How to Get Rid of Back Fat Fast and Effectively?

Why exactly back fat forms? Well, there are various factors relating to genetics and lifestyle. If you live a sedentary life and eat mostly junk food, don’t expect to have a fit body. So, how to get rid of back fat and be fit overall? First of all, clean up your diet by stop eating processed and calorie-dense food. Also, start to exercise at least three times a week and start living a more active life. By doing those you’ll learn how to get rid of back fat.

You should know that losing fat only on the targeted body part is not possible. Nevertheless, by doing some particular exercises, you can strengthen muscles in that area to achieve a lean look.

In this article, we’ll talk about lifestyle choices, healthy foods, and a workout program that targets back, core, and shoulder muscles.

Let’s list some of the changes you can make relating to your lifestyle choices. These small changes can overall improve your body and health and show you how to get rid of back fat.

• First of all, start being more active. Walk as much as you can, aim 10 thousand steps a day. Also, climb the stairs every day instead of taking the elevator, this can make a huge difference.
• Stand with your head held high, by doing that you’ll achieve a good posture that strengthens your lower back muscles.
• Instead of eating fast food, try meal prepping. Prepare your lunch at home to eat a more balanced diet.
• Cut on drinking and smoking, to be healthy and fit.

What Causes Back Fat?

There are three main reasons for that; activity, diet, and genetics. Let’s go through all of them.

Activity

Download an app on your phone that counts your daily steps, etc. If your daily steps estimate below 2K steps, that’s a huge problem. You should take 10 thousand steps a day and perform physical activities instead of avoiding them. If you continue your old habits, your body won’t use the fat stored in your belly and back. Also, a sedentary lifestyle can cause a lot of health problems like heart diseases, obesity, and more.

Don’t worry, we’ll give a workout program that shows you how to get rid of back fat and more!

Diet

We recommend you download an app like myfitnesspal to track what you eat. Count your calories for only a week and you’ll see how you feed your body. What are your daily protein, carbs, and fat? How many calories do you consume a day? Do you mostly eat junk and processed foods? If you don’t eat whole foods and instead of that choose to eat fast food outside; you should know that they are high in calories, fat, and carbs.

That doesn’t mean all fat and carbs are evil. Nope, there are good carb and fat sources you should eat during a week to achieve a healthy and fit body.

In our next section we’ll give out healthy superfoods you should know and integrate into your diet. If you replace what you eat now with them, you are bound to lose significant fat in your belly and back!

Genetics

Well, you can’t really do anything about this. Some people gain weight much faster than others and find it hard to lose it. Nevertheless, most people believe that they can’t lose weight due to their genetics, often the reality is the opposite.

Put in the hard work and slowly but steadily increase your activity time each week. Also, get your diet in order and replace bad food options with good ones. That’s exactly how to get rid of back fat. If you don’t, eventually by being overweight; you’ll increase your risk for heart diseases, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea, and depression.

Can Back Fat Cause Back Pain?

Most people who are overweight or obese also suffer from back pain. Even though, there can’t be found a direct correlation between how excess weight can cause back pain; overweight individuals are at risk of back, joint, and knee pain. Also, by being overweight, they suffer from breathing and lightheadedness whenever they exercise.

Musculoskeletal pain, especially back pain happens to one-third of Americans who are classified as obese. (1) Besides suffering from back and joint pain, they also suffer from muscle and ligament strain, and tilted spine.

People who got excess weight in their belly and back can strain the lower back. Especially women who are obese or overweight are at greater risk for lower back pain compared to men. (2)

Get your Diet in Order to Lose Back Fat

No matter which diet you choose, you should aim for calorie deficit and balanced dieting to lose weight. We don’t recommend diets that cut out all carbs and fat sources because even though you lose fat; your body needs carbs and fat to function. You shouldn’t jeopardize your health to lose fat and weight a bit faster than you normally can. For example, you can choose to eat a lot fewer calories like 300 calories a day, and basically starve yourself to lose weight, oh you’ll lose weight but also lose muscles and vital functions your body needs to perform.

Don’t listen to the fad diets for weight loss, because all of them have one thing in common, and that’s a calorie deficit. They try to make it as complicated as possible to make you believe it’s hard to grasp and only they can help you. Weight loss is not rocket science. If you eat processed fast foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizzas; don’t expect to be able to lose weight and be healthy. That’s not how to get rid of back fat.

You can’t choose where fat loss happens. Still, be patient and continue your new lifestyle choices. As long as you stay faithful to your diet; stubborn fat will go away.

Let’s list some superfoods that are for weight loss:

1. Egg: Eat whole eggs and don’t be afraid of eating foods that have fat.
2. Cottage Cheese: It’s low in fat and high in protein.
3. Avocado: Avocados offer healthy fats and make you feel full.
4. Legumes: Prefer fibrous foods to improve your digestion.
5. Almond: It’s another awesome healthy fat source.
6. Fish: Especially salmon is a great protein and omega-3 source.
7. Spinach: If you want to have a plant-based omega-3 source.
8. Apple Cider Vinegar: Use vinegar on your salads to lose fat faster.

If you want to learn more about which foods you should have in your diet, check our list of “27 Super Foods for Weight Loss That Will Make You Lose Belly Fat Quickly!”

Exercises for Back Fat

Alright, we learned what causes back fat, now let’s see how to get rid of back fat with exercises. Most of the exercises we’ll be listing target lower back and core muscles. Also, some exercises target the shoulder and upper back muscles.

You can do these exercises at home and you only need a pair of dumbbells to do these exercises.

