Who doesn’t dream of burning local fat where you want it? Many overweight people often have problem areas they want to tackle. Maybe you’re one of them, too. But there are so many stories about local fat burning that clarification is highly desirable. Therefore, it is time to bring out the truth for anyone who wants to know exactly what is going on. Wondering if you can get rid of your belly fat faster, or burn the fat on your hips? I’ll give you my tips below and share how you can lose fat in the best way.
The local fat burning mystery
Although many people would like to believe otherwise, local fat burning is unfortunately not possible. Also, everybody prefers fat storage in a certain place. In women, fats are more easily stored around the buttocks, hips and thighs. For men, the belly is often the regular meeting place for stored body fat, whereas there you want a six-pack. But why is it so difficult to increase fat burning locally, or not possible?
Hormones play a big part in this. Women often store fat around buttocks and legs due to estrogen. The stress hormone cortisol affects the storage of fat in the abdominal region. Several studies have shown that local fat burning is not possible. For example, a study in which people performed abdominal exercises for 6 weeks showed that abdominal fat had not decreased [1]. Another study found that performing abdominal exercises had no more effect on abdominal fat loss than dietary adjustments.
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Alpha-2 and Beta-2 receptors play an important role.
To burn stored body fat, your body will have to release it first or start mobilizing. One hormone used is adrenaline. In doing so, adrenaline must bind to fat cells’ receptors to start fat burning. There are many of those receptors that belong to the family of adrenoceptors.
And the two most important of these, for fat burning and fat storage, are alpha-2 and beta-2. The alpha-2 instead provides fat storage, beta-2 for freeing and ultimately burning it. Fat cells contain both adrenoceptors, but the ratio is different per part of the body. This creates the so-called problem zones; the place where your body prefers to store fat.
Is it now impossible to lose body fat stored on certain parts of the body? No, of course not, as long as you keep increasing the fat burning. You will eventually start burning fat in “stubborn” spots. This is a matter of perseverance in lowering your fat percentage.
Burn belly fat locally with abdominal exercises?
For starters, abdominal exercises are perfect for a strong core, beautiful six-pack and will offer many benefits. But with only abdominal exercises, abdominal fat burning is not possible. This requires more than tackling your abs every day.
You can have quite strong abs, even a sixpack, but covered in a layer of fat in many cases. Do you want to achieve a slim waist, a 6- or even 8-pack, with only abdominal exercises? It’s going to be pretty hard.
You can “trigger” local fat burning by increasing your whole fat burning. So make sure your body starts to use fat as an energy source. You do this by using more calories every day than you get from your diet. Just ask any bodybuilder, getting that 6-pack is the hardest. We talk here for convenience about situations where no stimulants such as anabolics are used.
How do you get rid of locally stored body fat?
To take the example of abdominal exercises, your abdominal muscles (also other muscle groups) release fat cells when training them. However, it does not mean that these fat cells released into the bloodstream are actually burned. So they might as well be stored in the same place again.
The most important thing is to increase your entire fat burning, which also causes you to burn locally stored body fat. If you have little stored fat mass, on the whole, you will burn it faster in places where it is. This means that you can lose that last bit of fat when you lower your fat percentage as a whole. So it’s a matter of perseverance!
7 tips to boost your fat burning!
Review the following 7 tips to stimulate your entire fat burning. Although it is not possible to burn fat locally, you can reduce your fat percentage.
1. Ensure a negative energy balance
Although you are bombarded with all kinds of miracle diets, pills, meal replacements and other products, it is actually straightforward. You will have to create a negative energy balance to lose weight. It’s the basic rule that actually always comes back.
But how do you handle this? You will have to (approximately) find out what you use per day of energy. For example, do you have heavy physical work, do you exercise a lot, is your metabolism high etc.? These are all things that play a role. Here you can calculate your calorie requirement.
Then you will write down all the calories you receive daily. With this data, you can slightly reduce your calorie intake so that you are about 300 to 500 calories below the “maintenance level”. You have now created a negative energy balance, which allows you to burn stored body fat.
