Everybody wants to look good.
In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults (18 years and older), were overweight. That’s the opposite of your dream body.
So, why do so many people fail on their weight loss journey?
Well, I cannot generalize a certain reason for every single case, but most people quit because the diet appears too tough.
Is it just impossible for us to endure a proper diet or are we on the wrong track?
Following through on a diet definitely requires some serious effort. I could lie to you and sugarcoat the whole thing, but what would be the point of that?
While I am writing this article, I am currently on a diet myself. I started at around 188 pounds. Now, almost 5 weeks later, I am at around 175 pounds.
Just with simple calorie-deficit, no sorcery or anything special.
Basically, to lose weight the most important factor is to consume fewer calories than your body requires. That’s the whole mystery. The same applies to gaining weight. Consume more calories as your body requires and sooner or later the scale goes upward.
There is no doubt that a diet requires a lot of effort, endurance, and commitment. Focus, mindset, and willpower.
Unfortunately, a lot of people make it more complicated than it actually is. You don’t need a fat burner or “magic supplements” that promise to lose your fat as quickly as possible.
Most of these supplements are utter bullshit and not even worth a single cent. Possibly even worse, they might affect your health negatively.
The only thing that you need for your dream body, is a proper diet. Nutrition is the key.
If you are looking for help to get in shape and achieve the body of your dreams, then you want to read this article.
It is possible for everybody, trust me. You don’t need to be a licensed fitness trainer, nutrition coach or doctor. You just need to follow some simple rules.
Hence, with this article, I am going to give you 5 tips on how to lose stubborn fat.
1. Exercise more intense and frequent
Do you need to exercise for losing stubborn fat? No, not necessarily.
Despite the fact that physical activity benefits our health, exercising on a regular basis simplifies and supports the whole process a lot.
As already briefly mentioned, the main objective is to consume fewer calories than your body needs (basal metabolism).
For all of you who don’t know how much your body needs in order to maintain all of its basics functions, click here to calculate your basal metabolism.
As I said, the main objective is to consume fewer calories than required. Fair enough, but couldn’t you just cut out on your nutrition?
Definitely. That’s absolutely viable. You can follow through on your diet without working out or doing cardio and still achieve your goal.
It depends on what your goal is. In addition, everybody responds differently to various factor. Therefore, it’s hard to generalize.
If you’re working out and you want to get in shape, it looks different. You cannot stop working out during a diet, especially in a diet your muscles need more proteins and volume to maintain its size.
But if you only want to lose weight it is totally viable without additional exercise. Whether you implement exercise to your diet is up to you, but certainly, it would benefit you.
How does exercising benefits your diet?
Exercising burns calories. Simple as that.
Any kind of activity, whether cardio (jogging or biking), working out in the gym or playing soccer, football or basketball. They all require energy and accordingly burn calories. This will help you lose the stubborn fat.
Thus, exercising on a regular basis benefits your diet with further burned calories. The more calories you burn, the more weight you will lose. It’s that simple!
But, of course, this does only work if you consume less than your basal metabolism.
For example, if you would eat foods like burgers and pizza throughout the day but go to the gym in the evening, that’s not how it works.
The first and most important objective is to consume less than your body needs. Then, any further exercise will help you to burn further calories.
The more intense your workout is, the more energy needs to be provided by your body which in turn burns even more calories. The more often you work out, the more often you will burn additional calories.
As you can see, working out not only strengthens your muscles, benefits your brain and memory, it also supports your diet.
Whether you work out in the gym, go for a walk or play basketball doesn’t matter in the end. That is totally up to your own preference.
To sum up, the most important item is a calorie deficiency. Additional exercising burns even more calories and eventually helps you to lose more weight and lose stubborn fat.
Nevertheless, you don’t need to exercise if your main goal is just weight loss. Whether you want to do it or not is up to you.
Having said this, I want to emphasize how great regular exercising can benefit your health. Everybody should work out and do some sport at least once a week, the more the better.
I would suggest everybody work out regularly, this can change your life tremendously. If you need any help with that, just let us know and we will do as much as we can to get you started.
I will cover the health benefits of exercising in a separate article soon which is why I am not going more in-depth now.
2. Do more cardio
Different tip, same principle.
It is a quite common fitness stereotype that people who are following through on a diet have to go running regularly. Once again, is that necessary?
No, certainly it is not. It works the same way as I just explained.
