Blame Your Genes
Some people store excess calories in their abdomen, while others deposit those surplus calories as subcutaneous fat in their thighs and buttock, according to Barry Star of the Stanford School of Medicine. Though you might not feel particularly grateful, abdominal fat is far more dangerous to your health. And although you can’t choose where fat gets stored on your body, you can choose how many calories you take in and how many you expend in activity. It is this calorie balance that ultimately determines whether fat gets stored anyplace.
Restoring Balance
You body needs energy to operate. Your brain, organs, cells and tissues are constantly producing energy, repairing themselves, and carrying on activities necessary for their and your survival. You eat food to provide raw building material and fuel for these operations. You also expend energy moving your muscles. When you consume more calories from food than you need to run your body and perform your daily activities, you store the extra calorie in fat cells under your skin and in your abdomen. To empty those fat cells, you must burn more than eat. Ultimately, once you reach your desired weight, you need to match your calorie intake to your expenditure. Meanwhile, aim to trim 500 to 1,000 calories per day from your diet by eating less and exercising more. This would help you lose 1 to 2 lbs. a week, the amount recommended by many health and fitness experts, including MayoClinic.com.
Energy Withdrawals
Exercise helps you to restore your energy balance. When you exercise, your muscles first draw energy from blood glucose. As your blood glucose drops, you draw from carbohydrate stores in your muscles and liver, and also draw from fat stored throughout your body. You draw proportionately from wherever fat is stored, so if you tend to deposit fat in your behind, then you will drain those stores when you exercise.
Cardio Burn
Cardio exercise, such as walking, jogging, running, swimming and biking, cause the best calorie burn. During cardio, you work large muscles in the lower body that require a lot of calories to operate. You also expend calories boosting your heart and respiration rate to provide oxygen and fuel to your muscles. Do 30 to 60 minutes of moderately intense cardio five to six days per week. Depending on how much you weigh, you can burn a couple hundred calories walking at 3 mph an hour, or running for 30 minutes at 6 mph.
Calorie Reduction
Exercise will help you lose weight in your behind only if you carefully monitor and minimize your intake of calories. To start, you only need to eliminate several hundred calories per day, so scrutinize your eating habits for fatty, fried, fast, sweet, snack and starchy foods you can eliminate or replace with lower-calorie alternatives. Monitor your weight at least once a week, always at the same time of day. If you are not dropping a pound or so each week, then re-examine your diet and excise more calories, or exercise more often, longer or more intensely. Persist in this constant monitoring and modification of your diet and exercise practices to steadily lose weight from your behind and from everyplace else you’d rather not have fat.