2. Choose a healthy diet
But it’s not just calories you have to pay attention to. The content of these calories is at least as important. If you’re going to have a 500-calorie restriction, you’ll eat chocolate bars all day… You’re not smart. You will lose weight, but your overall health will deteriorate. Certain nutrients play an important role in endocrine management, the ratio between muscle mass and fat mass and transport of vitamins and minerals.
The best tip we can give you is, therefore; eat as close as possible to nature. Fresh vegetables (all kinds), fruits (all kinds), nuts, seeds, seeds, meat, fish, poultry, beans, eggs etc. And drink plenty of water. If you do this in the right proportions will increase your fat burning. Furthermore, you will get more energy, feel happier and live much healthier.
3. Less (refined) sugars
Many of the products on supermarket shelves contain (hidden) sugars. You can eat some sugars from time to time, but not in excess. And always try to extract them from natural sources (e.g. fruit) and let them consist of less refined sugars.
The point is that almost all packaged products contain sugars, to a greater or lesser extent. This can be done to preserve products (to make it longer to last) and taste products. But a piece of freshest fruit is much tastier, sweet and many times healthier.
Also, try to moderate the number of sugars you consume daily. You get them in very easily. Think of 1 or 2 cubes of sugar in your coffee, sweet toppings for bread, cookies, or sweets. Less you these products? Then your fat burning will increase (and therefore also burn fat locally) a lot easier.
4. Drink plenty of water
You can make a quick blow to burn fat (and burn the beloved local fat), with drinking water. Water is not only tasty, but the best thirst also quenches and super healthy. It also contains 0 calories.
Almost all your other drinks contain calories. It’s going to get up quickly! Imagine taking 2 cups of coffee (milk and sugar), 1 glass of fresh orange juice, 2 glasses of coke, white wine with dinner and a glass of semi-skimmed milk. Then you’re already at 539 calories, of which 95.7 grams of sugar per day. It’s not just your diet that’s important. Your drinking pattern also affects your daily calorie intake.
5. Combination strength training and cardio
Do you want to increase your fat-burning even more effectively (and burn fat locally)? Then you would be wise to go to the gym.
You can think of strength training, fitness, cardio, HIIT, CrossFit, callisthenics, spinning classes and so on. It’s all things you can do in the gym. But of course, it is also an option to buy your own fitness equipment.
Doing more exercise is always good. Cycling, walking (running), swimming, climbing stairs, games or other fun and exciting activities will also increase your fat burning.
6. Conditioning and lifestyle
You want to burn fat locally and increase your fat burning. Furthermore, you also want a healthier lifestyle, more energy and a happier life. To realize these positive changes in your life, you will have to turn your life around. And conditioning plays a vital role in this! The mental aspect is essential here.
If you want to eat and drink healthier, you also have to bring it into your home. And leave other unhealthy things in the supermarket. That’s how you make it a whole lot easier for yourself. Now, when you get hungry for something like that, you will grab a handful of healthy nuts. Also, go for a healthy lifestyle and all other aspects of it. In this way, you will quickly reap the familiar fruits of all these positive changes in your life.
7. Reduce stress
It is also essential to relax and hard work and all your (sporting) efforts. Go out, relax and enjoy life to the fullest. It will contribute to your well-being! Rest is essential to recover well after training.
You can be quite busy, but that’s different than going out stressing. So don’t worry too much, especially for trivial things. And leave stress all the way out of the door… there’s no need for anything either. Stress stimulates fat storage. Not useful if you want to lower your fat percentage.
Stress, fat storage and local fat burning
It also encourages local fat storage, making local fat burning in those places a little more difficult. It’s easier to store fat in those places where you don’t want to. And although burning fat locally is practically impossible, you will have to increase your whole fat burning.
Can you burn fat locally?
No, it is not possible to burn fat locally. Do you want to lose fat in certain places? Then you’ll have to lower your entire fat percentage. Because the body prefers fat storage in certain places, the fat in those places only leaves last. You want to lose that belly, lose those love handles or leaner hips? Then reduce a calorie deficit through a tailored nutrition schedule and start exercising more. This way, you stimulate the burning of fat, and you also lose local fat with persevere.
