Back fat, spare tires, love handles – we’ve got them all, and chances are that you struggle with back fat too. It’s one of the most common complaints we hear from men losing weight, with the big question being: will losing weight get rid of back fat? Let’s find out.
Why do I have a fat back?
Everyone carries fat differently. Some people seem to find that they carry their excess weight more in their stomachs, for some, it’s all in their (multiple) chins and for others, it’s back fat. It’s not really something that’s seen in isolation (unless you have a medical condition), so if you’ve got a fat back, you probably need to lose weight elsewhere too. You might feel as though your back fat has accumulated rapidly, but that’s because you’re likely to see the rest of your body more often than you see your back, meaning you get used to your slowly changing body as you see it happening on a day to day basis.
Will losing weight get rid of back fat?
There’s no guarantee because as above, people carry their weight differently and you may just be the unlucky sod that is just destined to have a bit of a porky back and love handles until you’ve whittled down your BMI. Back fat is pretty stubborn, but it will decrease as you lose weight.
How else can I get rid of my back fat?
Exercise
Sadly, there is no such thing as spot-reducing fat, meaning that you can’t lose weight from any one area of your body just by targeting it with a specific exercise. Sorry. But this doesn’t mean that doing back exercises is a waste of time. Incorporating back exercises into your workouts will help to strengthen your back and might help ease any lower back pain you have, and they will also help to improve your posture, which might make your back fat less noticeable. GQ magazine has a comprehensive guide to exercises that target the back muscles, complete with step-by-step instructions.
Don’t just focus on your back, but be mindful of incorporating back exercises into a well-rounded exercise program. If you’re stuck on where to start, seek out a personal trainer or check out Reddit’s Fitness community’s excellent list of recommended routines.
Surgery
If you’re at your goal weight and you’re looking trim all over but still have little pockets of back fat that you just can’t seem to shift, you might want to look into getting your back fat surgically removed. There are ‘non-invasive’ procedures out there which ‘freeze’ and ‘sculpt’ your fat, or there’s liposuction, which literally sucks out the fat.
Both options are extreme ways of dealing with your love handles and they’re not something to be entered into lightly, not to mention the fact that they’re expensive, can be risky, and as with the case of the ‘sculpting’ procedures, might not even work the first time. If you feel you’ve tried everything you possibly can and have no more weight to lose, it might be worth a chat to your GP, who might be able to suggest further help or where to find reputable surgeons.
Learning to love your love handles
Your back fat might seem like a big deal to you, and we know from experience that it’s incredibly dispiriting to pull on a t-shirt only to see it stretch over your spare tire. But short of signing up for lipo, it might be time to just make peace with your back fat while you do your best to get down to a healthy weight. It’s just another miserable price to pay as a fat man, but know that if you’re losing weight you’re doing the best you can to get rid of your back fat. And rest assured that as you work on lowering your body fat, your back fat will reduce too.
