Five Reasons Why You Won’t Lose Your Stubborn Belly Fat 

1) Quick Fix obsession

We’re searching for that miracle pill; that next big new product that will guarantee instant results! Unfortunately, there is not, and never will be, any such product. There is no quick fix solution to getting rid of stubborn belly fat. One reason why so many get stuck with belly fat, is because they invest so much time looking for that quick fix.

Just remember, you didn’t gain that fat belly over night so don’t expect to lose it overnight. To get rid of those love handles, you need to develop a proper meal plan (not a ‘DIET’), you need to weight train regularly (3-4 days a week) and you need to get some extra cardio increase the amount of calories you burn.

There is no quick-fix, but if you follow your meal plan and exercise regularly, you will get rid of your stomach fat sooner than you think. You can expect to see visible changes in as little as two weeks, if you are very disciplined. People generally see results around the 3 – 4 week mark.

Remember, easy come, easy go. When you lose weight using fat burners and other diet products, your body doesn’t recognize the changes as permanent changes. This is especially true when your weight loss is very rapid; your body is just waiting for you to stop so it can return to its original weight. When your fat loss is steady and continuous over time your body has time to adapt and recognize that the changes you’re making are permanent.

The benefit of this is that if for some reason you happen to miss a few weeks from the gym, you won’t lose all of your progress. You can take a vacation with the security of knowing that you won’t gain 5 pounds just because you haven’t exercised in a few weeks.

2) Unrealistic expectations

I love “The Biggest Loser”. It’s a great show and a good source of inspiration for people who need to lose a lot of weight. However, shows like this make my job as a trainer more difficult because clients see the show and then come to me expecting to lose 10 pounds a week for the next 4 weeks. This would be a reasonable goal if you were 400 pounds. However if you’re like most people you probably only need to lose between 10 to 30 pounds. The contestants on the biggest loser lose so much weight in a week for a few reasons:

They haven’t had any real physical activity in years; they have very inactive lifestyles. Therefore, the moment they do anything more than usual, their body responds. For example, taking the stairs might feel like nothing for you, but if you weigh 300 pounds, it might feel like you’ve just run a marathon. Since walking up the stairs is something your body is used to, your body won’t burn as much calories as it would if you were heavy and you never used the stairs. In other words, it takes less work for an overweight person to burn more calories.

They have more weight to lose than you. The saying is true: “The last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose.” When those 300 pounders get close to their ideal weight, it’s going to be just as hard for them as well. However, when you’re very heavy, you have more ‘excess’ calories to burn; someone lighter has much less to burn.

The people on those shows are isolated from the real world. They don’t have any distractions! They only have one task – to LOSE WEIGHT. I’m pretty sure it would be easy for anyone to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time if they had absolutely no other responsibilities. You, unfortunately, don’t have the luxury of putting your life on hold. You still need to wake up early, go to work, prepare lunch, commute in rush hour traffic, take your kids to and from school, finish up paper work, etc. Furthermore, the contestants on shows like that also have a full time staff to cater to their every need – trainers, doctors, nutritionists, life coaches, etc.

Now I’m not saying to lower your expectations, but you need to put things in perspective. You’re not going to lose 10 pounds a week. You might be lucky to lose 5 pounds a week but that won’t last forever either. I don’t believe in looking at a scale, it is not an accurate indicator of progress because it can’t measure a lot of things. However, if you’re obsessed with numbers, a realistic weight loss goal would be to aim for 1.5 to 2lbs a week. Everyone is different, some might lose 2 per week, others might lose 3; it varies from individual to individual. You are not going to lose your belly fat if you have unrealistic goals.

3) Diet denial

A lot of people suffer from this syndrome, and as long as you hold on to it, the longer it will take to get a flat stomach. You need to admit to yourself that your diet is not where it needs to be. A lot of people get caught up in saying, “My diet isn’t bad!” But, is your diet “Great?”

If you want a seriously great body, then you need a seriously great diet! And I’m not talking about stupid Atkins’ diet or the Juice diet or whatever other nonsense is out there. I mean a healthy, structured meal plan that gives you all the nutrients you need. If you just eat ‘OK’, then that’s the body you should expect – an ‘ok’ body. OK bodies don’t turn heads, great bodies do. Admit that your diet isn’t cutting it and take the necessary steps to really improve. If you can get this in check, losing your belly fat all of sudden isn’t a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of ‘when’.

