You’ve been working out, eating “clean” for several months and have seen progress. Your weight has dropped, your clothes are looser and you seem to be in better shape when you look in the mirror. You’ve lost fat around your arms, face and back too.

However, that bulging belly / love handles can’t seem to go away. Furthermore, it seems like your hips, thighs and butt fat are still holding on to your body for their dear life. No matter how hard you workout, or how “clean” you eat, those stubborn fats can’t seem to go away. You get immensely frustrated and you wonder whether there is something wrong with your body, and if you need to do specific exercises to get rid of those stubborn fats.

If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Many have experienced the same issue. If you’re a guy, you probably struggled with fats at your belly. If you’re a woman, chances are that the stubborn fats are at your thighs, hips and butt.

Well, don’t worry. In this article, I will be explaining the science behind stubborn fats and how to lose them.

Let’s get started.

What is Stubborn Fat?

Before I answer that question, we first need to understand how fats are broken down.

Fats are stored energy in your body. When your body requires more energy than you consume, it has to take energy from somewhere to fuel your daily living activities, for example walking, eating or sleeping (yes, sleeping takes up energy too!). Where does your body turn to for energy? Yes, the stored energy - fats! And in order to burn fat, your body produces hormones which are attached to receptors on the fat cells. This will trigger the release of energy from the cells, producing energy for the body.

There are many different types of receptors on fat cells, but only the alpha-receptors and the beta-receptors are relevant here. Alpha-receptors hinders fat-burning while beta-receptors accelerate fat-burning. In the case of stubborn fats, they have a much higher ratio of alpha-receptors compared to beta-receptors. This is why stubborn fats are so hard to get rid of.

When you start losing fat through exercising and diet, the fat cells with a higher ratio of beta-receptors will be lost first. These areas are usually the arms, face, shoulders and chest. Other areas like the belly, or tights, hips and butt for women have higher ratio of alpha-receptors, and are much slower to respond.

Another reason why fats in certain body parts can be so stubborn may be due to hormones. Cortisol (the stress hormone) has shown to increase retention of fat. Also, for women, studies have shown that estrogen causes an increase storage of fat in the lower body. The fat in women generally also have a higher percentage of alpha-receptors in the lower body compared to the fat in male. Therefore, women usually shed fats in the thighs, hips and butt last.

TL;DR - Genetics play a role in the location and amount of stubborn fats one has.

Now that we know what stubborn fat is, the million dollar question is how to get rid of them?

How to Lose Them

A common misconception about losing stubborn fat is to do targeted exercises in those areas. For example, doing squats to target thigh fats and doing crunches to target belly fat. However, if you understood how fat is burned, you would know that although doing squats or crunches will increase the amount of calories burnt, your body does not choose where these calories are burnt from. You will lose weight from all around your body, not just the specific area you are working on.

Instead of doing 100 crunches a day and seeing minimal results, check out the following tips which have proven to work!

Patience

Fitness is a journey. There are no short-cuts or quick fixes. Yes, it might get harder as you continue to lose more weight, but with perseverance and the right knowledge, those stubborn fats can be shed off. They are ‘stubborn’, not ‘impossible’.

You might wonder why losing the first 5 kg was much faster than the next 1 kg of belly fat, and think that you have reached your maximum potential. You suspect that you are not going to be able to shed those last few inches off your belly. In reality, you can! What you need is patience, coupled with sticking to the fundamentals, which brings me to my next point.

*Have patience - you will surely get there if you don’t give up.*

Stick to the fundamentals

The fundamentals to fitness and losing stubborn fat are 1. Eating in a calorie deficit, 2. Having a high protein diet, 3. Incorporating resistance training and 4. Constantly striving to progress.

Eating fewer calories than you burn creates a calorie deficit. The total number of calories burnt each day is called Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which is made up of
a. Calories burnt through exercise and non-exercise movements
b. Calories burnt through digestion
c. Calories burnt through maintaining basic bodily functions such as breathing and blood circulation
Increasing any components of TDEE would mean either a larger calorie deficit, or being closer to one (assuming that you eat the same amount of food). There are many calculators online which can help you determine your TDEE, so you can adjust the amount of calories that you eat based on your fitness goals. However, these calculators can be quite inaccurate. If you would like a more accurate way of calculating your TDEE, drop me a message!
In my previous articles, I have highlighted the importance of protein intake. Protein has many benefits. It not only aid in retaining lean body mass, it helps you feel full faster and longer. Based on a few studies, I would recommend a protein intake of about 2.0g/kg of body weight per day for optimum fat loss. For example, if you weight 70kg, you should aim to consume about 140g of protein a day.
The reason why I always emphasize on resistance training is because it is the only way to build muscle. Studies have shown that building muscle increases your metabolism, which means you are burning more calories doing nothing!
Furthermore, studies have shown that there is an average of 8% increase in Resting Metabolic Rate 24 hours post weight training. That can mean burning up to 150 calories a day while resting!
As you continue to lose more and more weight, it is inevitable that your progress will slow down. This is the law of diminishing returns. What you should do is to increase your training stimulus. This can be done by increasing the weights or reps if you are doing weight lifting, or increasing your speed or distance if you’re doing cardio. Always strive to beat or at least match your previous workout!

*Resistance training is one of the fundamentals to shedding stubborn fats.*

Also check out my previous article on some of the biggest fat loss mistakes. Make sure you’re not making them!

Add in some cardio

There is a limit to how little you can eat to burn off fat. As you lose weight, your metabolism decreases. This means that you have to eat lesser in order to keep losing weight. If you continue to do so to a point of 1000 calories a day, it may be dangerous as you may not be getting enough essential nutrients.

One way is to add some form of cardio into your workout plan. Cardio may not be necessary to shed off stubborn fats, but it can help quicken the process. My recommendation would be prioritize resistance training first, then add in cardio exercises on rest days.

Spot reduction might actually work!

Although numerous studies in the past have disproved the effectiveness of spot reduction, a more recent study by Dr. Eric Helms in 2017 suggested that spot reduction does come into play when specific body part exercise is followed by a low intensity cardio session. In his study, 1 group did upper body resistance exercise followed by cardio, while another group did lower body resistance exercise followed by cardio. The result was that the first group elicited greater reduction in fat for upper limbs compared to lower limbs. Conversely, fat loss in the lower limbs were more pronounced for the second group. However, even Dr. Helms himself said that this study is of low sample size and we need to be cautious about using these findings. You can try it, but the priority should be still sticking to the fundamentals!

*Spot reduction can possibly work for upper / lower limbs.*

Stubborn fats can be very hard to lose. That’s the whole reason why it is called “stubborn”, right? But don’t give in! If you follow the right tips and strategies in this article, rest assured that those fats will be gone before you know it! Keep hustling!

P.S - still need help on losing those stubborn fats? Drop me a message!