The more you move your body the more energy needs to be expended. Every further step, pedal or rep burns more energy (calories).
Therefore, cardio in form of jogging, running, biking or swimming not only make you stay fit but also supports the journey to your dream body.
As it is with most things in life, the beginning is easy but gradually it gets tougher.
Sticking to a diet is not different at all. In the beginning, you will lose weight fast but during the following weeks, it gets harder and harder.
You might have days were your weight even slightly increases again. It will take much longer to lose the last pounds. But that’s normal, don’t worry. Stay calm and don’t panic.
I would suggest starting your diet without any additional cardio. First, cut out on your nutrition. Calculate your basal metabolism and reduce your calories slowly. Start with 300-500 calorie deficiency.
It is significant to watch your weight every day and keep track of it over the weeks. You don’t want to lose too much weight too fast either.
After some time, your diet most likely tends to stagnate. Now it is time to further reduce your calories or do some additional exercise. That’s when you start losing that stubborn fat.
Again, whether if it is another workout, running session or playing soccer with your friends, doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, you make the call.
But, of course, you need to take into account that different types of activities need different levels of energy.
For example, if you compare a heavy lifting session with a light running session, it becomes clear that the first burns way more calories.
To sum up, more cardio equals more energy expenditure which means burning more calories. Therefore, the more additional cardio you implement into your diet, the more calories you will burn.
This means if you stay with the same amount of calories, you lose more weight and stubborn fat.
3. Watch your nutrition
One of the biggest dietary mistakes made can be found in the diet itself.
“You can only eat salad and vegetables in a diet…”
This and other similar phrases are one of the most widely spread and common myths about diets. Unfortunately, it is once more complete bullshit.
Salad and vegetables certainly are healthy, nothing wrong with that. But the assumption that salad needs to be the foundation of your diet, is just nonsense.
To briefly recap, the main dietary objective is a calorie deficiency.
Thus, what you eat is secondary. You could even eat a dominos pizza and still lose weight. This depends on your basal metabolism as well what else you eat during the day.
If you would only eat a pizza throughout the whole day, you will certainly still lose weight.
But is that the way to go?
Definitely not. With regard to your health and performance, that is not appropriate. Your body needs sufficient proteins, carbs and fats to perform properly. Let alone micronutrients, trace elements and minerals.
But from a sole weight loss point of view, this would presumably work for most people. Nevertheless, I would never recommend anyone to do so.
You can make a diet healthy, delicious and easy. That’s for sure.
You can make a diet unhealthy, monotonous and tough. That’s for sure, too.
Whether you choose the first or the second way, that’s totally up to you.
For example, vegetables, (most) fruits and salad contain relatively few calories. You can eat a lot of them and still stay below your basal metabolic rate and start burning stubborn fat.
On the opposite, high carb groceries like rice, pasta or couscous contain a lot of calories. You should avoid superfluous portions of these and rather increase the number of vegetables and fruits.
How does that benefit your diet?
Beyond the fact that vegetables and fruits contain essential macro- and micronutrients for our body, they enable you to eat more in volume but less in calories.
For example, instead of 300 grams of rice (roughly 1000 calories), you could eat around 3 kg of broccoli. That sounds ridiculous, right?
It does, but it is actually true. Does that mean you should eat 3 kg every day?
No, just as little. This example solely served as a visualization to help you relativize the dimensions.
What’s the point you should take out of that?
You can and should adjust your meals to the number of calories that is appropriate for your goal.
If you want to eat rice, fine by me. Rice is rich in nutrients and health. But if you eat massive amounts of rice, you need to cut on calories somewhere else.
Hence, I would suggest to limit the consumption of high carb groceries to a certain amount that works for you and fill up the remaining calories with vegetables, fruits, proteins, and fats.
Another good point about fruits and vegetables is that they saturate peerless despite their relatively low-calorie density.
Nutrition is not only black and white. You can adjust and adapt your diet to your personal preferences, what you like and what you do not.
Furthermore, watch what you drink!
You pay a lot of attention to what you eat. Did a lot of research and gathered information. Even scheduled a plan for your diet.
But you still don’t lose stubborn fat… How is that possible?
Even if you have the best nutrition plan, eat clean and according to your overall goal, it can go wrong.
If you mainly drink sugared liquids, alcohol or other high-calorie drinks, it does not work.
