Can You Just Lose Stomach Fat?

A gentleman told me today he is working out 5-6 days a week doing interval training 3 of those days, “trying” to watch his diet and still is not able to “lose his stomach.” He said he has a back issue that prevents him from doing ab work and searched for an answer online but one article says to do interval training 3 days a week or more and another just says to increase the intensity of the intervals. He was frustrated and wondering what to do.

My first question was how well was he “trying” to watch his diet. He said he has a nutritionist and was basically following the diet she provided but could do better. That tells me right there that he probably could do A LOT better! In a previous post I talked about how studies have shown that exercise, no matter how vigorous, without proper nutrition, failed to result in weight loss.

I then asked if he is drinking adequate water. He said he was – but from experience, I know unless you measure out your daily water and make sure you are drinking the proper amount for your weight, most people overestimate how much they actually drink.

Another issue is hormonal balance. While people think this is just a female issue it most definitely is not! Men experience a type of menopause and this can definitely affect where they accumulate their weight.

I explained to him that you cannot just “lose your stomach.” You will lose weight all over your body including from your stomach area. Doing ab work will build and strengthen the ab muscles and while that’s definitely important, it will not cause you to have a flatter stomach per se unless you also reduce the fat in that area.

So, there’s pretty much no shortcut or easy way around it. And there are issues specific to each person. So, basically, you have to carefully monitor your diet and water intake and exercise regularly, address any other issues and you will then see improvement. Not just in your stomach but all over your body.