Skinny Fat Syndrome Archives - Home Workout Ideas

What Causes Skinny Fat in Men and Women

January 15, 2013 by Jay Leave a Comment

When it comes to the causes of skinny fat, they are a couple of usual suspects. The main thing that nearly everyone who is skinny fat has in common is that they have very little or no muscles. If you don’t have any muscles, then any fat you do have will look like much more than it really is. Without any significant muscle tone to keep you firm and toned, any fat on your body will be much more prominent as it wobbles around and is generally more visible.

Both men and women can really benefit, not just from a health perspective, but also when it comes to their appearance but developing some muscle tone. They say a well-tailored suit can hide a multitude of sins but you could also say a little bit of muscle tone can hide a fair amount of body fat.

Why Having No Muscle Tone Can Cause Skinny Fat Syndrome

Although you need to have some body fat in order to become skinny fat, a small amount of body fat doesn’t atomically mean you will become skinny fat. By having some muscle tone you can get away with holding some fat before starting to look skinny fat or just plain old fashioned overweight. Both men and women can benefit from having more muscle tone in many ways:

Having muscle means having a toned and firm appearance. More muscle = less wobble.
Muscles use more of the calories you eat. This prevents those calories from being turned into fat.
Muscle tone improves your posture. Poor posture can make you look more saggy and flabby as well as run down and old. With a good posture your shoulders will be back and your back will be straight with your head held high. This will give you the appearance of being slim, toned and not fat.
If you stop exercising the muscle will turn into fat. Muscle cannot turn into fat. If you stop exercising the muscle will slowly shrink or atrophy until it is back to how it was before you started.
Women will look too bulky if they exercise with weights. For women to become bulky and visibly muscular they need to train extremely hard for many years. Even then it is very difficult. A women trainer who exercises with weights a few times a week for years will eventually become toned and in great shape but won’t develop muscle in the way a man does. If after a year or so you feel you have too much muscle tone, then simply stop training for a while and let the muscles atrophy. Beware: they will shrink quicker than you think!

Gaining muscle isn’t easy, especially for those who are skinny fat. But it can be done, and you can read about the best ways to do it in this article on muscle gaining for skinny fat people.

Other Reasons People Become Skinny Fat

Although having a regular amount of body fat but having no muscle tone is the main cause of being skinny fat it isn’t the only one. If you are in the top percentile for height and have long limbs and a small frame, this can be a factor in giving you the appearance of being skinny fat. You might have good muscle tone but as your arms and body are longer it won’t necessarily show as much and could leave you with a soft and flabby body in certain areas. If this body type applies to you there isn’t much you can do apart from work harder in the gym! But on the bright side, at least you are tall and can benefit in all the ways being taller than your peers can bring, such as a higher salary and greater dating prospects.

If you are wondering how you became skinny fat, it was probably the same way I did all those years ago: eating too much and not exercising or having any muscle tone. Now you know why it happened you can start on the road to recovery. Start working out with weights at home or in the gym to improve your levels of muscle tone and then work on cleaning up your diet and your skinny fat days will be behind you. For some home workout ideas, head to our home weight training article index for some top tips.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below of get in touch via Facebook.

Some Personal Advice on How to Fix Skinny Fat

January 11, 2013 by Jay Leave a Comment

Fixing skinny fat isn’t easy but the approach is fairly simple. If you are skinny fat it is more than likely you have low levels of lean mass or muscle tone and medium to high body fat levels. Without a high enough level of muscle, any fat you have will look many times worse as there will be nothing to balance it out. With some well-placed muscle tone, it is far easier to project a look of fitness and athleticism, despite carrying a few more pounds of fat then you’d like. Strip away the muscle and that bit of fat that wasn’t really a problem before is now wobbly, flabby and saggy and highly visible.

So What Can You Do To Fix Skinny Fatness?

In a nutshell, all you need to do to stop being skinny fat is lose the fat and gain some muscle. Sounds easy right? In reality for most people, it isn’t that easy at all. If you’ve become skinny fat then you’ve probably developed some bad habits over the years, such as I did, which included a poor diet and lack of exercise and no history of going to the gym or weight training.

