You wanted to lose weight and you saw that you become thinner. Indeed, it appeared that you already achieved a healthy weight. How about your muscle mass? You maybe did not achieve fat loss. Instead, your excess body fat is just hidden inside your body, secretly affecting your body composition.
The hidden fat inside one’s body is called visceral body fat. Losing weight without a healthy diet is often the cause of such a phenomenon and it is never healthy to stay that way. So, your thin appearance may just be an indication of skinny fat. However, what does skinny fat really mean and how can you get rid of it? This article presents the five simple tips you can do to achieve a healthier body.
What Is Skinny Fat
Before talking about anything, let us first understand what skinny fat is. According to weight loss experts, the term skinny fat can be easily understood from its root words – skinny and fat. A skinny fat physique is manifested through a skinny body figure. However, if examined deeply, they are also technically fat inside.
Although such statements may sound like they are contradicting each other, experts argue that it is highly possible. Skinny fat people, therefore, are those who appear thin or slim, able to maintain a normal weight but have high body fat levels through the thing we call visceral fat. Unlike other people though, they have low muscle mass. This concern is most common among women, but it does not mean that men do not suffer from it.
How to Get Rid of Skinny Fat
We all know that too much body fat is not good for our health. For instance, people with high body fat percentages and low lean body mass such as skinny fat women have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and high cholesterol. So, while you are avoiding weight gain, it is also important to burn fat and build muscle mass at the same time. However, how could you do that? Here are the five simple tips you can follow.
Have resistance exercise
Exercise poses many health benefits and one of which is weight loss. However, when achieving a healthy body weight, one type of exercise is not enough. Therefore, you may need to adopt a skinny fat workout plan.
For instance, cardio workouts are the frequently used exercise that can help blood circulation, but you also need to engage in resistance training, also called strength training. Resistance training is a kind of workout that can help you gain muscle you lost from other exercises you do. As the body is naturally building muscle mass, in exchange, your body can lose fat including belly fat and hidden fat.
Also, your strength training shall include both high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and circuits. The most popular workout in this field is lifting weights. Aside from losing fat, weight training also prevents you from gaining weight as it helps you burn more calories faster.
Do not overdo cardio workouts
For skinny fat people, especially a skinny fat woman, you do not need heavy cardio workouts. Doing it too much may decrease your lean body mass. Losing muscle mass is not good because it will affect other parts of your body. Whereas muscle growth promotes good body composition and better appearance.
Change your diet
The reason for stubborn fat staying inside one’s body is his or her diet practices. Hence, you need to avoid foods that contribute to excessive fat gain. The best foods to avoid are processed foods, junk foods, and sugary foods.
You also need to limit your carbohydrate intake, as most of them contain high calories. However, severe calorie restriction is not recommended because your body still needs a good amount of it. An effective way to reduce calorie consumption is to increase your consumption of vegetables. This skinny fat diet promotes a healthy caloric deficit.
A calorie deficit is further achieved by consuming protein-rich foods and fiber-rich foods. Proteins help you build more muscle mass, while fiber helps with better digestion and quicker metabolism. A fat-burning supplement may also help in your healthy weight loss journey. While it is not a replacement for eating healthy foods, it prevents body fat accumulation.
Do not engage in crash dieting
Crash dieting is a diet plan wherein you drastically reduce or eliminate foods you ate before. While it can be beneficial at first, it is not for a long-term goal. Research also found out that there is a greater chance of you going back to an old diet if you practice crash diets. Also, you do not have to avoid all fats. You still consume healthy fats but eliminate the bad ones.
Stay hydrated
Drinking water, like eating healthy foods, gives your body lots of health benefits. As for weight loss, it helps your body release excess fats and extra calories. It can also help digest foods along with fiber-rich foods, said HealthCanal dietitians.
Why Am I Skinny Fat
Your body mass index is normal, but many muscle groups of your body do not have a lean mass? Here are possible factors contributing to the skinny fat phenomenon.
Not having a balanced exercise
If you want to achieve weight loss with a healthy body, you should not focus on cardio exercises only. It helps you become slim, but it does not help you build muscles, which prevents body fat levels from going down. Your lean muscle mass also contributes to an increased metabolism rate.
Poor diet
You might be trying to lose weight, but your diet does not change. For example, you do a lot of cardio exercises, but you are eating lots of processed foods. This practice is not as helpful as you may think. Processed and junk foods contain high calories and only contain little to no nutritious substances needed for bodily functions. As a result, you become thin and lose weight, but fat is stored inside your body.
Hormonal issues, genetics, and body type
Hormone imbalances can also cause the body to be unable to burn fat. Some conditions may also contribute to muscle breakdown. Aside from that, being skinny and fat is caused by a genetic predisposition you inherited from your parents. Plus, each body type has its own way of burning fat and building muscle. Nevertheless, with the right workout and diet, getting rid of skinny fat remains possible.
Conclusion
Do you feel stressed by your slim but fat body? There are tips you can do to solve the problem. For example, if you love weight lifting aside from cardio exercises, there is a higher chance that you will be able to get rid of skinny fat. Otherwise, you may start to lift weights along with beginning a healthier diet.
Lastly, try following the five tips presented as a combination of those will give you the best result.
Being slim and not overweight at the same time is good, but you have to be careful doing so. Here is how you can get rid of skinny fat.
