Blog > Health > How to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat: Tips for Females

How to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat: Tips

for Females
Written by Mariia Roza on July 04, 2021

Fact checked by Ievgeniia Dobrynina

Table of contents
What causes lower belly fat in women?

Why can't I lose belly fat? 

Some myths about lower belly fat

Working strategies to lose belly fat

Summing up

The problem with the lower belly fat is that it’s hard to burn, as even when you’re
on a diet, your body prioritizes losing fat from other parts of your body like arms,
shoulders, and face. This phenomenon is true both for men and women.
However, the reasons behind excess fat deposits in the abdominal area may
differ depending on gender.

Get your 100% personalized meal

plan by completing our 3-min quiz
None of the known diets should be followed without
considering your unique body needs, preferences,
and goals

Start Quiz

Before starting your battle with stubborn belly fat, you should know that fat in the
abdominal area is divided into subcutaneous and visceral. Subcutaneous fat is
more of an aesthetic problem and visceral fat may even be invisible since it is
located on the internal organs. At the same time, visceral fat is the most
dangerous for your health. It can slow down metabolism, accelerates aging, and
lead to various diseases.

What causes lower belly fat in women?

Females can face a stubborn belly because of the high BMI index (excess body
fat overall), hormonal disbalance, and even bloating that can look like a fatty
pouch. What is more, as women naturally have a higher body fat percentage,
dealing with stubborn fat deposits can be a real challenge for them.

Hormones and heredity play a significant role in the disposition of fat in women.
Your genes define what type of figure you have. Are you a “pear” that stores
most of the fat in thighs, hips, and lower belly; an “apple” with visible fat deposits
in a midsection; or an “hourglass,” with a proportional figure with fat distributed
among the lower and upper body?

Along with heredity, there are some other common reasons behind stubborn fat
deposits in particular parts of the body, namely the abdominal area.

Hormonal imbalances
Hormonal imbalances
Hormonal belly in women happens less frequently than in men. This is because
the main hormonal reason behind the large abdomen is a low level of estrogen

or progesterone. As a rule, women face a man-type belly fat during menopause

when their hormonal portrait changes dramatically. During menopause, estrogen
levels drop, and women are more prone to store belly fat. 
The testosterone levels predominately explain belly fat. If we have more
testosterone, we’re more likely to store excess fat in the midsection. If a woman
has more estrogen, she would probably store excess weight in her thighs and
hips.

If you’re a thin woman with a large belly, this is most likely due to hormonal
imbalance or other health conditions. If you’re in a normal BMI range, but your
hips to waist ratio is higher than 0.85, you should see your doctor.

Pregnancy
Women can also see that their bellies became bigger after pregnancy. This
weight gain in a particular part of your body is due to the stretched muscles of
your core and the larger uterus.

Part of the postpartum belly will go away quite fast, and you might lose(1) up to
9 kilos in five to seven weeks after the delivery. When your uterus shrinks back,
you can also see that your abdomen became flatter. Some women lose
weight(2) quickly when they’re lactating, burning 400 to 500 calories per day to
produce milk.

According to the personal experience of thousands of new moms, the post-

pregnancy belly goes away in six to nine months. Moms do have more
difficulties with getting into shape, but this is because their lifestyle changes
dramatically! They sleep less, have more stress, don’t have time to work out,
and have more disruptive eating. All these reasons accumulate and add pounds
to their bodies.

Stress
Another hormonal reason behind belly fat can be high cortisol. Studies(3) show
a link between uncontrollable stress and fat distribution in an abdominal area in
women. 

Alcohol
Some research(4) demonstrates that high alcohol consumption affects
differently on fat distribution in men and women. Even though the link between
alcohol and the risk of abdominal obesity was significantly higher in men
(19,3%) than in women (2,3%), too much booze can affect a female’s body
shape as well. As alcohol can shift your hormonal balance, making you store fat
in a lower belly, refraining from alcohol can be a working strategy to help you
lose belly fat faster. 

Bloating
In most cases, you can easily distinguish stubborn belly fat from a bloated
abdomen. When you’re bloated, you can feel it! In most cases, we’re bloated
when we eat too much or too quickly or if we’ve consumed too much fiber or
gas-provoking products like beans, cabbage, bread, or carbonated beverages.
However, bloating can also be the symptom of some health conditions, including
lactose or gluten intolerance and inflammatory diseases. 

Why can't I lose belly fat? 

Recent studies(5) show that our fat tissue contains brown adipocytes that help
you burn energy when you’re cold and white adipocytes responsible for fatty
acids accumulation. Some dietitians assume that the lower belly contains more
white adipocytes that are harder to burn. That’s why even when in a calorie
deficit, your body chooses to burn fat deposits in your arms, breast, face, and
buttocks (where you have more brown fat) first. 

Some case studies composed by personal trainers and fitness instructors (these
are pure observations that are not science-based) show that it might take up to
16 weeks to start losing belly fat. They state that as there are more white fat
ll b ll thi t f b d i h dt ti t h
cells near your belly, this part of your body is so hard to get into shape.

So what should you do to get a flat stomach? You have to reduce body fat
overall. All the myths about losing belly fat in a week by drinking some magic

vinegar or eating some particular fat-burning foods are just marketing. What we
can do to get into shape is to help our body stop storing fat in the midsection
and decrease the fat percentage in our bodies overall.

Some myths about lower belly fat

They are popular, they make you start hoping for quick fixes, some of them are
expensive, and what’s most frustrating, they don’t work. Here is a list of myths
on how to lose stubborn lower belly fat fast.

Drinking apple vinegar

We don’t know where the claim about vinegar health benefits came from, but
there is no scientific proof that apple vinegar can boost weight loss or help you
get rid of the stubborn belly. Moreover, as it’s quite acidic, it can affect your
teeth’ enamel and digestive system.

Drinking lemon juice in the morning

There might be slight logic in this recommendation. The thing is, lemon juice is a
low-calorie source of vitamin C which can inhibit(6) cortisol production. Cortisol
stimulates belly fat storage and in theory, the consumption of vitamin C, helping
with lowering stress hormone levels, can boost fat loss in the abdominal area. 

With this being said, lemon juice is not a magic pill, and it will never boost your
weight loss if you’re not in a calorie deficit. 

Making 1,000 crunches

Personal trainers often recommend crunches, plank, and other ABS exercises
to make your stomach flat. Remember that fat cannot contract, and you won’t
make your stomach flat with thousands of crunches. You will have a strong core
and ABS, hidden behind fat storages, waiting to be revealed by a proper diet.

Using a sweat belt while working out

Sweating more doesn’t equal losing more fat. Burning fat happens(7) through
your breathing out carbon dioxide and not sweating in particular parts of your
body.

Making a vacuum exercise

We can explain this method’s popularity among personal trainers. Vacuum
exercises can strengthen your core muscles and make them more toned. But
this exercise alone, without changes to your diet, won’t make your stomach flat.

Multiple videos on YouTube explain how vacuum exercise can help you lose up
to three inches from your stomach in three weeks, but there is no reliable
scientific evidence proving it works. On the other hand, this method will not
harm either.

Using slimming body care products

Even research(8), sponsored by one of the world’s largest cosmetic groups,
shows that the slimming effect of the newest body care product equals one
pound of body weight loss in four weeks in women with the normal BMI.

Bodycare slimming products are expensive. They can tone your skin and can
even have a draining effect due to their osmatic action, but they won’t make you
lose fat. 

Some of these strategies can help you tone your muscles and improve the
quality of your skin, but they will not directly lead to the decrease of your lower
belly if you’re not in a calorie deficit! 

START NEW