How to lose belly fat without losing weight?

look into body recomp

With that BMI you really don’t need to worry about the number on the scale.

This is going to sound odd, but you should start hitting the weight room and interval workouts while keeping a caloric surplus.

You’ll gain muscle weight, and begin shedding fat due to a heightened metabolism from gaining muscle mass and having the high intensity intervals.

Don’t stress about it, I know what it’s like to have some pretty severe body image issues, with a BMI of 19 you may not have your ideal body but no one is going to judge you. Good luck! :)

So you’re saying that you have all of the unhealthiness of someone who is underweight but you have extra belly fat? And you want to keep it that way except you want the fat to move from your belly to somewhere else?

If you lost only the belly fat, then why would it matter if your weight was less?

Why would cycling not work for weight loss. It definitely would. Why wouldn’t you pick up some weight, or pull some resistance bands, or do some push-ups?

As long as your diet isn’t excessively high or low:

The reason for your weight will always be your diet.

The reason for your body composition will always be your training.

Billmax wrote:

I got injured and could not run for 3 months. I am very unsatisfied with my body because although I am skinny, and I have a BMI of 19 my body fat percentage changed from 6 to 13 percent! I assume that without running and training I changed all my muscle mass into fat mass. If I lose weight I will become medically underweight, but how can I lose my belly fat then?

It's not a one to one conversion. Your muscle cells did not (and do not) convert into fat cells. You lost muscle mass and gained fat mass. Now all you have to do it reverse that - lose fat and gain muscle. I wouldn't over-think this - just start exercising again, running, going to the gym and you will gain muscle and lose fat - assuming you have a healthy diet, don't take in excessive calories etc. which I will not get into.

CopperRunner wrote:

With that BMI you really don’t need to worry about the number on the scale.

This is going to sound odd, but you should start hitting the weight room and interval workouts while keeping a caloric surplus.

You’ll gain muscle weight, and begin shedding fat due to a heightened metabolism from gaining muscle mass and having the high intensity intervals.

Don’t stress about it, I know what it’s like to have some pretty severe body image issues, with a BMI of 19 you may not have your ideal body but no one is going to judge you. Good luck! :)

This guy has it right. But I will add one more thing.

Cut carbs, especially grains, and eat more red meat. Carbs are your enemy, protein and fat are your friends.

* "if not" running, going to the gym

And, like others have said, going to the gym is actually a better way to gain muscle and lose fat anyway. So you can stay the same way and simply alter your body fat % - the reverse from what you did being sedentary.

Billmax wrote:

I got injured and could not run for 3 months. I am very unsatisfied with my body because although I am skinny, and I have a BMI of 19 my body fat percentage changed from 6 to 13 percent! I assume that without running and training I changed all my muscle mass into fat mass. If I lose weight I will become medically underweight, but how can I lose my belly fat then? Since I still cannot run, and cycling doesn't seem to work for weight loss, losing weight seems the only solution.

PS: I am a recovered anorexic with a pretty abnormal distribution of body fat.

Assuming you aren't a troll, it's pretty clear you aren't a "recovered" anorexic. A BMI of 19 is bordering on being underweight, and considering the health history and the solicitation for body image advice you volunteered above, this is very concerning.

In all honesty and not tryin to sound mean, but you need to stop running and start seeing a therapist until you get this under control. Running is probably hurting any progress you are making/have made in getting healthy. I'd actually think you should quit as it's seems like it's a major contributor to self harm.

It would be bad if I lose weight, because I will become underweight, but I dont see any other solution to decrease my centimeters

My therapist made me fat I wont talk to them. I eat about 2000-2500kcal, walk 20 000-35 000 steps daily, train with cycling because I cannot run at the moment due to shin splints, eat 100 percent clean and I just dont understand WHY my fat percentage raised from 6 to 13 out of the blue! Its disgusting , I have to get rid of this as soon as possible. It would be bad if I lose weight, because I will become underweight, but I dont see any other solution to decrease my centimeters. Its not healthy to have so much body fat even at my BMI, I cannot run now because I got injured with shin splints and this made me fat

Billmax wrote:

My therapist made me fat I wont talk to them. I eat about 2000-2500kcal, walk 20 000-35 000 steps daily, train with cycling because I cannot run at the moment due to shin splints, eat 100 percent clean and I just dont understand WHY my fat percentage raised from 6 to 13 out of the blue! Its disgusting , I have to get rid of this as soon as possible. It would be bad if I lose weight, because I will become underweight, but I dont see any other solution to decrease my centimeters. Its not healthy to have so much body fat even at my BMI, I cannot run now because I got injured with shin splints and this made me fat

Like I said man, try gaining muscle mass. 13% bodyfat looks really good on someone with a decent amount of muscle, and with the aerobic work you are doing, you’ll shed fat pretty quickly with the weight training added in.

Yeah you are right, my running injury ruined my body composition and made me super depressed to see. I will take strength training but how can i do it if all gyms are closed, all i am doing now is long distance walking and high intensity cycling every other day. But walking every day at least 25 000 steps to 35 000 steps. Could it be cortisol or something, at the exact same weight before I had 6-7 percent body fat when i was running. I just gotta wait and running will take me away from this misery, there is no escape without running

Billmax wrote:

Yeah you are right, my running injury ruined my body composition and made me super depressed to see. I will take strength training but how can i do it if all gyms are closed, all i am doing now is long distance walking and high intensity cycling every other day. But walking every day at least 25 000 steps to 35 000 steps. Could it be cortisol or something, at the exact same weight before I had 6-7 percent body fat when i was running. I just gotta wait and running will take me away from this misery, there is no escape without running

Dude I’ve been almost exactly where you’ve been. Last year I tore my hamstring, broke up with a girl I thought I’d be with forever, and everything got cancelled cause of covid. Never been more depressed or down in the dumps in my life. I just ate pizza and chips all day to try and cope and got fat. Watching my muscles shrink and my fat grow was depressing as hell, so I really do understand how you are feeling now.

