What happens with most skinny-fat guys who get into fitness is that we believe that as long as we eat clean and train hard, we can look exactly like the guy who started out skinny with a flat waist and ab-definition.
…And that’s partly true.
Everyone can achieve ab definition as long as they move more and eat less.
However, certain groups of people have to put in a lot more effort to maintain a lean physique. (Even when training, diet and supplementation are all dialled in).
One of these groups is those of us who have been skinny-fat or fat throughout all our teenage years.
If you’re like me and a lot of other guys who were skinny-fat or fat during your teenage years, you’ve probably noticed that you re-gain fat VERY easily.
One bad meal is enough to go from having ab-definition to love handles.
Maintaining a lean physique is hard and requires a lot of work compared to guys who were lean while growing up.
Why? Because we have more fat cells in the lower waist and hip area.
Fat cells are like balloons.
They are always ready to be filled up when you eat too much.
So guys who have a high amount of fat cells, gain fat easily.
These additional fat cells make it VERY difficult to get fully visible abs and even more difficult to maintain that look.
The Bad News: The Total Amount of Fat Cells In Your Body Can’t Decrease Once You’re An Adult
The total amount of fat cells in your body fluctuates throughout your childhood and early-mid teenage years.
Once you’re about 16-18 years old, the total amount of fat cells in your body cannot decrease.
You can do all the training an dieting in the world but it won’t change the amount of fat cells you have in the body.
This is similar to guys who developed puffy nipples during their early teenage years.
If you don’t do something about it early, they become permanent because the body “settles for a look”.
It decides how it wants you to look for the rest of your life.
I personally have a lot of fat cells in my lower waist and hips.
The first time I ever got lean was in November 2012 at age 20.
This was after 2 years of hard training, dieting and shredding 60 pounds of fat.
Today, I still have to watch what I eat, otherwise my waist blows up.
To give you some perspective, last time I went out and ate whatever I wanted and had a few drinks I gained 5 pounds and 1 inch around my lower waist.
That’s A LOT of fat gain from one night.
Before going out, I had ab-definition and looked very fit.
I also ate clean food the whole day, supplemented with Omega-3 and Greens and trained hard in the gym for a bit over an hour.
The next morning, after going out, I had love handles and when I walked I could feel the sides of my waist bouncing up and down.
It took me an entire week of hard work to lose that side-fat and get back in shape.
In other words, ONE night messed up an entire week of progress.
If I go “all out” just for ONE night a week like most other guys my age and eat whatever I want and have a few drinks, there’s no way I can make progress in my training and I can’t stay lean.
What To Do If You Have A Lot of Fat Cells?
If you’re still in your early or mid teens, it’s not too late and I REALLY urge you to take action to shred fat.
You can start making lifestyle changes that support fat loss and thereby decrease the amount of fat cells you have for the rest of your life.
A good start is the 2 phases of a skinny-fat transformation page on this website.
If you’re a parent with a chubby kid, I also recommend you have them start their fat loss as soon as possible because it will make their life so much easier later on!
But what about those of us who aren’t teenagers any more and who have a lot of fat cells?
We just have to work with what we have.
For me, this means that I do my absolute best to eat healthy and achieve a lean physique, but I also have realistic expectations.
If your body works in a similar way to mine, you will find it VERY difficult to maintain fully visible abs and you might want to settle for a more sustainable look.
A look that you can maintain year around without having to starve yourself and dealing with low energy levels that come from overly strict diets.
Your daily energy levels and overall health are MUCH more important than the way your stomach looks.
“But Oskar, I’ve been fat all my life and now I want to have shredded abs. I need them to feel good about myself.”
You don’t have to measure progress by how ripped your stomach is. Especially if you have a lot of fat cells there and it’s incredibly hard for you to get ripped and stay ripped.
Making progress is key behind feeling accomplished on a daily basis, but progress is relative and you can choose HOW you measure progress.
One of the best bodybuilding champions ever, Arnold Schwarzenegger, NEVER had a 6-pack but he still beat all his competition because his arms, chest and back were better.
Now, I’m not saying that you should compare yourself to Arnold, but the point is that it’s much better to play to your strengths, or at least focus on things that you can improve on consistently while feeling good in the process.
