Body-weight loss is usually noticed around the belly, waistline, and thighs first. This is because your body stores fat in different locations. For instance, men hold more fat around their belly, while women store it on their thighs and hips.
According to our experts, the reason you gain weight so rapidly in your midsection and not in, say, your calves and forearms is because the adipocytes (or fat cells), which are found throughout the body, are more plentiful in the hips, butt, stomach, and thigh area for women and stomach for men.
Everyone's body, say experts, follows a fat-storing order. The order is not the same for each individual. Usually, when you lose the fat, it comes off in the opposite order that it was stored. If your body tends to store fat in your face or belly first, these will be the last places where it would shed from.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
Typically from the age of 40, testosterone levels drop. As testosterone is responsible for regulating fat distribution, muscle strength and muscle mass, less testosterone can make it harder to burn calories. Both men and women produce less growth hormone from middle age, another hormone involved in regulating body fat.
Some other signs of fat loss are:
It leads to a slimmer appearance and more muscle definition. Your exercise stamina increases, and you are getting fitter. As a result, your physical activity level shows improvement. You don't feel any energy slump in the afternoon and experience a better mid-day energy level.
The first week you're on a diet, almost 70 percent of weight loss is water, Clayton says, a rate which drops to about 20 to 30 percent over a couple of weeks and then stabilizes as your body starts tapping into fat stores.
Fat is Not a Feeling
The physical fat stored in our bodies is not an emotion and therefore is not something that we can 'feel'. 'Feeling fat' is descriptive and a narrative that we share with ourselves or others to describe a (usually) negative state of being. Feeling fat has nothing to do with the scales.
You've gained muscle.
So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health. If the scale has inched up, but your waistline hasn't and you feel strong overall, don't sweat the pounds; they're increasing your power.
Common reasons for someone to have belly fat even when they're skinny is: Being too sedentary (inactive), which builds visceral fat around the organs and abdominal fat. Eating too many processed foods, which stores at the belly.
Sex. One study found that women tend to lose weight all over, while men tend to lose more weight from their torsos. Current weight. The same study found that people with obesity tend to drop pounds in their arms and legs first.
As against areas such as legs, face and arms, our stomach and abdominal regions possess beta cells that makes it difficult to reduce the fats easily and lose weight in these areas. However, as per research, belly fat is the most difficult to lose as the fat there is so much harder to break down.
Yes, fat can get “jiggly” before or during weight loss — BUT, it's a good sign, and there are ways to prevent it or make it better.
The battle of the bulge
One reason belly fat is so hard to lose is that it's considered an “active fat.” Unlike some fatty tissue that simply sits “dormant,” belly fat releases hormones that can have an impact on your health — and your ability to lose weight, especially in the waist and abdomen areas.
Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is the fastest way to trim down stomach fat.
Epidemiologists have observed that the average person typically puts on 1 to 2 pounds a year from early adulthood through middle age. The CDC's numbers show that much of the increase is concentrated in the 20s, for men and women.
The finding of the study suggests that people in middle age certainly gain weight and it is harder for them to lose it, but slow metabolism is not the real reason behind it. It was revealed that from the 20s to the 50s the energy expenditure is the most stable.
Your Slow Metabolism:
When you have a slow metabolism, your body doesn't convert food into energy in sufficient quantities. So most of the food you eat is stored in the form of fats. This is the main reason why some people get fat even though they don't eat much.
Because average weight loss is approximately 1 kilogram per week, you can expect to safely lose 10 kilograms — which, at a conversion rate of 2.2 pounds per kilogram, equals 22 pounds — in about 10 weeks.
Excess visceral fat can pose serious health risks, but when you embark on a healthy diet and exercise plan, this fat is often the first to disappear. This means you're likely to notice weight loss in your abdominal area first. Too much visceral fat can make your belly protrude.
Losing belly fat and getting a flat stomach is done through achieving a caloric deficit by eating less, exercising more, and doing that for at least 6-12 weeks. The more stubborn your belly fat is, the more strict and consistent you need to be with your diet and exercises regimen throughout that period.