This left me with a skinny body that had a few problem areas where fat had slowly gathered over the years. For me these fatty areas were in my chest and belly but for you they could be anywhere. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’ve had enough and don’t want to be skinny fat anymore. So what can you do to fix this problem?

If you are serious and want to change how you look, then you need to be prepared to put in some work. It’s not complicated work like building a house, or designing an engine but it does take time and dedication. If you’ve decided enough is enough then keep reading, however, if you are still not sure being in good physical condition with a great body is worth the hassle then see you later!

Step one is to clean up your diet. Cut out all the processed junk that is easy to get hold of and even easier to consume. If it comes in a packet and contains ingredients you’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce then it might be worth avoiding for a while. No matter how much exercise you do, it is almost impossible to out train a bad diet (click here to Tweet this). Eating a packet of biscuits with the intention of burning off those extra calories tomorrow is a recipe for disaster. To make your life much easier and your journey to a great body shorter, remove bad food choices from the equation by not buying them or having them around the house.

Step two is to start exercising with weights. Thisapplies to both men and women and is the most important part of how to fix being skinny fat. Without muscle tone, no matter how much fat you lose you will still be wobbly and floppy. If you are ok with that, cut out the calories and do no exercise or just do cardio. But if you want a firm and athletic looking body then you need to start exercising with weights in order to change your body from what you have had in the past. I’m not talking about bulking up and get all ‘hench’ and ‘swole’, I simply mean adding classic weight training exercises to your fitness routine such as squatting, pressing and curling exercises. By doing simple exercises at home with kettlebells or dumbbells a few times a week, you can make a great start on firming up and toning your body.

Adding cardio to your exercise routine is always a good idea as it is a great way to increase your cardio vascular health. Whether you choose to run outside or work on the treadmill at home is up to you. Even skipping at home is a great cost effective and convenient way to start getting the blood pumping. But remember simply doing cardio isn’t enough to fix skinny fat for either men or women.

Fat Stomach but Everything Else is Skinny

December 28, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

If you have a fat stomach but everything else is skinny then there is a good chance you might be in the body classification group that is known as ‘skinny fat’. When people have this body type it means that they have an average body fat percentage but little to no muscle tone. This means they don’t carry the small to average amount of fat they have well, and can look in pretty bad shape. Although when fully clothed and wrapped up, a skinny fat person can pass for someone in regular shape, when it comes to wearing more revealing clothing such as in the summer or when at the beach, another story is told!

If you have noticed that you have a fat stomach but the rest of your body is fairly skinny, it means that you have more fat cells around your stomach area. Fat cells hold fat and it depends on our genetics as to where we have the most fat cells. In the case of people with the majority of our fat cells around their stomachs, this will be the first area to get fat when putting on weight and the last area to get thin when losing weight.

How to Go from Skinny Fat to Just Being Normal

If you are sick of being skinny fat and having some parts of your body being skinny, while others are fat, there are a few options open to you to get in great shape. One option is to attempt to lose the fat and become a regular skinny person. The other option is to try and build some muscle so your body becomes more efficient at burning calories and you developed a toned, athletic looking body. Both options are suitable for men and women and in both cases I would recommend the second approach. However it is up to you to decide, as whatever approach you decide upon you will need to stick to it for at least a few months to get real results. Chopping and changing between the two won’t help anyone, least of all you.

How to Decide Whether to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

In an ideal world you would lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, giving you a toned and athletic physique with little body fat. Unfortunately this isn’t possible as in order to lose fat or weight you need to eat fewer calories than you need each day, but in order to gain muscle or weight you need to eat more calories than you need each day so that you can grow and tone those muscles. You can’t eat more and less calories than you need at the same time so you have to choose one approach and stick to it for at least three months and often longer.

How to Choose Which Approach to Take

If you feel you are too fat in your fatty areas and you just can’t live with the wobbly bits anymore then it will be easier for you to stick to an approach where your number one priority is to lose the fat and become regular skinny instead of skinny fat. From then you can go on to developing some muscle and getting a toned athletic physique. If you can’t face being skinny fat anymore then taking the other option of adding lean muscle mass while you are still holding some fat isn’t going to be something you can easily stick to as it will take you a lot longer to lose the fat.

