’re thinking. What about doing some different exercises to get some targeted fat loss in those problem areas? I mean, I’ve seen (Insert Instagram Fitness Guru Influencer Here) talk about spot-reducing fat in my belly!?!?

You know we always keep it real even if it means a little tough love, so here’s the real deal.

You cannot spot reduce fat with specific exercises.

I’m sorry. I really am. I wish doing an extra thousand leg raises or crunches would make the fat melt off of that area prematurely but it just isn’t true. Just like you can’t pig out for a week and tell your body to store those extra calories as bigger biceps or calves, you cannot trick your body into burning fat in specific places. It’s gonna do it’s own thang.

Along those same lines, there are not special foods that can cause you to burn more fat or burn fat in specific places. Again, I’m really sorry.

The fact that certain fat cells are more resistant to shrinking than others doesn’t mean that all hope is lost, it just means they will take longer to disappear.

If you’re consistently eating in a caloric deficit you will eventually lose that fat.

One thing to watch out for is THINKING that you’re in a caloric deficit when in fact you are not. The two most common things we find in relation to this are:

First, you’re not in a deficit because you’re not tracking your food intake closely enough. Maybe you’re eyeballing, rounding off, eating lots of processed foods that aren’t tracked accurately, eating at restaurants a lot or grabbing bites and not keeping track of them. These things add up and can erase a deficit.

Secondly, your metabolic rate may have slowed down (burn less calories) because of a long exposure to a caloric deficit. This is tied to your weight decreasing as you lose fat also. Having an experienced coach that understand how the body adapts to being in a deficit can be helpful in this process also.

But remember, all hope is not lost! We always aim to leave you with some helpful information in these posts so here you go.

First off, if you are just starting out on your fat loss journey, you should stick with the tried and true basics. Get yourself into a caloric deficit by monitoring your food intake daily and tracking your body weight. Make sure that the scale is dropping and stick with it for longer than you think.

If you’ve mastered these basics and made great progress and are still struggling with that stubborn fat that just won’t seem to fall off we can dive in a bit deeper. If you’ve hit a plateau and still have fat to lose it might be time to look at a period of caloric maintenance of 4-6 weeks to let the metabolism and hunger hormones reset AND THEN go after a fairly aggressive short-term deficit of 20-25%. Research has shown aggressive deficits like this to be effective for stubborn fat loss, however they are tough to maintain as hunger is typically pretty darned high.

But… if you’re going to take this aggressive approach with the large deficit we have a couple other recommendations that we want to make clear.

If you’re concerned about maintaining as much of your muscle mass during this process, you need to watch your protein intake while in this phase. You should be getting 1-1.2g of protein per pound that you weigh to ensure that you lose as little lean mass (muscle) as possible.

Another take away from this post is that if you are still trying to work off some stubborn fat there are things you can manipulate in your training to help yourself.

#1 - Lift Heavy Weights

Of course “heavy” is relative to you, but doing the big compound lifts like the squat, overhead press, deadlift, and bench press with weights in the 70-90% of your max range. This helps you maintain your strength AND muscle mass while in a deficit, and it burns a heck of a lot more calories than low intensity steady state cardio.

#2 - Do High Intensity Cardio

A 2011 study done at the University of Western Ontario tested 2 groups. The first group did 4-6 sets of short sprints while the second group did an hour of low intensity walking on the treadmill. Guess which group lost more fat? The short, intense group. Talk about a better use of your time! We don’t recommend doing ALL of your cardio training in the “intensity zone”, but for fat loss it is the most effective.

The last tip we want to leave you with on this stubborn fat topic is to watch your stress.

Working out too much, not sleeping, and not dealing with life stress appropriately affects fat loss.

It’s just a fact.

If you’re always stressed out, not sleeping well, and working out every day of the week you’re going to have a hard time losing those last few lbs.

Make rest and de-stressing a priority and watch that stubborn fat disappear.

Ok, let’s zoom back out here and look at the big picture.

If you’re carrying a lot of extra body fat you’re putting yourself at increased risk for many different chronic diseases from heart disease to diabetes to cancer.

You should care about that because it’s in your control.

Stick to the basics.

Hire a coach if you need help, but get started on it now.

If you’ve been at this a while and have conquered the 99%, THEN use the tips in the article to make the final push.

Focus on your overall health first, then you can get hardcore into the details.

Watch out for people making unrealistic claims and blowing smoke. They are out there.

As always, drop us an email if you have any questions.