What’s skinny fat?

It’s exactly what you think it is. When a person looks skinny but has fat around the abdomen.

If we humans were shaped like fruit then the skinny fat look would be similar to a peach.

I know, brutal. But it’s just an example for what is. And I’ve had to face this “peach” look for a very long time myself.

 

The skinny fat look is more then just a few pounds around the abdomen. It’s also a mental weight and a confidence strain.

For example, I heard of a man that had lost 70 pounds and one of the biggest things he discovered was that he lost his “invisibility.” He said people started noticing him and asking for his opinion more in situations.

Who knows if it’s because his appearance changed and people did start to notice him more or if internally he projected more confidence because of the way he looked, therefore attracting more respect.

That’s a complex equation to work through but the point is: Those pounds hold more weight then just around the abdomen.

 

I’ve played sports for most life growing up and always had “love handles” causing a skinny fat look.

Even through college with all the drinking, pizza and chicken wings I still managed to stay in shape but always had the lingering skinny fat appearance.

However, after I graduated and started my first corporate job the pounds quickly came on from the lack of movement, constant sitting and poor care for stress management/sleep.

I quickly gained 20 pounds putting me around the 190’s.

Here’s a picture of me in my worst skinny fat phase:

 

If you look at me you can see that nice peach shape I have going on. I worked hard for that peach shape!

Okay I’m kidding about it being “nice” but the reality was I didn’t take care of myself and had always thought of myself as being “in shape” so I really didn’t even notice how much weight I was gaining.

This was probably also due to horrible digestion issues that started to come on during those years as well which were probably the root cause of it all. If you’ve been following any of my other content you’ll notice a pattern of bad digestion and how that’s linked to poor metabolic processing and so much more! Anyways, I digress.

 

I realized I had to change and I wanted to change. I hated the feeling of having such big “side flab” and always looking skinny fat.

That’s when I kicked it into high gear. Over the past several years I’ve made incremental changes but this year I’m throwing down full force on my body fat.

I’m still in the process of cutting down to where I want to be but this is what I look like now.

This picture was taken this morning.

 

I am no underwear model but I like the changes I made, went from 194 pounds to 169 pounds and through my change I want to help others do something similar.

Here’s a side by side of before and after:

 

Why Does Skinny Fat Happen?

So why does weight get put on only around the abdomen instead of being more evenly dispersed, especially only a few pounds? Thus forming this skinny fat look.

It’s a few reasons but the biggest is, of course, genetics…

If we go back to the fruit analogy you can think about like a banana. How does a banana always grow in that straight long way? Why doesn’t it ever come out looking like an orange or a peach!?

It’s because of the genome programming that’s developed throughout time which always says “when a banana grows it will grow in an elongated manor.” – that’s the technical coding the banana genome uses by the way!

There’s probably some outliers here and there but for the most part it’s because genetically it’s been told to do that, make sense? Same with our bodies when it comes to where to store body fat.

 

Another reason why fat might get stored specifically around the abdomen is because of stress and insulin resistance.

This one’s more complex because as we get stressed our bodies don’t work how they’re supposed to.

When that happens weird things occur. One of those is we get more insulin resistant because we aren’t getting the quality sleep we need so our bodies are inherently gaining weight.

As we gain weight our ability to be insulin sensitive decreases which puts us in a classic insulin resistance state that adds weight to the abdomen region.

I notice this in myself because whenever I was gaining more weight it didn’t come on my arms or legs. It all just went straight to my abdomen.

 

How Do You Change Skinny Fat?

There’s no one fix to change skinny fat and in order to change it you have to change some habits, routines and eating patterns.

Although that’s not fun to hear and incredibly obvious, I also want to mention that it’s more simple than you may think.

You don’t have to lift weights in the gym 6 days a week, go on 2 hour cardio binges every day and never eat sugar. Nope! That’s actually how we end up being super motivated for two weeks, doing “great” and then falling back to our old ways where we end up gaining more weight than when we started.

The real way to do it, you’re going to love how exciting and different this is, is to do, maintainable, consistent action and over time you’ll look how you want.

I know, it’s nothing really new but what is new is maybe some of the ways to do so that I’ll share below.

What’s also new is my story and me sharing this with you as someone who’s lived this most their life but decided “no more” and has lost weight.