If you can tolerate the fatty areas and don’t mind having them around for a while longer in order to reach your goal of getting that toned and athletic body you always wanted, then I would recommend starting work on gaining muscle in order to transform your body. You can make this transformation at home by following a home workout routine with some basic weigh training equipment, or you can join a gym. It is up to you.

When taking this second approach of working to develop muscle tone, your body will become better at burning calories throughout the day. This is because muscle burns more calories and increases your body’s metabolism. As muscles ‘eat’ more calories, as you become more muscular, your body will be burning more calories each day, even when you don’t workout on a particular day, instead of turning those calories into fat as your body is doing now.

Overtime, as your body develops more muscles and your metabolism speeds up, you will start to notice that the proportions and composition of your body starts to change. Instead of the fatty and flabby areas being the most prominent, they will start to diminish and your natural muscle tone will develop giving you a leaner, toned and firmer appearance.

For both approaches you should start working out at home or at the gym with weights, but for the first approach, your main goal will be to lose the fat, rather than develop any muscle. The weight training will help with the calorie burning which is needed to burn the fat already on your body (along with a good diet).

What You Shouldn’t Do to Get Over Skinny Fat Syndrome

The above two approaches are fairly simple to follow but take time and dedication. By sticking with the workouts you can change your body composition for the better. However, you have to stick with it. If you get distracted and inpatient you could end up switching one of the quick fixes that never really works, at least not in the long term, and you will be back to square one. Some things you shouldn’t do to beat skinny fatness include:

Going on a crash or fat diet. In order to lose fat you need to eat, but it can’t be any old rubbish. Going on a crash diet and drastically cutting calories will slow down your metabolism and make it even more difficult to lose weight.
Doing nothing but cardio in the gym. Cardio is great for improving your fitness but when it comes to losing fat and becoming more toned and athletic looking, weight training is more effective. This applies to women as much as men. Cardio training might help you lose weight but it won’t tone you up and you will still be left with wobbly bits rather than a firm and toned body.
Not doing weight training. You can buy a couple of kettlebells or some cheap home dumbbells and start working out at home just as easily as joining a gym. But whichever approach you choose, weight training should be at the heart of your strategy for getting in great shape.
Not staying for the long haul. It probably took you a long time to get out of shape or get to where you are now. So it stands to reason than it will take a while to shape up. Stick with it and the rewards will be plentiful. Quit too soon and you will be back to where you started from, only older and more negative. Keeping going!

So as you now know, there are two main approaches that I recommend for sacking off being skinny fat and getting in great shape. If you can hang in there for a while longer, both men and women should start working out to build lean muscle tone and eating just a little more calories than they need, in order to build muscle. If you’ve had enough of being skinny fat, then focus on losing the fat by doing weight training and cardio but also eating a little less than you need each day.

Whatever approach you take, stick with it and you will reap the rewards. Don’t give up too early, remember, the darkest night is just before dawn.

How to Know If You are Skinny Fat

December 12, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

Skinny fat is a relatively new term that is quickly gaining popularity. It was coined to describe people who appeared to be skinny when wearing clothes but in reality are carrying quite a bit of body fat in certain areas. Common areas for fat to be stored on people who are skinny fat would be the upper arms, chest and stomach, though it can strike anywhere!

While being skinny fat is easier to live with than being just fat, for most people it can still result in low-confidence levels and poor self-esteem, not to mention the latent health issues that go hand in hand with being overweight. For people who are skinny fat, they can often live their lives giving off the appearance of being either skinny or of average weight. But under their often baggy clothes, they are hiding a problem which can slowly dent their self-confidence.

Should an occasion arise when it’s time to disrobe such as swimming, a trip to the beach or spending time with a new partner, then anxiety can start to set in. While fat people can’t really hide their body fat levels, a skinny fat person can do a good job of keeping things under wraps, which can in fact make things worse, as none of their friends or family might have any idea they have problem areas.

So How Can You Determine if You Are Skinny Fat?

