How To Get Rid Of Back Fat

They say knowledge is power. So if that’s true, now that you have the reasons for the back fat on your body, let’s tackle what you can do to change it. None of the reasons above are too big to change, so let’s get to work!

Eat Cleaner

You’ve probably heard this phrase by now, but if you haven’t, listen loud and clear: You can’t work off a bad diet. In an editorial by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers noted that excess sugar and carbs not physical inactivity are primarily to blame for the growing obesity epidemic. No matter how much you move, eating poorly is working against you and it will win every time.

Excess calories, especially those in the form of sugar and unhealthy fats, end up as fat on your body and that includes your back. But eating clean doesn’t mean starving yourself. The key is to choose healthy, whole foods. Clean eating includes lots of fruits, vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats. The choices are wide open! Walk the perimeter of your local grocer or visit a farmers market just to see your options.

Get Moving With Cardio

Cardio exercise burns calories and helps blast body fat. The CDC recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a week. Walk, bike, dance, and just get moving! And if you really want to dig in and get serious, try a few days of steady state cardio and mix it with two days of some type of interval training such as HIIT workouts or Tabata intervals. Varying your workouts to include both lower intensity and higher intensity activities helps shake up your stubborn metabolism and get things moving in the right direction.

Strength Train Your Entire Body; Not Just One Area

We learned earlier about losing muscle and the effects of muscle atrophy. So what can you do to get it back? Work the muscles, of course! Without question, exercise is the most powerful intervention to address muscle loss. The best weapon against body fat and for a better shape is to strength train your entire body with a special focus on your back. Why?

1. Muscle tissue is active. The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body is at burning calories. You want muscle on your whole body to be working for you all day long. Be sure to get to those larger muscles, especially legs, since those are going to be more efficient muscles on your body.
2. Target those back muscles in order to see change. While spot reducing doesn’t work, it is still true that as you lose fat you want to firm up the muscle below the skin in order to create the tighter shape you are truly looking for instead of the jiggle you so dread.

Stand Up Tall

Last but not least, you can fix that posture fairly easily. Standing tall with your shoulders back and lower abs pulled in tight will make you look both taller and leaner all over. A good rule of thumb is to align the back of your head over your tailbone and your tailbone over your heels. And if posture is really a problem for you, try Pilates! Pilates teaches you to engage your core, strengthen your low back, practice good posture and keep your back and shoulders stable and strong. Professional athletes everywhere have learned the wonders of pilates. Anyone can do pilates!