Why You Can’t Lose Stubborn Fat (4 Things Stopping You)

For most of us, our stubborn fat areas tend to be the lower belly, love handles, and lower back fat that we can’t seem to get rid of. There is a scientific explanation to why stubborn fat reduction is so challenging. These areas receive less blood flow and contain fat cells that are more stubborn to burn off compared to other areas of our body. So, getting rid of your stubborn fat belly and lower back will still require a great deal of patience and perseverance. But there’s a problem. When it comes to how to lose stubborn fat, staying patient and adhering to your calorie deficit will get increasingly difficult to do as you get leaner. And that is exactly what this video is about. I’ll cover 4 habits you need to break so you finally lose that lower belly fat!

The first thing preventing you from losing that stubborn fat belly is you’re too aggressive. Your rate of weight loss throughout the weeks will, and SHOULD slow down. Yet the second people stop losing 1-2 lbs a week and their weight loss begins to slow down, they get worried and try to speed it up by using unsustainable approaches. This can then lead to rebounding altogether or too much weight being lost too quickly, which comes at the cost of muscle loss. Muscle loss seems to be highly correlated with increased hunger levels, which doesn’t seem to recover back to normal until that muscle mass is restored. This then makes dieting that much harder to the point where you just can’t stick to it for long enough for fat loss to reach those stubborn areas. So, stick to a rate of weight loss of around 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week.

The next habit you need to break to get rid of stubborn fat is poor calorie tracking. Many people overlook the little things like condiments, creamers, and sauces. And when you throw in the dinners out, the social events, or the weekends where most people end up just letting loose or just loosely tracking their calories, that can easily rack up to thousands of additional calories that will completely offset the hard work you put in all week. So, be diligent with your tracking. And when you do go out for dinners or social events on the weekends for example, plan ahead so you can enjoy yourself without sabotaging your progress.

The third habit you need to break when it comes to how to lose stubborn fat is poor calorie management. As you get leaner and are now also likely eating less calories than you were in the beginning of your diet, you have much less wiggle room for your calories. This means that you’re going to have to opt for high volume, nutrient-dense, low calorie foods that will provide the best bang for your buck in terms of suppressing your hunger, boosting your daily energy levels, and speeding up your recovery. Yes, you can still fit in “treats” here and there and use an “if it fits your macros” approach, but the frequency at which you do so will have to decrease as you get leaner.

The last thing that is preventing you from losing that stubborn lower belly fat is that you’ve gotten lazier. You’ve been dieting for a while, things are getting tough, and the initial excitement of starting your diet is gone. This is when people start to overlook the little things. They start to be less active, they’ll skip out on walks, and they’ll just move less throughout the day than they used to. Which is detrimental for fat loss since these subtle movements actually do burn a significant amount of calories everyday. This, in combination with the fact that you just weigh less now than you did at the start of your diet, can result in you now unknowingly burning hundreds of calories less than you did before. So, to account for this drop in calories burned, you have a couple options. You can either bump up your overall activity levels a little more and/or slightly reduce your calorie intake. But to minimize the extent to which you have to do those two things, just make it a habit to move more throughout the day.

All in all, when it comes to losing stubborn fat, the more variables you can control and keep track of the better. That’s exactly why within our Built with Science programs, we not only guide you week after week with your workouts and nutrition, but we’ve also included tracking software that’ll enable you to see how your weight and the daily calories you burn change throughout the weeks. To get started today, simply take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:

BWS Free Fitness Quiz

Time stamps:
0:00 Why Is Stubborn Fat So Stubborn?
1:38 Calorie Deficit & Stubborn Fat
2:13 Thing #1
4:04 Thing #2
6:16 Thing #3
7:59 Thing #4

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Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo

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