There is no one size fits all definition of being skinny fat. It is up to you to decide whether this label applies to you or not. If you decide that it does, then you can move forward and start taking steps to remedy the issue. Admitting you aren’t happy with your current situation is one of the first steps in the road to getting in great shape. Only then can you really set things in motion to attain the look or body you want.

Typically a skinny fat person will have little to no muscle tone. Tensing their upper arms will result in hardly any visible different to when that area is untested or relaxed. Fat stores around the tricep or underarm area will be pronounced and there is likely to be some wobble should you shake or prod the area. This wobbly area is known as bingo wings, in reference to its prominence on older women who are often keen bingo players. While having wings might be a good thing, in this case it most certainly is not. Remember, you can’t fly with bingo wings! Click to Tweet this.

Another area that both men and women who suffer from skinny fat syndrome have trouble with is the stomach or abdomen area. While there is a chance you might have some abdominal muscles or abs down there, but you won’t ever be able to see them while you remain in skinny fat zone. If you are in the advanced stages of skinny fat syndrome then it is likely you will have a pronounced muffin top going on. This name refers to the extra bulge of fat that hangs or pops out over your waist band. While more common in women, the number of men who have this feature is growing all the time. People say you are what you eat and when it comes to muffins and muffin tops, never a truer word has been spoken!

For men, the appearance of moobs or man boobs, fatty deposits around the chest area, can signal the sign that you are well and truly skinny fat. This tell-tale sign is one sure way of how to know if you are skinny fat or not.

How to Beat Skinny Fat Syndrome?

If anyone of the above applies to you then it is highly likely you are in the skinny fat club. My commiserations go out to you! I was skinny fat once. It’s not a nice place to be, I know that. But it could be worse; you could be just fat-fat. At least getting into good shape is more attainable for you than someone who is fully overweight and carrying fat all over their body.

The good news is fixing this mess isn’t overly complicated but it does require hard work and dedication. Did I scare you off then? Most people will press the back button on the browser at the mention of ’hard work and dedication’ but for those of you that keep reading you are over the first hurdle.

There is a two pronged approach required in order to stop being skinny fat. Part one is to start doing some exercise. Not just slogging away for hours on the treadmill, which is probably what helped most people become skinny fat in the first place, but doing resistance training which involves lifting weights. This applies to men and women and is an essential part of the road to recovery for skinny and fat people out there.

Don’t worry if you are a gym-o-phobe and hate the idea of joining the gym. This website is dedicated to training at home and can help you get in shape from the comfort of your own living room.

Part two involves sorting your diet out. It’s time to cut the crap, in terms of what you eat. We’re not talking about jumping on a fad diet and going cold turkey. Just eating sensibly, in a way that you can maintain, is enough to start improving your health and your physical appearance.

Stop Being Skinny Fat Today

By following these two approaches you can join the road to recovery and put a stop to being skinny fat today. It could take a few months or it could take longer. It depends how far down the skinny fat slope you’ve fallen and how much work you want to put in.

But you can get back to normality, and should you wish, go beyond averageness and develop your body into something to be proud of. It all depends on you…

Bust Out of the Skinny Fat Zone at Home with One Arm Push Ups

November 8, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

If you are stuck in the skinny fat zone, like I was once upon a time, a great way to bust out of this zone is to start doing some simple exercises at home. If you can join a gym and get a good, well qualified, personal trainer who understands your predicament then fair play to you. However, if you are short on time and don’t want to commit to an expensive gym membership then there is no reason why you can’t start your body transformation and put an end to being part of the ever increasing skinny but fat demographic.

It took one of my friends to point out to me how I was no longer just skinny but was starting to get fat too. Once this public observation (thanks dude) had been made I took myself off to the nearest gym and started working out like mad. Unfortunately I didn’t have a clue about what I was doing and didn’t really make much progress for the first year, until I started doing some research into nutrition and working out. Luckily you won’t have to make the same mistake as me. If you are ready to start working out at home in order to prevent yourself from getting (even more) skinny fat, half the battle has already been won!

