WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT STUBBORN FATS AND THEIR EFFECTS.

What are stubborn fats and how do they come about?


Stubborn fats have been one of the biggest limitations for most people in achieving their desired physiques. Various efforts in dieting and working out has resulted in little to no change. This has raised a lot of questions than answers.

Stubborn fats are stores of energy which are primed to resist fat-burning mechanisms. They mostly occur in areas that have more adipose tissue. Other factors also influence its positioning. Every cell in the body has a receptor which dictates its reaction. Fat cells too have receptors i.e. Beta-2 receptors which facilitate their usage in the body and Alpha-2 receptors which facilitates their storage for later use. Dominance of Alpha-2 receptor around these adipose tissues contributes to stubborn fats.

What other factors catalyzes the situation?

a) Genetics.

A family background of individuals who store excess fat around specific areas could highly influence the outcome of the next generation. In most cases, it's almost impossible to evade this unless one has less genetics from that particular side.

b) Hormonal imbalance.

Sex hormones for both genders play a key role in muscle mass retention. Its decrease could easily influence a rise in fat mass. This could result in stubborn fats. Cortisol also known as stress hormone tends to be a great trigger. It does spike blood sugar levels and insulin resulting in cravings. This in the long run will amount to binging hence increase in fat mass.

c) Lifestyle habits.


This will mostly lean towards poor food choices, excess alcohol consumption and being sedentary most times. All these will definitely be against the analogy of calories in versus calories out which most times calories in exceeds calories expended.  Any macros consumed in excess is stored as fats in the body. This gives an idea why this could contribute to stubborn fats.



Some key points to note during the process of getting raid of these fats.

  • Starvation won't really be a solution even though calories in might exceed calories out. As soon as the body realizes this, it will switch to survival mood hence limiting any form of energy expended. From definition these fats are primed to resist fat burning mechanisms which further explains why this won't be a solution.

  • An aggressive approach especially in training and dieting won't solve the issue. Training all week long for long hours could result in burn outs and can't be sustainable. Same applies to doing cardio as the only form of exercise to curb it.
  • Spot reduction is close to impossible. Doing lots of abdominal exercises to get lean abs is just but a fiction. We can't dictate where to lose or store fat. This is based on genetics and hormones.

Ways of going about stubborn fats.

Exercising inform of resistance training will help boost testosterone levels which is crucial for muscle mass. Calorie counting to ensure an individual is in a calorie deficit, would be ideal to prevent excess consumption. To complement this, have a tracker like a smart watch to give a rough idea on the amount of calories expended. Staying active will boost your NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) which highly contributes to the extra energy expenditure. Ensure you get quality and enough sleep. Studies are showing that sleep deprivation could easily lead to binging as a mechanism of staying alert during the day. These mechanisms won't necessarily result in a complete decrease of stubborn fats but help keep them at bay. 


Non-surgical procedures like cool sculpting where they freeze this cells to prevent them from regenerating could be a solution. Use of supplement like Fat burners to boost metabolism and control leptin which is the hunger hormone.



Surgical procedures such as liposuction where they suck fat deposits in certain areas of the body through a process called contouring. Tummy tuck or  abdominoplasty which is meant to improve the shape and appearance of the abdomen could be a solution as well.





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