Dr. Ahmed
How to get rid of back fat with diet and workout? Targeting body fat to tone your body requires essentially all the lifestyle interventions that aim towards a low-calorie diet and aerobics.
However, targeting back fat in specific requires more than just a simple workout and calorie restriction.
How to get rid of back fat? Intro
Fats are essential for our body as it provides a layer of insulation and store Vitamin D etc but excess fat puts a person at risk of developing diseases like diabetes and heart disease. In addition, a person with excess fat is less appealing.
We use the front side of our body for most of the tasks, so fat doesn’t get deposited on our chest and arms and those deposited can be easily burned compared to back fat.
Back fat is difficult to burn with simple daily life interventions and exercises.
What can cause excessive fat accumulation in the back?
There are many causes of back fat including:
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Diet
- Heredity(Genetics)
- Hormonal imbalance
Like fat accumulation elsewhere, back fat is a part of generalized obesity. When fat accumulation exceeds other parts of the body, it is usually due to genetic predilection rather than any specific cause.
Sedentary lifestyle:
A sedentary lifestyle means burning fewer calories. A person who is sitting for one hour spends an average of 60 to 120 calories.
Standing for an hour burns around 100 to 200 calories while walking for an hour lets a person burn around 200 to 360 calories.
This means if a person is sitting can not burn even the calories provided by a single medium-sized apple or a small pack of Lays.
These extra calories are stored in our bodies as fat. Since we move our arms and legs frequently, most of these fats are stored in our trunks and back.
Diet:
Eating a diet with lots of calories can increase our body fat as all the excess fat is stored. Junks, frequent use of high-calorie snacks, beverages, and fewer salads and fiber make up most of our dietary routine nowadays.
Moreover, eating late at night and missing breakfast cause storage of fat in our belly and back. Late-night eaters and binge eaters during evening meals are people who are more at risk of having excess belly and back fat.
Genetics:
If you have obesity in your genes, you can’t escape it easily. You most probably get it. This is a bitter truth that obesity travels in genes and thus if your family has a tendency to get back fat, you most probably will get back fats.
However, before you blame your genes, you need to restrict your diet and start a regular workout.
How to get rid of back fat?
Before your target back fat, it is recommended that you target your overall weight and BMI. Because you don’t want to have a huge belly and a skinny back.
This is not even possible. Similarly, it is not logical to target just back fat if a person has huge thighs, buttocks, neck, and chest.
However, some of the interventions mentioned here, especially the workouts are primarily aimed to reduce back fat.
Improve your lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is one of the main reasons to have back fat. You can improve your lifestyle and get clear changes. Following changes should be made in your lifestyle:
Posture correction:
Change your posture. In our daily hectic routine and work from home, we sit on a chair constantly and our posture becomes incorrect and the spine gets bent which distributes fats more on the back and makes them even more visible.
So try to sit in an upright position with a straight spine so that less fat gets deposited on your back and that already present there does not become more prominent.
Daily chores:
Try to do your daily chores by yourself such as making breakfast, and tea, or bringing groceries from the store.
These daily activities will make you active and not let fats deposit on your back and also prevent you from major diseases associated with obesity such as diabetes and heart diseases.
Sleeping pattern:
Change your sleeping patterns. Sleep timely at night and wake up early in the morning. Sleeping patterns have a great effect on hormone production and your body weight including your back fats.
Sleep deprivation or sleeping late at night can increase your cortisol secretion, reduce leptin levels, and increase ghrelin levels in your body.
These hormones are strongly associated with weight gain.
Smoking and alcohol intake:
Smoking and alcohol intake have adverse effects on your body. They make certain changes in the body which results in the malfunction of organs and thus abnormalities occur like obesity and deposition of back fats.
In addition, alcohol provides direct energy which is stored as fat. So try to quit smoking and drinking alcohol to live a healthy lifestyle.
Hereditary and genetic causes:
If you are having obesity or have a tendency of getting fat on your back in your family, you need to be very careful.
Once your family has this tendency, you are at a high chance of getting back fat. So you need to be more careful and conscious than ones not tending to get back fats in their family.
Eat healthily, exercise daily, and work on your posture before fat gets deposited on your back.
Dietary changes that reduce back fat:
Diet is the main way of getting rid of back fats. When you eat a diet rich in fats and carbs such as fast food, pizza, burger, rice, potatoes, etc frequently, you are more prone to getting fat. So try to take a diet rich in proteins and avoid fats and carb-rich diets.
Leafy green vegetables:
Increase the use of leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kale, microgreens, cabbage, etc. Vegetables are rich in iron, vitamins A, C, E, and K and decrease the fat content of the body by increasing the rate of various metabolisms and also decreasing oxidative stress.
Leafy green vegetables contain very few calories. For instance, a cup of spinach contains only 7 calories with lots of fiber, antioxidants, and iron.
Protein-rich diet:
Start eating a protein-rich diet as it contains very less fat content. Eat a diet containing meat, fish, eggs, almonds, beans, lentils, etc.
Such foods build up your muscles rather than increase fat deposition in your body. So one can get rid of already present back fats and prevent further getting it.
Fiber-rich diet:
Diet rich in fiber such as apple, lentils, beans, green peas, avocadoes, etc can help regulate your bowels and make you lose weight as they improve satiety.
Fiber-rich foods help to make your tummy feel full so you don’t have a desire to eat more. Moreover, fibers also lower body cholesterol levels, and hence you can get rid of back fats.
Drink more water:
Drink at least 8 to 12 glasses of water daily. Water not only fulfills your hunger by making you feel full but also by speeding up all metabolisms as almost all reactions take place inside the aqueous cytosol of the cell.
It also acts as an antioxidant. Thus drinking plenty of water helps you get rid of back fats. Some people find drinking warm water immediately after waking up really helpful in normalizing their body fat.
Avoid carbs-rich diets:
Diets rich in carbs increase weight rapidly. Foods containing sugar, pastries, cakes, rice, white bread, carbonated drinks, etc increase body weight and thus increase back fats rapidly. So avoid the use of all these things to get rid of your fats.
A diet containing lots of carbs is mostly stored as fat. In addition, carbs have a minimal effect on satiety as they get easily absorbed and increase hunger after a few hours.
How to get rid of back fat with a workout?
Working out is the key to getting rid of back fats. Back fats are mainly shredded along with losing whole body weight. However, many special exercises target back fats.
Following exercises help you get rid of back fats:
- Running
- Planks
- Pushups
- Squats
- Situps
- Brisk walk
- Cat cow
- Reverse dumbbell fly
- Kettlebell swing
- Crunches
- Swimming
- Superman
- Reverse hip raise
Yoga can also help you get rid of back fat:
Yoga helps you reduce back fat. Practice different yoga postures daily from a yoga teacher or simply from the internet. This will greatly help you get rid of back fats along with total body weight.
Some of the poses that are specifically practiced by people who wish to reduce back fat include:
- Side fierce
- Side twist
- Modified Warrior
- Bow pose
- Locust Pose
- Bridge pose
- Half moon pose
- Wheel pose
- Shoulder stand pose