You Don’t Need the Gym to Win

Now if you told me you wanted to become a professional bodybuilder or fitness magazine cover model, I’d tell you to turn off the computer and get down the gym. But if your goals are a little more modest and you want to look good with your top off and obtain that lean, athletic look then signing up at the gym isn’t necessary. You can perform a great workout at home with hardly any equipment and in some cases no equipment at all! One great exercise to burn calories and put some lean muscle on your chest, shoulders and triceps is the push up and the best news of all is that it requires no gym equipment. Diet and nutrition also play a big part in getting in great shape and something like the Lean Ape Living book can help you get this aspect of your life sorted without any pain.

But Doing Endless Push Ups isn’t Going to Help

Before I started going to the gym I was a proper weed! I doubt I could do more than five push ups in those days. If you are struggling to get into double digits don’t worry, you can quickly remedy this. But one big mistake people make when they start working out at home is to do as many reps of an exercise as they can. In a few months you will probably be able to do 20-30 push ups in one go, but just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.

If you want give your muscles enough of shock so that they grow, you need to make sure the exercise you are performing is difficult enough so you can only do around 8 to 12 reps. Once you get good at push ups you will have to start finding creative ways to make them difficult again. Once such way, that I am utilizing myself at the moment is the one armed push up, or at least working my way up to it! You can read about my current fitness challenges in my series of monthly goals.

How One Armed Push Ups Can Help you Avoid Skinny Fat Syndrome

In order to put on muscle and transform your body from soft and flabby to hard and toned, you need to keep your muscles working hard when exercising. Doing push ups at home is a great way to exercise without any fitness equipment but they can quickly become too easy to really challenge your muscles. In order to make this exercise useful again you need to make it harder. Once you can do three sets of 12 push ups you should start working your way towards one arm push ups. The extra tension the one armed version of this classic exercise puts on your chest and triceps will have them growing in no time. The extra muscle will help speed up your metabolism and you will be burning more calories than ever before, helping to keep your body fat levels down.

The First Step Towards One Armed Push Ups

Even though I can now do a good amount of regular push ups, when I first tried a one armed push up I couldn’t even manage one rep! How can you practice something you can’t even do once? Well the answer is you have to build up to them slowly. Try the exercise below for a few weeks until you can easily do three sets of 12 reps. If you already exercise your chest muscles, then perform these push ups on the same day. If you are not regularly working out then try these three times a week with a least a day’s rest in between.

Get in the regular push up position with your arms just beyond shoulders width apart and your feet close together.
Take one arm, and move it out to the side keeping the fingers of both hands pointing ahead of you.
Start doing a push up. You will notice that the side of the body of the arm that you didn’t move out to the side is doing most of the work. Although you haven’t jumped straight into a one armed push up, one side of your body is definitely doing most of the work.
Once you’ve done 12 reps, or if you can’t do this much yet, as many as you can, change your arms so that the other one is now out to the side and the other arm is back in place.
Try and do 12 reps and then swap over arms again

Aim to do three sets with both arms. As they get easier, move your arm out further to the side until it is hardly helping your other arm at all. Keep trying this until you can comfortably do three sets of 12 reps. This is the first step of how to do one arm push ups.

The Second Step to Mastering Single Arm Push Ups

Now that you are doing three sets of 12 reps with one arm out to the side, and your working arm is taking most of the weight, it is now time to move to the next level of difficulty. For this you will need some kind of prop, something like a small step or study box will do perfectly. Whatever you choose it should be about six inches high off the ground and stable enough to hold some of your weight.

Get in the regular push up position. Remember to keep your legs close together and avoid splaying them out to make the exercise easier and therefore less effective.
Take one arm and move it out to the side but this time rest your palm on top of the step or box you are going to use.
Do your first push up. This time you will find it even harder than before to complete the exercise. As one of your arms is raised off the ground your working arm will be taking even more of the weight.
Try and do 12 reps or if not, as many as you can start with.
Swap arms so that the other one is up on the step or box and complete another set.

Again, aim for three sets of 12 reps and then move onto the next step.

Moving on to Single Arm Push Ups

Now you have done the prep work you are ready to try a single armed push up with a good chance at success.

Get into the regular starting push up position with your arms just outside shoulder width, fingers facing forward and your legs together.
Take one arm and place it on your lower back. Keep it out of the way to avoid succumbing to temptation and using it when things get tough.
Do your first one arm push up!

