how do i just lose belly fat

in the past 1 year i have been trying to lose my belly fat by
1) eating less calories
2) eating more low calorie food like fruits and vege
3) do cardio
4) lift

and i have lost 6 kg from then and now

i am now smaller in size overall. sure my belly fat is smaller now, my body fat percentage went from 21 % to 19%

but i have grown smaller overall, my biceps are smaller , my jaws are more defined, my thigh is smaller too

and my belly fat is still there, albet its smaller now, no where close to a visible 6 packs

i just want to lose belly fat without other parts of the body getting smaller

i know spot reduction doesnt work

but how do i achieve my 6 packs goal if i cant spot reduce? if i go on diet everything gets smaller. if i gain my belly fat will probably increase too... so its a catch 22 situation..

Reply 1

ALEreapp

21

If you are a girl, a visible 6 pack is incredibly difficult to achieve and actually most girls have to resort to insanely unhealthy means to achieve it. You have to be insanely lean so basically pure muscle. The problem with girls is we require a certain level of body fat to have things like our period, so many female body builders will lose their period in order to reach that goal.
This video puts it perfectly into perspective https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYAXs8c3/

Reply 2

Reality Check

22

Original post by HucktheForde

in the past 1 year i have been trying to lose my belly fat by
1) eating less calories
2) eating more low calorie food like fruits and vege
3) do cardio
4) lift

and i have lost 6 kg from then and now

i am now smaller in size overall. sure my belly fat is smaller now, my body fat percentage went from 21 % to 19%

but i have grown smaller overall, my biceps are smaller , my jaws are more defined, my thigh is smaller too

and my belly fat is still there, albet its smaller now, no where close to a visible 6 packs

i just want to lose belly fat without other parts of the body getting smaller

i know spot reduction doesnt work

but how do i achieve my 6 packs goal if i cant spot reduce? if i go on diet everything gets smaller. if i gain my belly fat will probably increase too... so its a catch 22 situation..

Most men find their abs don't become visible until you hit the 10-12% body fat range, so you've got quite a way to go with reducing your fat mass before you could expect to see them. Belly fat is the last fat store to be used up in most men, due to the way we store fat: it's a bit like a 'first in, last out' principle, where we tend to gain weight around our middles in the first place, and lose it from there at the end.

If you've lost noticeable amounts of lean tissue from your limbs, that would suggest that you are dieting too severely in terms of energy restriction, or that you're not eating a good diet during your weight-loss, and maybe not enough good-quality protein. Doing the numbers, if you were 80kg to begin with, then 16.8kg of that is fat mass (80 x 21% fat). If you've lost 6kg and are now 19% fat, that means that you're currently 74kg, and ≈14.1kg fat. Thus, you have lost 6kg, of which only 2.7kg is fat - this is only 45% fat lost of total weight, which is quite low. You'd normally aim for about 70% of the weight lost to be fat mass.

These numbers tell me that you need to increase your energy consumption a bit, eat a good, balanced diet which is still energy-restricted, but includes plenty of good-quality lean protein, in order to improve the ratio between fat mass loss and lean tissue loss.

Reply 3

Angry cucumber

20

If you want abs you just have to keep dieting down and down.
Most men have abs around 12%. Some a bit higher, some a bit lower. Muscle size is important though, bigger muscles come through sooner

Reply 4

Veet Voojagig

11

Belly fat is always the last to go, and as others have pointed out, you will only start to lose the belly fat once your body fat percentage drops below a certain level. It's just nature's way of keeping emergency fat stores at your centre of gravity because it is easier to carry excess weight there. For that reason, your body will lose fat from other parts of the body first, but it is going to hang on to that belly fat for dear life.

Reality Check is right. You need to follow a balanced diet and then keep very active. You need to up the ante with your overall exercise and activity levels. Building lean muscle is the key, rather than overly restricting calories. Once your body realises it needs to kick the metabolism up a gear, the rest tends to fall into place after that.

I run ultra marathons and eat constantly. Never needed to diet, and let me tell you, it feels great knowing that you can eat loads and still be lean. Don't be afraid of carbs, and take in plenty of protein too. Basically a balanced diet in sufficient quantities to fuel your increased activity.

Reply 5

hausofmiren

1

Running helped me, I feel like whole body excersises reduce something...

Original post by HucktheForde

in the past 1 year i have been trying to lose my belly fat by
1) eating less calories
2) eating more low calorie food like fruits and vege
3) do cardio
4) lift

and i have lost 6 kg from then and now

i am now smaller in size overall. sure my belly fat is smaller now, my body fat percentage went from 21 % to 19%

but i have grown smaller overall, my biceps are smaller , my jaws are more defined, my thigh is smaller too

and my belly fat is still there, albet its smaller now, no where close to a visible 6 packs

i just want to lose belly fat without other parts of the body getting smaller

i know spot reduction doesnt work

but how do i achieve my 6 packs goal if i cant spot reduce? if i go on diet everything gets smaller. if i gain my belly fat will probably increase too... so its a catch 22 situation..

Seek the advice of a Personal Trainer

how do i just lose belly fat

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you