"How Do I Lose Fat Here?"

As a trainer, I get asked how to lose fat from specific areas all the time.

“How do I lose belly fat?”

“How do I lose love handles?”

“How do I lose fat from my under arm?”

My answer never satisfies people because I have to tell them that we don’t get to decide where to lose body fat. Our bodies decide for us. All we can do is create a plan to lose body fat overall and let our body pick where it comes off from.

There is some good news though… Usually when people ask me this question it’s because they want an area of their body to look leaner. We can certainly accomplish that goal!

Losing body fat is one way to get leaner, but it’s not the only way. The other way to get leaner is to build muscle! Lucky for us, we do have control over where we build muscle. Targeting specific muscle groups with more frequency, volume, or intensity in our workouts will help us build more muscle in the areas we want.

Building muscle will help an area to look leaner, but it isn’t the whole picture. Even if we have massive muscles, the muscles won’t be visible if they’re covered by body fat. The best way to get a leaner appearance of an area is to lose body fat overall while building muscle in that specific area.

I don’t usually dwell on aesthetic training too much. My style is much more weighted toward quality of life, longevity, and performance training. But just about everyone has a little bit of vanity in them (myself included). My recommendation when it comes to aesthetic training though, is to do as much as you want, as long as it’s done after the stuff that’s most important to your health.

If you’re wondering how to lose body fat overall, my article on how to speed up your metabolism is a good place to start.