You can focus your attention on building enough strength to do 10 pull ups.
Or adding size to your arms.
The options are endless.
Feeling great on a daily basis largely depends on progress and the way you measure progress depends on what YOU decide to focus on.
Be proud but stay hungry!
Oskar Faarkrog, ISSA Certified Trainer
Photo 1 credit: Health Central
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I have a real problem regarding visceral fat, especially on lower abs, and love handles… I’m 1.86 cm tall and despite having love handles and visceral fat, my actual waist is pretty small for someone with my bone structure: I have 112-87.5-106 chest/waist/hip size and 0.82,5 so basically a hourglass figure that would belong on a female, but that doesn’t bother me because I find it really sexy…
But even though my gut (relaxed) has gone from 110 to 105 cm in 2 months and my love handles should be a little smaller than my ass, they aren’t so I need to get them down to less than 100 cm so it can look great, but by that time I need to have a 110 cm ass to make it look even smaller…
I’m now 85 kg and just started doing a 675/day caloric deficit which sums 21000 calories/month and it will make me look great in a short time because that equals 2.7 kg of weight loss/month…
I want to get back to my 75 kg weight like I was in 2020 because, at this time, my face was so much leaner and my body looked so amazing, I looked like an angel… Too bad I won’t be able to do it by this year’s summer because I wanted to look good for pools/beaches :(
I don’t care about what women or men think because I refuse to meet the standard masculine patterns for a “male body” that aims for a strong upper body with big arms, blocky waist, medium-sized legs and no ass, a pattern that was created by women and is now in forced by men (but this is changing).
My arms are quite slender and long as they don’t having bulging biceps or triceps, my shoulders and ribcage are naturally wide which makes me look big even at low bodyweight (50 cm bideltoid completely untrained), I don’t like training chest so it is bony at the the upper and middle parts with mass only on the outer/lower portions (not lean but that makes them more “squeezable”) with my clavicle bones showing, my waist becomes even smaller at 77 cm with the middle abdominal crest showing, ass gets a little smaller but still 103 cm so it makes the legs look larger, and my calves were always awesome, very defined specially for my longer limbs…
I was able to stop traffic in 2020 because of my looks even though I have some flaws that bother me – and that was in clothes – but… Once I do that I just need to let my hair grow out again and I’ll look the same as before, but this time I’ll do some things to look even hotter like getting a dangling earring, fixing my mild acne scars, fixing my scoliosis, fixing some stretchmarks, getting thicker eyebrows, getting rid of a mild umbilical hernia, going completely hairless and getting my jaw wider by 0.2 mm on each side…
I was approached by a lot of women and gropped by a lot of men and that’s fine since I don’t care too much about sex: I’ll do it, it’s fun, but the validation is addicting and even though I already got validation for a thousand lifetimes, I want more, I want it ALL: when I do all that, I will go to a nudist beach to see how I fare hahaha
That was it for today: boys, do what you gotta do to get hotter and don’t let society push rules on you, your body type doesn’t matter as long as you turn heads on the streets and cause people to sexually assault you ;)
Oskar, this caught my attention:
One of these groups is those of us who have been skinny-fat or fat throughout all our teenage years.
I was fat from child till like 15 years old, on 15 i started to lose weight and at 16 i was very skinny, 58kg for 180+cm
It means im not fat throught all my teenage years, what you can say about my case? Thanks a lot in advance.
Hi, Oskar. This thing about fat cells is one of the things I’m curious about, and the answers I found on Google were not quite certain to me.
I’m going to turn 18 this May, but is it too late to “kill” my fat cells?
Oskar , I believe you are discourage people that are skinny fat. I know it’s hard to get a good physic but its hard for every one.Skinny fat problem can be solved and its not a real problem I believe , if you dont have hormonal problems etc.
Btw I am skinny fat too..
I once asked a gym instructor (who had a 4 year degree in sports science – not the ones that last like 1 year and then call themselves “profesionals in sports science) about the issue of fat cells never disappearing.
