If you are like most of the population there is an area of your body that seems to store weight no matter how much you focus on it. For many this area is stubborn belly fat. You may be blessed with a small waist however maybe it is your thighs or butt that are your major concern areas. This concern is so popular that it seems that you see it addressed in every magazine, weight or fitness blog, fitness advertisements, etc. There are many “solutions” to this seemingly impossible task and yet if you are like many people out there you have tried many of them and did not see the results that were promised. There are “belly burning” diets, “tummy toning” exercises and even “magic pills” that you can take to eliminate that stubborn belly fat once and for all. Sure, if any of those things really worked than this issue would have been solved a long time ago and people could move on to other areas of concern.
If these “magic” solutions do not work than why are they so popular? It is important to understand that there are two reasons why your belly may appear to be large. It may be due to fat, due to bloating or maybe even both. The good news is “stomach bloat” is very easy to get rid of and can even be magically fixed overnight. Some easy ways to get rid of stomach bloating are increasing your hydration (drink plenty of water), limit your sodium intake, increase your fiber intake, get adequate amounts of sleep and try and reduce your stress levels. There are many great tips out there that will eliminate your stomach bloat and shrink your waistline quickly if bloating is the culprit. How can you tell if your problem is stomach fat or stomach bloat? One easy way to tell the difference is the stomach bloat often appears to be hard so if you press on your stomach and see little movement than often your are seeing bloat. Stomach fat on the other hand is soft and moveable so if your stomach seems to move or “jiggle” than it is most likely stomach fat you are dealing with.
So, why is eliminating stomach fat so difficult to address and why is there not a simple cure? Unfortunately I have some bad news. First of all we need to understand how and why our bodies store fat. Fat is stored when more calories are consumed than are utilized and fat is burned when your body needs more calories than you are consuming. So the ONLY way to get rid of fat is to either limit the amount of calories you are consuming “diet” or increase the amount of calories you are using “exercise”. Your body is also designed to store these extra calories as fat in your body in specific areas. Your body has an area ( for most of us our stomach) where it stores the fat first. This area is your primary storage site. So when you consume extra calories your body will store the fat there first. Eventually if you continue to consume more calories than you are utilizing your body will start storing fat in other areas as well. The really bad news is, that this primary storage site is not only the first place that fat is stored but is also the last place that fat is utilized. So once you start limiting your calories or utilizing more of them, “dieting or exercising” you will see improvements in all of your other areas of your body before your body lets go of fat in that stubborn storage site.
You cannot target a certain area of your body and make it shrink. All of the sit-ups in world will not make your belly fat go away any faster than the rest of the fat in your body. You can certainly tone the muscles behind the fat however, you will not see any instant improvements in that area. You may even think that that area is getting bigger because often when you build the muscles behind the fat the area seems to be larger. I am not saying that I disagree with “toning” your core. Building muscles is always a positive thing for many reasons. One reason is that they utilize more calories so in the long run they will help you eliminate that stubborn fat. However, this process will not happen overnight, so no matter what the newest “solution” promises this will not be an easy process. The only way to get rid of that fat and keep it off is through dedication to your diet and activity levels. Unfortunately this is not an easy process and really requires a lifestyle change not just a temporary diet or exercise routine. I suggest that this process be taken on slowly and in a manner that you can achieve the results that you are looking for. It is long term success that matters. And eventually even the most stubborn fat areas will be eliminated.
