Why Is Belly Fat Hard to Lose?

"Lose belly fat," "Flatten your stomach," "Trim your waistline" -- these are all great advertising slogans, but these claims are a bit misleading. Such statements encourage the false assumption that it's possible to target the fat accumulated around specific areas of the body. If you're having difficulty losing belly fat you might be a victim of this false assumption.

Misconceptions

• While abdominal exercises work to tone and build your core muscles, these strength training exercises do not effectively diminish the subcutaneous fat accumulated around your belly. True, you can build muscle in specific places of your body, but you cannot reduce your body fat in targeted spots.

Reality Check

• Your body stores fat for the purpose of insulation; and to keep on hand as an energy reserve. Fat is the only type of fuel your body can store in virtually unlimited quantities. It gets distributed throughout your body according to set proportions based on your gender and genetic predisposition; fat weight is gained and lost in accordance with your personal body fat distribution ratio.

Solution

• You should not workout to lose belly fat. If you want to trim the fat around your waistline you need to employ a strategy that focuses on reducing your overall body fat percentage.

Diet Tip

• Use the Calorie Calculator resource at the end of this article to estimate your daily calorie requirement; then set your daily caloric allowance at 500 less than this estimate.

Exercise Tip

• Get at least 45 minutes of daily aerobic exercise; and perform 20 minutes of moderately intense total body strength training exercises every other day to build muscle and boost your metabolism.