He told me that they CAN “disappear” (actually disappear is a very vague word, a more correct word would be dissenthisized) but they take a lot of hard work, a lot of cardio plus weight training and near perfect nutrition with lots of veggies and lean meats. Also, and that is where the words “hard work” come into play, he told me that the only actual way to dissenthisize the fat cells is to stay at the same bf% for a lot of time. The logic goes that the body is always tries to reach homeostasis, and those extra fat cells use energy to “stay alive”
The body then realizes that those fat cells are getting “hungry” which is the reason why a lot of once fat people always have food cravings during their initial transformation from fat to less fat or skinny. But, if they manage to push through this hunger and not feed those fat cells, and actually manage to stay at a reasonable bodyfat, eventually the body realizes that those fat cells are nothing more than just a calorie source that burns calories and does nothing more “useful” and ends up burning them up.
So why does common science say those fat cells never disappear? well because of the reason that most people actually never give them a reason to disappear in the first place. Most people who embark on their fitness journey stop working out after some time, and even if they manage to stay the usually have very bad diets that feed the fat cells.
Thank you for your comment
It’s interesting with a new perspective but you have to keep in mind I’ve been relatively lean for over 4 years now and maintained the same weight during that time.
I still find it very easy to fill up the fat cells when I overeat
It is impossible to gain 5lbs of fat in one day. 1lb of fat is approximately 3500 calories. You would have to eat your 2000 calorie daily allotment plus an extra 17,500 calories for a total of just under 20,000 calories. Even if you drank your calories in pure sugar form, your body wouldn’t be able to absorb anywhere near that in one day.
Anyone who gains 5lbs around the waiste in one day probably has ascites (water retention) from end-stage liver disease.
If you read carefully I didn’t say I gained 5 pounds of fat. I said I gained 5 pounds and 1 inch around the waist.
Of course some of that gain was water retention.
However, what matters is that I gained a lot of body-fat. I could feel it and see it in the mirror. I basically lost more than a week’s fat loss progress.
Also, if you believe that fat gains are a result of Daily Caloric Intake then you may be trying to oversimplify something that is a whole lot more complicated.
Your body doesn’t work like a 24 hour machine that resets each day and Calories are just a measure of heat – nothing else. Calories do not determine changes in your body-composition – there are too many factors in play so you can’t simplify it down to a formula that measures heat.
Oskar i can’t buy a pull up bar right now, can you recommend me the best exercises who worked for you with dumbells for lats and shoulders?
Hey man, I can relate to you an a very high level. I was always overweight growing up, always known as the the big strong kid. Starting 7th grade I was moderately weight training with my step dad who is a personal trainer and I was eating healthy but nothing seemed to be working. I was always an athletic kid good at sports fast for my size but I was always getting bigger. Up until December of my 9th grade year nothing was working and I was 5’8 240. Since I had been exercising and eating somewhat well and was getting worse and worse my mom grew skeptical and knew something was up. She took me to a genetics doctor and they did some tests and I found out about a bunch of things wrong that had very much helped my development of becoming obese. My doctor said it was like a perfect storm of things wrong to become obese. I’m not going to sit here and name everything wrong with my genetics but another thing that also was a reason for me not being able to lose any weight was mold. I had black mold in my body stored in my fat cells. I had started taking supplements to get the mold out of my body and I immediately started feeling less fatigued and foggy which was just another problem at the time. Since December I have been on a weight loss journey and I’ve lost 55 pounds and I’m down to 185. As of right now my body fat % is at 19% but I don’t feel I look it. I still have a good set of love handles and fat around my abdomen. I have always been a strong kid with a good amount of muscle mass too so I am very confused on why I still have this look after losing 55 pounds. What I can relate to you about is first your body type when you started out. I look relatively similar I have more of a stronger build but the middle section is close. I also relate to the fact that one night of bad eating or drinking can take me back a whole week. I can gain an absurd amount of weight in one night and see the huge difference the next morning whether it’s mostly water or not. And it does take a week of hard work and good dieting to get back to where I was. I’m a 16 year old kid in highschool it’s tough not to go out and have fun with my friends and eat and drink the shit that they do because I know it’s going to affect me a hell of a lot more then it will them. Right now I’m confused on how I should train at the moment to stay at this weight or even higher but lose the skinny fat and the love handles. I’m a football player and I can’t lose any more weight or I will be too small for my position so I can’t go on another big weight loss journey.