It’s not hard to have a great diet; you just need to adapt a healthy mindset when it comes to eating. Instead of thinking about what specific food to eat, try to live by some general guidelines.

Here are some suggestions:

No late night eating

Cut down or eliminate alcohol consumption (empty calories)

Cut down or eliminate sugary snacks

Cut down or eliminate sodas

Eat fried foods no more than once a week

4) Unfocused goals

On that rare occasion when a light bulb goes off in your head and you come to the realization that you are ready to change your body, don’t set unfocused goals! An unfocused goal is something that is too vague you can’t measure. It’s great to say, “I want to lose my belly fat and get nice flat stomach.” However, you can’t measure ‘lose my belly fat.’

A lot of my new clients tell me things like, “I want to be tight and toned,” and, “I want to be fit.” My job is a trainer is to turn that into something more specific. Therefore, I try to get them to say, “I want to lose 4 inches off my stomach by April 5th.” Now you have a measurable goal, and more importantly, a deadline! Not having a specific goal can be dangerous because you will eventually feel like you’re running while blind-folded, with no real direction.

Consequently, after some time with no way to measure if you’re on the right track, you will become discouraged, de-motivated and ultimately, DEFEATED. You will then kick your gym bag in the corner…again – adding this attempt to lose weight to the list of other failed attempts.

Save yourself the heartache and set specific goals for yourself, and set an unchangeable deadline.

5) Tortoise versus hare syndrome

For those of you who don’t know the story of the tortoise and the hare, here’s a quick recap: The hare challenges the tortoise to a race because he knows that he is much faster. The tortoise agrees and as the race starts, the hare sprints off to a huge lead. After building up a big lead and seeing no signs of the slow tortoise, the hare decided to take a little nap, confident that he could rest and wake up before the tortoise caught up. However, the hare fell into a deep sleep, tired from the hard sprint earlier. The tortoise, kept moving at the same pace until he eventually caught up to the hare and passed him. By the time the hare woke up, it was already too late; the tortoise was already crossing the finish line.

When it comes to getting rid of belly fat, there are two mistakes the people make that are similar to the hare:

i) Get out to a great start and then stop 

When you first start out on a fitness routine to get in shape, the chances are that you’ll do really well in the first 6 weeks. In fact, there’s a joke among trainers that all trainers are awesome for the first 6 weeks because the client will see their best results in the beginning.

The problem that people face comes after that first taste of success. Some people refer to this as “hitting the wall.” However it’s not really a wall that you’ve hit. What happens is that your body has adapted to your new lifestyle – exercises that were once difficult are now easy, you’re not exhausted after your cardio, it seems like you’re not working hard enough like in the beginning. Well that’s exactly true!

Your body is stronger and more fit, therefore you need to increase the intensity of your workout. You have to keep changing up your routine so that your body won’t become accustomed to the work. As long as you can keep your body in a constant state of ‘hard work,’ you will keep seeing results. Just keep in mind that your results may be a bit slower than in the first 6 weeks, but remember, it’s a marathon, so keep going.

There are a few things you can do to keep your progress going after the initial 6 weeks:

• Increase the resistance of your exercises
• Decrease the time that you rest between exercises
• Increase your cardio intensity
• Change the order of your exercises (But do it wisely, consult a trainer or an experienced friend)
• Change your routine altogether

ii) Treat fat loss like a sprint when it’s really a marathon

This is similar to the first point I made about looking for a ‘quick-fix.’ The other thing about the quick fix is that people don’t realize just how much time they waste searching for the miracle pill that will cure all of their fat loss woes – time that could have been spent making losing weight the right way.

Whenever you feel yourself becoming impatient, remember that you didn’t gain the weight overnight. I know I’m repeating this point, but I really need you to understand it. You didn’t get those love handles in four weeks, or even four months. You gained that fat slowly, over time, and that’s who you will lose the weight as well. The good news is that you will lose the weight much faster than you gained it, but it’s not something with will happen in only a few weeks. Be patient, be consistent and be positive.

Avoid making these mistakes and you’ll be well on your way to getting rid of that stubborn belly fat.

So those are some of my reasons, but what other reasons do you think stop people from really getting over the hurdle? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Also, you can send me an email anytime at info@kamaral.com, or you can follow me on my new twitter account, or on good ole’ facebook!

stay strong,

Kam