How to get rid of belly fat

We often here the words “stubborn belly fat” talked about among our friends, family, co-workers etc. It can be in the context of the person complaining about stubborn belly fat or just a discussion about how to get rid of stubborn belly fat. But the story is almost always the same; they think it is some kind of special fat that is more difficult to get rid of than other body fat, or that they can use some special training method that works just for getting rid of belly fat. This simply isn’t the case, and people should therefore focus on how to lose body fat instead.

Belly fat is just like other fat on your body. It has been stored for a “rainy day”, or at least that is what your body thought it was doing even though that “rainy day” will never come as most people have a lot more excess fat on their body than it will ever will be able to use in an emergency situation.

 
Off-topic: I actually tried to find some research on this, who would survive the longest, a fat person or a thin person but couldn’t find anything on topic. But, using a bit of logic you would think that if both people received the same amount of water relative to their body weight, that the fat person would last longer without food. So if you are expecting to be an THAT kind of emergency situation, perhaps being fat is smart

Ok, so back to the topic of getting rid of stubborn belly fat. As I have said in my other ramblings on this site, belly fat is just like other fat. You have the visceral fat that is stored under your abs, around your inner organs, and you have your subcutaneous fat that is what we see on people with a beer belly. The outer fat is what prevents you from having a six-pack. As they say, everyone has a six-pack, it just doesn’t show.
 

Off-topic 2: Sorry to go off topic again, but I just have to show you this photo I found when searching for beer bellies. I couldn’t find the owner of the photo, so if you are the owner please send me an e-mail and let me know your site so I can link and give credit, or take it down if you don’t want it here. But I have to say, if it weren’t for the fact that it isn’t very healthy, I would be pretty proud of that “baby”. WOW!
 

And as I have also mentioned, you can’t specifically get rid of belly fat by doing a magic exercise, taking a pill, or following some special diet. The answer to how to get rid of belly fat is the same answer to how to lose body fat or get rid of any kind of fat for that matter. You have to expend more energy than you consume. I will continue to say that until someone proves me wrong.
 

So we know we have to be on a calorie deficit to lose weight, and we know we can only do this by either working out more, eating less, or both. This means that the results are in our own hands. But I want to talk a bit about motivation to lose belly fat today, because this is something I am seeing in my own efforts to lose some excess pounds. At this point of time I am very motivated to lose weight. I have gained a lot of weight these last few months while working extensively, and now I want to get back to my “optimal” weight. The problem I am having now is that I am living together with a person that does not want to lose weight, and unconsciously doesn’t want or think that I need to lose weight.
 

Taking responsibility for losing belly fat

This has lead me to be frustrated when I see tons of temptations around the house. Chocolates, candy, pizza, hamburgers, you name it, and it will show up one day or the other. To be in an enviroment or relationship where one of the two are dieting, but not the other, can be extremely difficult for the “dieteer”. This has lead me to think about what I can do to remedy the situation. This is the advice I have come up with:
 

• Take full responsibility for your fat: It’s your fat, not the other person’s. YOU have to make the changes in your life because YOU are fat. Whether the other person is fat or not is irrelevant, because as long as they have not decided to diet with you, you cannot and should not try to control what they eat.
• Don’t expect help: Don’t expect or even need help from your partner. Most probably they have enough to deal with in their own life that they don’t have the energy to babysit your through your diet.
• Be strong and disciplined: You have to be especially disciplined if you are in an enviroment with food that you are not supposed to eat. Don’t let the candy or junk food lying around tempt you, just get out of the house if it gets to difficult.
• Eat separate meals: With this I mean don’t eat together in the beginning. Separate meals will probably be a given if you can’t get your partner to eat your healthy meals, but also just eating by yourself until you get used to your diet might help, because you won’t be tempted by the unhealthy food eaten by the other(s).

Ok, I am not saying that your partner won’t help you, and you should probably sit down with him and her and explain how important it is for you to get rid of belly fat. What I am saying is that, from personal experience, it is easy to blame the partner or enviroment when you eat the things you aren’t supposed to eat. It’s almost a reflex, but it’s just another excuse not to do the right thing. So don’t blame anyone else than yourself if you stray of your path.
 

That’s about it for today. I guess the moral of the story is that stubborn belly fat isn’t more stubborn than other fat, you just have to lower your total body fat and the belly fat will go away as well. Oh, and take full responsibility for for your fat. As a wise man once said: “You are where you are in life because of all the decisions YOU have made up until this point”. Stop making excuses and make better decisions from now on!