HOW DO I LOSE "THIS" FAT?

FROM THE SERIES “ASK THE TRAINER”

By Monika Tarkowska-Carter, CPT, LWMC, HLC 2

Short of liposuction or liposculpture, there is no such thing as spot reducing. Everybody puts on weight somewhat differently, but the way you put the weight on is most likely the way you will also lose it. If you gain weight all over, then it will come off evenly from your whole body when you lose it. But….here are the exceptions: if you’re a woman, the older you get the more fat tends to accumulate on the back of the arms, on the hips and thighs, and most commonly, the abdomen. And that’s where it is also the hardest to lose. Tricep muscles don’t get used very much, so the area often looks flabby. Hips and thighs are a typical way for women to store fat. Some of it is predetermined by nature. Some is the result of eating way too many polyunsaturated fats, especially the bad quality and proinflammatory ones, which also cause cellulite. Some can be a result of being estrogen dominant, so common in our society because of many xenoestrogens in the environment. And some is caused by the cells in the hips and thighs being less sensitive to insulin than other areas of the body.

In regards to the abdomen, losing fat becomes particularly difficult because as women age the ratio of male to female hormones (specifically testosterone to estrogen) increases due to lower estrogen levels. This gives us a more male-like body, with practically no waist. Having a heavy toxic burden, wherever the toxins come from, be it heavy metals, organic pollutants like chemicals, etc., can make losing abdominal fat particularly difficult. Toxins get stored mostly in the adipose tissue and during the process of weight loss, they get released into the bloodstream. Your body will be protecting itself from being flooded by these toxins and work hard against your best efforts, making weight loss very hard, if not virtually impossible. If you suspect this might be the case, seek a doctor who is trained in environmental and functional medicine, and who will be able to do specific tests to find out what the causes of your difficulties may be.

All the above said, however, it still makes sense to exercise. What is flabby will definitely tighten up and what has no shape will look better if you put some work into it. I think it is much more attractive to look at a person that’s a little overweight but has a decent shape and toned muscles, than a, what I call, a” skinny fat” person with an overall thin body but high percentage of body fat and lots of flab.