You might only be able to do one or two to begin with but keep at it and you will soon be doing three sets of 12 reps with ease. Once these become too easy try doing them with your legs elevated by resting them on a step of piece of furniture. Once this also, becomes too easy, you will have to invest in some weights or find a heavy object you can rest on your back to increase the amount of weight you are lifting.

A Simple Home Exercise to Zap the Fat and Build Muscle

As you can see, you can transform this relatively easy exercise into something much harder and useful by following a few simple steps. There are three reasons to work your way up to one armed push ups in order to change your body composition and say goodbye to skinny fat syndrome:

They become a difficult exercise that really helps to build your chest, shoulder and tricep muscles.
The extra muscle you grow will increase your body’s metabolism which means it burns more calories per day than it did before. With your new faster metabolism you will soon be on your way to getting rid of stubborn fat deposits around your waist and belly that give you the appearance of being skinny and fat at the same time.
They also make a great party trick!

Although this is a great exercise to have at your disposal it is essential that you don’t neglect the other areas and muscles groups of your body. Doing so will ensure you end up with an unbalanced body which could be almost as bad as how you were before! The good news is you can give your entire body a workout at home with barely any equipment at all. You can even do squats at home for toned, athletic legs and by adding a few dumbbells or kettlebells to your collection you can do even more great exercises without ever setting foot in the gym.

Join up with me on Facebook and let me know when you can do 10 one armed push ups, I’d love to hear from you.

How I Beat Skinny Fat Syndrome

September 18, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

The Nes didn’t make me fat

When I was a kid I was always pretty skinny. I never overate and we had a healthy lifestyle with a fair amount of exercise and outdoor activities. I never thought about my weight and just took it for granted that I wasn’t the fat kid in class who everyone mocked and teased. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t grow up on a farm where days would be spent roaming the fields, climbing trees and foraging for apples. In fact it was quite the opposite, I grew up in a big city but thanks to the era I was born in it was still considered pretty safe for kids to play outside and we’d spend most afternoons and evenings roaming around our neighbourhood on our bikes, skateboards and scooters. At home most kids from my neighbourhood had their own TVs, VCRs (like an old fashioned Blu-Ray player) and a NES (think Xbox without the fancy graphics and only two buttons on the controller) or a Master System but that wasn’t the only way we got our entertainment. At home we ate healthily but when we were out we were allowed sweets, chips and burgers in moderation.

So what all that in mind it’s no surprise that I grew up on the medium to thin end of the scale.

Skinny Fat isn’t Pretty

Fast forward 10 years to when I’d just finished college after several years of hard partying and no time at all spent cycling, skating or having a kick about and things had begun to change. I was still relatively lean for the most part but was starting to develop a bit of a substantial gut and my chest was starting to get a bit bigger and that growth had nothing to do with press-ups or bench presses and lot more to do with a sedentary lifestyle and an increased consumption of ‘bad’ calories such as takeaways and beers.

It took me a while to see for myself but there was no doubt about it: I was a skinny fat man!

Being skinny fat is no great position to find oneself in. You might look ok-ish when fully clothed but in front of the mirror at night or when undressed at the beach you don’t look a pretty sight at all! Truly fat people might scoff at the complaints of the skinny fat guys and girls as at least they don’t get abuse in the street and they can hide their body composition but when you have skinny fat syndrome you feel just as bad let me tell you.

So How Did I Stop Being Skinny Fat?

Previously I talked about the five stages of getting in shape and once I’d moved out of stage one (denial) I was moving in the right direction in terms of getting over my skinny fatness. My main approach was to join a local gym and start pounding the treadmill and although this was better than nothing it wasn’t long before I realised I was getting fitter and faster at running but the weight wasn’t really coming off and I still looked like the proverbial sack in the mirror.

Cardio isn’t the Answer

Daniel Craig at the Beach

While doing running or any other form of cardio is a great way to get fit it isn’t the best or most effective way to exercise in order to shape up and change the way you look. When it comes to making changes to your body type and shape that are pleasing to the eye the best way to do it is to start lifting those weights!