A lot of people underestimate how many calories these beverages have. Your main source for liquids should be water. It is the most healthy, affordable and accessible beverage of all.
To sum up, pay attention to WHAT you EAT and DRINK! I would suggest to cut out on high-carb groceries and instead replace big amounts of rice or pasta with even more vegetables and fruits.
This will help you stay more saturated and enables you to eat more in volume but less in calories.
4. Don’t panic – give yourself more time
Don’t stress yourself too much. Just as building muscles is not a sprint, a diet is not either. It is a marathon.
Both take quite some time. You will need endurance, patience, and commitment. Consistency is the key.
I am finding myself in pretty much a similar situation. The first weeks of my diet went superb. But now, after 4-5 weeks where I lost about 9-10 kg (19-22 pounds), it gets tougher.
It is indeed much harder to lose the last than the first pounds, but still, it just takes some more time.
Don’t panic and get freaky. You will get there, it is just a matter of time.
As long as you are not a competitive athlete who needs to be in shape on day x, you don’t need to hurry. Take your time and you will achieve your goal, trust me.
Oftentimes this sounds easier in theory than it is in practice. I know, same goes for me. The good thing is that a diet definitely strengthens your endurance, commitment, and willpower.
On that note, you can withdraw a lot of crucial benefits for your everyday life from your diet apart from looking good!
To sum up, losing stubborn fat requires a lot of endurance, patience and commitment.
Consistency is key.
Don’t panic, freak out or stress yourself too much about time. As long you’re not a competitive athlete, you don’t need to be done with your diet at day x. Take your time and you will get there, trust me!
5. Eat less
Eventually, if you obey all the abovementioned tips but you still don’t make any further progress in your diet, there is presumably only one option left.
You might need to reduce your calorie intake even more. Building muscles and losing weight conform to the same principle.
If you exceed your basal metabolism rate, you will increase in weight. If you undercut your basal metabolism rate, you will lose weight. It’s that simple.
Eating even less might sound impossible, especially when you are already following through on your diet for some time. Your daily amount of calories, by comparison, is already relatively low.
Nonetheless, you decide what you eat. If you prefer a burger, chips or other high-calorie groceries over vegetables, fruits or natural foods in general, it’s not a surprise when your diet is failing.
You can divide the number of calories to your own preferences. In case you need to reduce even further, you could again increase the consumption of low-calorie groceries and cut a bit on high-calories groceries.
To sum up, if you are already progressed quite far and lost most of your stubborn fat, the last option might be to reduce calories even further.
Increasing the amount of cardio or exercise to burn more calories work as well. That’s up to you how to handle your diet.
Finally, it is just logical and easier than a lot of people think it is. Too many people make it more complicated than it actually is. There is no sorcery or panacea. Fitness is not rocket science.
Conclusion
Let’s recap what you’ve learned today about how to lose stubborn fat.
1. Exercise more intense and frequent
To sum up, the most important item is a calorie deficiency. Additional exercising burns even more calories and eventually helps you to lose more weight.
2. Do more cardio
To sum up, more cardio equals more energy expenditure which means burning more calories. Therefore, the more additional cardio you implement into your diet, the more calories you will burn.
This means if you stay with the same amount of calories but increase your physical activity, you lose more weight.
3. Watch your nutrition
To sum up, pay attention to WHAT you EAT and DRINK!
I would suggest to cut out on high-carb groceries and instead replace big amounts of rice or pasta with even more vegetables and fruits.
This will help you stay more saturated and enables you to eat more in volume but less in calories.
4. Don’t panic – give yourself more time
To sum up, a diet requires a lot of endurance, patience, and commitment.
Consistency is key.
Don’t panic, freak out or stress yourself too much about time. You will get there, trust me.
5. Eat even less
To sum up, if your diet is already progressed quite far, the last option might be to reduce calories even further to lose the last bit of stubborn fat.
On a final note, how you implement these tips and to what proportion you want to use them, that’s individual and up to you. At the end of the day, you make the call.
Whether you reduce your calories consistently over the week or you increase additional cardio or exercise while keeping the number of calories equal, that’s your decision. Both and many other ways work.
There is no such thing as a “perfect diet”.
Keep in mind that eventually, the main objective of a diet is a calorie deficiency!
What is your favourite tip to succeed in a diet and lose stubborn fat?
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Thanks for reading!
Claas