Hi Oskar,I have a good 6 pack,but my obliques need trimming,Im 58, do bodyweight exercises only,I walk 45 – 60 minutes a day, Is there anything eles you would suggest? Your website is great,keep up the great work.
sir It is possible to gain one inch of fat in one day !
“The Bad News: The Total Amount of Fat Cells In Your Body Can’t Decrease Once You’re An Adult”
Care to share a scientific proof?
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/05/04/fat-cell-number-is-set-in-childhood-and-stays-constant-in-ad/
Great article Oskar,
Once you have fat cells they are very hard to get rid of. You can shrink them by using the stored fat as energy if you diet. But the more fat cells you have, the more prone you are to maintain fat on your physique.
A low sugar diet can help reduce fat cell size. Eating just enough carbs to keep energy levels up without storing calories extra as fat is optimal to maintain a healthy weight and body fat percentage.
Excellent insight as always. Thanks for sharing and enlightening trainers in a world were we are bombarded by b.s. that leads to unrealistic expectations.
You don’t need perfection, just become the best version of yourself!
-Hoz
That is a fact and is one more reason why you shouldn’t do dirty bulking, specially as a natural…
sir .I heard about the new tecnology to get rid of fat cell permanently which is called coolsculpting.plz explain about this tecnology
Unfortunately I don’t know anything about that
Hey Oscar, it’s a sad fact that you can’t get rid your puffy nipples once you’re after puberty. I used to be skinny fat during puberty years but not anymore (you have helped a lot) the only problem is that my puffy nipples are not gone completely. The question is, do they affect my hormonal production?
They don’t affect your hormonal production but having them likely means that you had a hormonal balance and I suggest you get a hormonal panel done just to be on the safe side
Oskar, another enlightening article!
I have a quick question tho, i am currently stuck on 15% body fat and no matter what i do – training hard in the gym, adding cardio, eat clean etc cant seem to go lower than that.
My abs definition is out but the layer of fat on the lower waist is still there.
I can send you a picture Oskar just to get your opinion.
Thanks for all the help!
Do you do refeed meals? If so, how often?
Also, how did you measure your body fat?
Sir how can you gain 5 pounds in one day!orr oit could be the water weight
Partly water weight partly fat. Probably a 60/40 split
Great article Oskar!
Whew I was beginning to think that I was the only one cursed with this crap. I don’t drink alcohol and I’ve cut sodas out of my life as the liquid calories do more harm than good. I’d lose 3 lbs and then re-gain it. I waist is around 34 inches (chubby at the bottom but yet I can see the outline of my rib cage and a bit of the separation line in the middle).
I can do max out 15 to 17 chin ups. I do 3 sets of 12 normally so I’m hardly unfit but I still have this belly sticking out unless I suck it in or I’m wearing clothes (then it’s invisible). What is this madness?
One a side note… I’ve make better progress when I eat more because I can do several workouts throughout the day. When I ate less I looked worse because I lost muscle as well and even a mere 8 pull ups left me feeling a bit of vertigo.
Thanks for the comment!
Great, Oskar. I’ve been fat all my childhood and i get really skinny when i made 16 years, when i was 17 i probably have less than 10% bodyfat but no visible abs because of shit genectis for muscle. Now i was 23 and i gain and loss weight easily if i want. My question is, did you think i have a lot of fat cells ? i wake up with a very slim body but when i eat carbs i get limp and swelling.
And other question: You can suggest something for me to maintain the body that i wake up all the day? And great article man, you are the best in fitness industry.
Wow man thanks for the compliment.
I do think you might have a lot of fat cells but I can’t be 100% certain.
Tips:
– no alcohol
– don’t eat meals that are high in sugar and fat at the same time.
– eat smaller meals and train early in the day
– get your sleep
You’re creating a book Oskaar?
Fantastic, will be delighted to support it.
Don’t think I can afford coaching currently (I’m starting over health wise, lots of stress so I am at year 0 again) but want to have some way of repaying you for all the advice you’ve put on here for free over the years.
Really man, the gyno and testosterone advice alone help so many guys with same problems.
I’m glad you liked it and that you will support the book! I wish you the bets with your training