It wasn’t until I started doing resistance training using the weights machines in the gym and then the free weights once I’d built up a bit of foundation strength and confidence that I noticed the changes taking place.

I began to lose a bit of weight on the scales but more importantly I was building muscle which helped change the way I looked. I was no longer flabby and weak and I had started to become firm and toned. I never became a mass monster but I looked a lot better with my top off and those days out at the swimming pool or beach were now a lot less stressful and nights in under the covers a lot less daunting!

If you are serious about beating skinny fat syndrome then I recommend you either join a gym or start working at home. Working out at home is a lot easier and cheaper than you might imagine and this piece on why a kettlebell is all you need to get in shape at home can give you some great advice on getting started without breaking the bank.

Did you get over being skinny fat? If so leave a comment bellow or connect with us on Facebook.

If you want a guide to help you get in shape fast then check out the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle ebook now.

How to Avoid Skinny Fat Syndrome

July 3, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

A lot of people start going to the gym and exercising with fat loss as their main goal. Joining a gym or starting a home fitness program is one of the best steps you can take in your quest to lose fat and get in great shape but if you follow conventional wisdom when it comes to choosing and applying a workout regime then you could end up heading down the wrong path which might either make it a lot longer before you achieve your goals or take you to an entirely different, unwanted destination instead. That destination is the Skinny Fat Syndrome and it isn’t a place you want to go!

What is Skinny Fat Syndrome?

If, when fully clothed you appear to be relatively skinny and thin looking but in actual fact you have areas of fat such as your belly, chest and upper arms then there is a good chance you are skinny fat. This is the exact opposite of the athletic and toned look most people desire and affects men and women in equal numbers.

How Do People Get Skinny Fat?

Now, we understand that if you are reading this you specifically do not want to get skinny fat or are already there and want to know how to change your body composition to something healthier and more aesthetically pleasing. But it is worth pointing out the various ways people can end up suffering from Skinny Fat Syndrome to help explain this condition fully.

Starting Out Skinny with Gradual Fat Increases

This is the most common route to ending up being skinny and fat at the same time and happens to lots of people. Perhaps you were skinny or thin in your teens and early twenties and could eat what you wanted and didn’t have to do any physical activities to maintain your weight. As you started to get a bit older and as each year your body’s metabolism slowed down bit by bit you continued to eat the same amount of food but your body began to store more of this food as fat around your body. It might have been a gradual process of only a few extra pounds a year but after a few years this added up and you soon found yourself with a significant deposit of fat around your belly. Initially you could hide this new extra weight gain but when not wearing the right clothes or at the beach it was visible for all to see.

Following the Wrong Exercise Program when Trying to Lose Weight

This is the other main way people end up being skinny fat and is perhaps even more frustrating for the people to whom it applies. If you were overweight and had a body some people might have considered as being fat and you took the commendable steps to do something about it you might have initially started to lose weight and seen a striking transformation in your body composition as the fat started to melt away slowly but surely. But as you got down to a reasonable weight you found that although some parts of your body were thin and skinny other parts such as your belly, chest and thighs were still carrying unwanted weight and fatty deposits. Although you were now no longer overweight you still had areas of fat and for all the weight you had lost you still didn’t have the body you wanted.

The chances are you were using cardiovascular exercises such as running as your main or only method for burning off those extra calories and although this worked well initially it soon become a contributor to your status of being skinny fat.

How to Lose Weight without Becoming Skinny Fat

So now that we have covered ‘what is skinny fat’ and how it can happen we are getting to the crux of this article and that is how to lose weight without becoming a skinny fat person.

If we take a look the typical profile of a skinny fat person which applies to both men and women, we can see what needs to be done to avoid this situation:

Mainly skinny but with unwanted areas of fat such as the belly, upper arms and chest
Low levels of muscle tone
Legacy of being able to eat what they want which was mainly unhealthy food
Doesn’t exercise often and if does, only cardio exercises such as running, cycling or cross training
Drinks too much alcohol
Slower metabolism due to increasing age and/or lack of the right kind of exercise

So as you can see there are a number of contributing factors that could apply to someone in order to render them skinny fat. Some or all of those might apply to you and the more of them you can fix then the quicker you will be able to change your body to healthy and toned or whatever your goal might be.