One day I looked at myself and said “I’m not gonna let this be how it all ends. The years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears isn’t going to end with me being a sad fat kid with trust issues, an eating disorder, and nothing going for him” and after that day I got my ass in the weight room and on the bike every day and started doing something with myself. Once I was recovered and was ready to start running again, I was a different beast mentally and physically. I successfully learned how to turn the regret, pain and trauma into something productive, something powerful. I’m now stronger than I’ve ever been. I’m faster than I’ve ever been in anything from the 100m to the marathon. I’m in way better shape than I’ve ever been in. I could’ve just kept sleeping and eating all day, and I coulda gotten fat and turned into a complete loser, but I knew I could be so much more, and I know you can too.

So now the decision is yours to make. Are you gonna lay down and accept this figurative ‘hole’ you are in? Or are you going to scratch and claw your way out with everything you have left, and then turn around and spit in it once you get out?

I made my decision, and you need to make yours. I believe in you man.

Sometimes you need to break in order to rebuild into something amazing.

I completely feel you, honestly I never had a problem with overeating, thanks to my history of anorexia, there was no such point in my life where I was fat. Now without running, what makes me feel so bad is to lose the shape and all the hard work I did . And not being able to enjoy the greatest love of my life hurts.

I am walking every day long distances up to 20km. a day, or the equivalent of 25,000-30,000 steps . I am restricting my diet to only clean and compliant foods. My weight is always staying the same, but my fat percentage is today about 11-12percent.

I try to keep my fitness with whatever i have and in a month when i can finally run, I cannot wait for that moment, the moment I will return to be myself. I am burning with impatience to return running

How much energy do you have through the day? I mean, 2000-2500 kcal is in the lower spectrum for your activity level. Walking 20 km a day is about 1000 kcal, and I guess that is just the bare minimum of excess activity you do during a day? (considering your background)

There is a lot of weight training you can do without a gym. Check out startbodyweight.com and start doing body weight resistance training.

Or build or buy a home gym!

I built my own barbell out of black iron pipe and made weight plates from concrete. I built a power rack out of 2x4s and now I can do heavy compound lifts (back squats, deadlifts, bench, overhead press, rows) safely from home.

Where there's a will there's a way!

Don't stress. My wife has been anorexic and from what I remember of the explanation, your body has gotten pretty messed up with metabolism/ hormones and so it takes time under healthy conditions for it to re-establish the correct balance. It's been deprived of calories/ nutrients while you've been anorexic so it's natural response to receiving calories is to try to store them as it is essentially operating under famine conditions.

My wife has had same thing, going from body image problems and being super muscular to anorexic to what she calls skinny fat. The correct thing to do right now is to eat a healthy nutrient dense diet with a constant caloric excess and as the other guys suggest, to use resistance training to increase muscle mass and some HIIT stuff. You should start producing more HGH and testosterone which will help keep lean, increase your muscle mass and consequently your bodyfat % will likely fall. Do not stress about the bodyfat stuff itself, IIRC the doctor said that it can something like 18 mths before the body starts to operate normally again depending on how long/ severe the anorexic episode lasted.

13% bodyfat is good, as someone else suggested, if your musculature develops you are going to look buff! Going the route of increasing low intensity, high volume aerobic and/ or caloric restriction is going to keep your BMI low, prevent your body raising its basal metabolic rate (which increases with increased muscle mass) and stop you from raising testosterone/ HGH and maybe increase cortisol.

I should add that I am not any kind of expert and I could be wrong, but from everything that I have read and my experience direct and from observing other people, I think this is correct.

The other thing that I would say, if you are not already doing it, you need to get counseling to deal with whatever it is emotionally/ psychologically that has resulted in you becoming anorexic and having body image issues. This isn't something abnormal, most of us these days have ll sorts of issues from such unhappiness and deep rooted trauma in our lives as contemporary society and what are now unhealthy norms all cause deep, deep misery.

I will close with the pointing you in the direction of Jesus Christ as through my unhappy experience of life, I have come to realize that this is really is the truth and that there is a God in heaven that loves you and will heal you from your wounds.

Powerfull stuff, nebraska2020. Indeed a great answer to a soul in need of help. Although the last sentiment was a bit to much for me to handle. Not to be respectful or anything, but it came so from clear sky that it made me laugh. Again, I' m not paying disrespect or anything, it was just a bit funny coming so much from clear sky.

But again. Fantastic reply. Well written, reflective and good guidance! Wish there could me more genuine answers like that.

Mods, this is a post about an admittedly anorexic person seeking advice on how to lose fat. This is a dangerous thread as OP and needs to be deleted. Keeping this up encourages discussion that could result in self harm. Please delete.

when you work back towards running you might find mini trampoline, and step aerobics useful tools to ease into that transition. also simply pushing into a wall like a very simplified football sled drill. starting with minimal force. you will probably be able to benefit from step aerobics done way slower and for way shorter periods than it tends to be done in a fitness class. for example even 4 to 8 minutes at a time. you might go on mini trampoline and lightly jump for 20 seconds on 20 seconds off. and gradually adapt. probably you will want to do a few months of weights. a lot can be done with just a few dumbbells . easing into high reps.