Even if you're thin, you can still have too much visceral fat. How much you have is partly about your genes, and partly about your lifestyle, especially how active you are. Visceral fat likes inactivity.
Gaining weight solely in your stomach may be the result of specific lifestyle choices. The two S's — stress and sugar — play a significant role in the size of your midsection. Certain medical conditions and hormonal changes can contribute to abdominal weight gain.
Despite so many people seeking out the best way to build a strong core, lower belly fat is the most stubborn to shift. Why? The fat cells that gather around your lower abdomen are known as 'beta fat' cells, which are notoriously hard to change, according to Dr Luke James from Bupa UK.
Causes include poor diet, lack of exercise, and short or low-quality sleep. A healthy diet and active lifestyle can help people lose excess belly fat and lower the risk of problems associated with it.
You're Into the Wrong Foods
Unhealthy eating is the biggest driver of big bellies. Too many starchy carbohydrates and bad fats are a recipe for that midsection to expand. Instead, get plenty of veggies, choose lean proteins, and stay away from fats from red meats.
It's important to focus on reducing overall body fat, avoiding sugary and processed foods, limiting refined carbs, and incorporating resistance training and aerobic exercise. Additionally, drinking plenty of water, getting enough sleep, and reducing stress can help support a healthy and flatter stomach.
Skinny fat people have low muscle mass. Their fat percentage is high compared to their muscle mass. If someone is slim (means have low-fat percentage), you would be able to see their abs and their bodies wouldn't be flabby (especially their upper arms, thighs, and bellies).
Genetics, nutrition, and even behavioural factors are involved which help slim people to maintain their body weight. Each individual is different and the way they can maintain their weight depends on the fact how much the aforementioned factors interfere in their daily lives.
It is realistic to say that you can achieve a flatter stomach in as little as 6-12 weeks with a sound diet and exercise approach that places you in a slight and progressive caloric deficit for that time period.
It may be the regular consumption of alcohol, stress, hormones, bad posture, recent pregnancy, bloating, or others. If you are determined to flatten your belly, you should exercise more and stick to a healthy diet.
Bloating Is Tight While Belly Fat Is Spongy
Tightness in the stomach is a sign of bloating. Stomach fat will feel spongy and malleable and can be grasped physically in your hand—something you can't do with bloating.
A hormonal belly looks like an accumulation of fat around the belly. It looks like excess fat on the stomach that cannot be removed. Hormonal imbalances can lead to excess fat accumulation in the belly area.
If you have been exercising and still have belly fat, you could be doing the wrong style training, your stress levels may be too high, or you may have an endocrine disorder like polycystic ovary syndrome.
If reducing overall body fat, including belly fat, is your ultimate goal, aerobic exercises that increase your heart rate, such as walking, running or swimming, and aerobic exercise combined with strength training are the gold standards when it comes to exercise that supports weight loss.
The Complications of Being Too Thin
Registered dietitian Katherine Basbaum shares, “It's a jumping-off point to determine a healthy weight, but definitely not one-size-fits-all of healthy body factors." To get a rough idea, if your BMI is less than 18.5, you're considered underweight.
Eating less and having a fast metabolism keeps skinny people “super lean” according to scientists who have discovered what separates heathy, underweight people from the rest of us.
If you want to gain weight and build muscle, you've got to eat more calories than you're expending. There's no way around it. And if you're a naturally skinny guy who can't gain weight no matter how much you think you're eating, you've got to eat more, period.
If your BMI is: under 18.5kg/m2 – you are considered underweight and possibly malnourished. 18.5 to 24.9kg/m2 – you are within a healthy weight range for young and middle-aged adults. 25.0 to 29.9kg/m2 – you are considered overweight.
Women with a BMI of less than 18.5 are considered underweight. The average woman's height is 5 feet, 4 inches. If you weigh 107 pounds or less at this height, you are considered underweight with a BMI of 18.4. A healthy weight range for that woman would be 108 to 145 pounds.