The Best Thing You Can Do to Beat Skinny Fat Syndrome

If you look at the list above three of the key factors (low muscle tone, no regular exercise & slow metabolism) can be grouped together and remedied at the same time and that is with regular weight training. This applies to both men and women and we recommend that both genders should workout in the same way if they want to get in great shape, obtain a toned, healthy looking athletic physique to ensure they look good naked or at the beach.

Why Weight Training?

In a previous article we talked about why weight training is the best way to lose weight so for a more detailed answer you should look there but to sum it up weight training is the best way to no longer be skinny fat because:

Weight training workouts burn more calories than cardio exercises over the course of a day
More muscle tone means a faster metabolism which means your body burns more calories when resting
Adding muscle to your body gives you an athletic toned look with no flabby or wobbly bits

Weight training workouts can be done a few times a week and we recommend you only train for 30 minutes at a time. After half an hour shouldn’t have enough energy left to continue and if you have then you got the energy then you haven’t been doing it properly. Three 30 minute workouts a week should be sufficient.

You can start an effective weight training workout with hardly any fitness equipment at all or even without any equipment by doing body weight exercises. This means you can easily train at home without the expense of setting up a home gym or buying costly cardio equipment. For some ideas on weight training at home on a budget read this article to get started.

Why Cardio Isn’t the Answer

While cardio exercises such as running or cycling are great ways to increase your fitness levels they aren’t the best means to avoiding becoming skinny fat and having a toned figure. As you lose some of your fat by doing cardio training you unfortunately won’t be replacing that fat with lean body mass or muscle so your body won’t develop that toned, fit look.

Cardio training burns calories while you are training but as soon as you stop the exercise the calorie burning stops too. With weight training you get around an extra hour of increased calorie burn after you’ve finished working out making a weight training exercise much more effective in terms of calorie usage.

As your body doesn’t develop much if any muscle from your cardio workouts your body’s metabolism won’t improve like it does when you increase your levels of muscle. This means you don’t get the very important benefit of having a body that burns more calories in a day which you get from weight training and increasing your muscle mass.

Cardio training can even burn muscle instead of fat if you don’t do it correctly or fuel your workouts in the correct way. Muscle loss due to badly planned cardio workouts is more common than you think and can be a real problem and a big cause of becoming skinny fat. If your body is using muscle instead of fat for energy while you are running or cycling for example you won’t lose fat and will even lose muscle instead which might make your progress on the scales seem like it is heading in the right way but in terms of looking good in the mirror won’t help at all. Losing muscle will slow down your metabolism, make you look less toned and lead to a loss in strength and energy that might prevent you from being able to exercise in the future.

But I don’t want to Get Muscle Bound

This is a common concern from both men and women when they are recommend a weight training program in order to lose fat and get in shape but it isn’t something that should concern you. In order to get the benefits having more muscle gives you such as a faster metabolism and a more toned athletic look you only need to add a few pounds of lean mass. Adding significant amounts of muscle where you start to look bulky and out of proportion doesn’t happen overnight and takes years of dedicated heavy weight training alongside the user of supplements and special diets. We are not advocating that approach at all so this will not happen to you!

The average trainer will put on a few pounds of lean muscle relatively quickly and then the body will reach its natural limit of muscle mass. To get past that point you have to take your training to the next level which is something that is not needed to get in great shape and look good naked or at the beach. Do not fear weight training; excessive muscle gain isn’t easy!

Saying Goodbye to Skinny Fat

If you are serious about losing fat and getting in great shape I hope I have convinced you that weight training is the single most effective way of doing so without ending up somewhere you don’t want to be such as Skinnyfatsville.

Of course diet plays a big part and reducing the amount of alcohol you drink and cutting down on the number of unhealthy treats you have will definitely help but for the amount of effort vs. benefit weigh training can’t be beaten as it:

Speeds up your metabolism causing you to burn more calories each and every day
Replaces fat with muscle tone
Increases strength and gives you a great beach body
Can be done at home with very little equipment or none at all

If you want to know more about weight training for impressive fat loss then have a look at some of these articles:

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