I admit though, I don’t think I’ve completely eradicated my skinny fat appearance yet but I’ve make some progress that might just be that last inspiration to help get you pointed in the right direction too.

 

1. Realign The Internal View You Have Of Yourself

I’m sure you’ve heard of the iceberg analogy; which is that if you look at an iceberg it’s 70% submerged under water and only 30% is showing.

They say that’s similar to our minds when it comes to the subconscious and the conscious mind.

The conscious mind, our thinking selves, is only 30% in our immediate day to day control but the other 70% is our subconscious and therefore dictates how we behave.

 

This is true with our health and fitness as well. If you think you’re skinny fat, deep down in that 70% of the iceberg, then you may be able to change for a few weeks but you’ll snap back to what the internal view of yourself is.

I’ve noticed this for myself because I’ve always had love handles and a skinny fat look for most of my life. For me, changing the way I think about myself is the biggest part because if I start to lose weight I like it for a while but it’s uncommon to my subconscious mind so I then do things to bring myself back to where I believe my body is supposed to be.

 

This is the biggest part to change when going from skinny fat to how you want to look. If you don’t change your internal view of yourself then change won’t be maintainable.

 

How do you change your internal view?

There are exercises you can do that may seem silly in the moment but are how you create this change.

I’m just going to list a few here and if any catch your eye I encourage you to do more research OR leave a comment below (or reach out to me via contact page) and let me know if you’d like to learn more about what I’m sharing:

  1. Imagine yourself how you want to be every night before bed
  2. Create daily affirmations aligned to your goals
  3. Say with conviction “I create the body I desire” every morning a few times

All of these are hard-core personal development exercises but…they work.

If these seem too silly or if you find yourself saying these out loud and your partner gives you a look like Earl’s wife did after he got body snatched by aliens from Men In Black then you don’t have to do them. It’ll just take longer to get where you want to. This is how I know to do it and I’ve seen it work, consistently.

 

2. Perform Heavy Upper Body Exercises

Yes I know I said you don’t have to workout 6 days a week but to start to shift that weight from your abdomen to get the super hero V look it helps to have some muscle up top.

 

It doesn’t have to be anything crazy and I encourage you to find workouts that can be maintainable long term. Our goal is always to find long term solutions, I don’t talk about quick fixes much.

3 days a week heavy lifting is enough. Right now I’m only lifting weights 3 days a week and have found I’m increasing the weight every single week! Gains I have never been able to maintain previously.

For example, these are chest, shoulder and back workouts. If you’re going to the gym those are what you want to focus on but you cannot neglect leg day!

 

As you lift heavier weights that creates growth because your body is forced to step up to the challenge.

It grows in size because if you pushed yourself successfully last workout then your body doesn’t want to come close to that failure again.

Therefore growing in size, adding muscle to your shoulders and chest to provide that Thor look we all want.

 

3. Eating In A Slight Caloric Deficit

Following the theme of this article we can assume that it’s going to be most relevant to someone who has some stubborn belly fat going on to begin a cutting diet.

The reason is that the belly fat may be causing insulin resistance because nothing is getting stored in the muscles it’s all going to fat.

However, if you’re cutting down on your diet but still working out heavy then this miraculous thing happens called body re-composition.

It’s where you lose fat and still put on some muscle because you’re in a caloric deficit but your body moves fat from your body to burn for fuel and if you’re working out it can turn to muscle.

 

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.” – Albert Einstein

 

You’re not going to make huge gains on a cutting diet but as long as you still lift good weight then you can make a re-composition happen.

 

Getting Started

The best way to change the skinny fat look is to take a hard core look at what you’re eating but more importantly how much you’re eating.

Just track everything you eat in a food app for a few days to see how much you’re eating and what your food break down is (carbs, fats, proteins).

That’s it! Start with tracking what you eat and take everything from there.

There’s an app I like called “Lose it” that’s easy, has a ton of food to pick and has a label scanner.

“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” – H. James Harrington

 

Thanks for reading and leave a comment below for what else you’d like me to expand on that I talked about in this article.

Sincerely,

Chaz

 

Disclaimers

I am not a doctor and do not recommend anything on this site, or blog post, for anyone without consulting with their doctor first. Please read the privacy policy for more information.

There are affiliate links in this post where I’ll get a paid fee if you purchase something from that link – it won’t cost any more to you and in some cases may even save you money.