1) Rowing

We just said that you’ll only need a pair of dumbbells, so what is this? Well, you don’t need a rowing machine to do rowing, you can do this exercise with dumbbells. Still, a rowing machine is an amazing cardio machine, check out this article to learn more: “8 Best Rowing Machine for Home – Ultimate Guide”.

Rowing exercise works your back muscles and depending on your position it can target lats more.

Step by Step:

• Sit with your back straight, don’t forget to keep your back straight as possible during the movement.
• Grip the handles and by bending your elbows, pull in.
• You should feel your back muscles at the top of the movement.
• Release in a controlled manner to keep the tension.
• Do this exercise for 3 sets of 12, or do a full range of motion rows as much as you can in a minute to turn this exercise into a cardio workout.

2) Shadow Boxing

You don’t have to own a punching bag to do boxing, in fact, shadow boxing is an awesome way to blow off some steam while burning a lot of calories. Also, by doing this exercise you’ll be toning your arms and upper body.

Step by Step:

• Hold your fists high as you would defend in a fighting position. Keep your feet hip-width apart and put your left foot forward. (If you use your left hand, put your right foot forward)
• Start punching the air slowly, use your body and try to feel your back and shoulder muscles, do this for 30 seconds.
• Then start punching faster for 30 seconds.
• That was the first set, do this interval 3 to 4 times, as much as you can.

3) Back Extension

This bodyweight exercise is to target your lower back and glutes.

Step by Step:

• Lie face down and bring your hands to the back of your head.
• Breathe and engage your core and glutes.
• Lift your legs, shoulders, and chest off the ground.
• Bring your shoulder blades together and squeeze your glutes.
• Repeat this for 3 sets of 20.

4) Side Jackknife

A strong core affects how much fat accumulates on your back, and side jackknife exercise targets your obliques. By doing this exercise, you’ll be toning more than only your lower back, it will also tone your love handles.

Step by Step:

• Lie on your right side and put your legs over each other.
• Get your left hand behind your head, don’t push your neck with your hand while doing exercise.
• Engage your core and raise your left leg towards the ceiling, while doing that also do a side crunch.
• Switch to the other side and do this exercise in a total of 3 sets of 12 reps for both sides.

5) Single Arm Row

If you don’t have a rowing machine, do this exercise with a dumbbell. The single-arm row will help you target your back muscles better by letting you focus on only one side. While doing this exercise, keep your core engaged and your back flat.

Step by Step:

• Hold a dumbbell in your right hand and bend down.
• Pull the dumbbell towards your lower chest and slowly release it to use gravity to your advantage.
• 3 sets of 12 for both sides.

6) Reverse Fly

This exercise answers the question of how to get rid of back fat by helping you build a strong back. It efficiently exercises your shoulders and upper back muscles.

Step by Step:

• Place your feet under your shoulders and hold two dumbbells.
• Bend forward and keep your back flat, dumbbells should be parallel to the floor under your chest.
• Simulate flying motion by raising your arms to your sides and bringing your shoulder blades together.
• Lower the dumbbells slowly and repeat this exercise for 3 sets of 12.

7) Lateral Raises

This exercise works your side shoulder muscles and back. Don’t be afraid of building muscle, you’ll look more toned and lean instead of looking bulky.

Step by Step:

• Hold dumbbells in your hands while standing.
• Raise dumbbells simultaneously to your sides, don’t shrug your trap muscles.
• Lower dumbbells in a controlled manner and repeat this exercise for 3 sets of 12.

8) Dumbbell or Kettlebell Swing

This exercise works your glutes and hip muscles. It would be more effective to do this exercise with a kettlebell, click this link to see more exercises you can do with a kettlebell: “Exercising with Kettlebells is the Best Way to Burn Fat! Find Out Why”

Step by Step:

• Your feet should be shoulder-width apart while holding a dumbbell or a kettlebell in front of you.
• Bend your knees and bring your hips behind to get the weight in between your legs.
• Now, squeeze your glutes and thrust your hips to push the weight up and forward.
• Contract your glutes, core, and leg muscles when the weight reaches your chest height.
• Swing the weight back and forward between your legs for 3 sets of 12.

9) Hip Twister Plank

One of the best ways to finish up an exercise routine is the plank. However, we prefer doing active planks instead of passive ones. By doing hip twister plank, you’ll exercise your obliques and lower abs. Do this exercise slowly with a perfect form to get the most out of it.

Step by Step:

• Get into a regular plank position.
• Engage your core and turn your torso while you move your left hip to the ground.
• Then turn your torso to the opposite side and drop your right hip to the ground.
• In a controlled manner, do rotations for a minute.

10) Cat stretches

Finally, stretch your back to lengthen your spine and strengthen your spine. This exercise will release the tension on your lower back.

Step by Step:

• Get on your hands and knees, your knees should be placed hip-width apart.
• Arch your back and pull your belly into your spine.
• Relax and stop contracting your ab muscles.
• Get back to your starting position.
• Do this exercise for 30 seconds. Don’t rush through the movement.

Conclusion

We gave out actionable exercises and diet choices on how to get rid of back fat. However, remember that you can’t target one area to lose weight, you can only strengthen that area, and eventually, you’ll lose that stubborn fat.

In short,

• Spend more time on your feet.
• Exercise a couple of times a week.
• Eat healthy foods and cut out processed food.

Don’t obsess over your body and worry about why the results are not coming. You need time, just follow your new lifestyle choices and stay consistent. One cheat day can ruin a whole week of work, stay disciplined but don’t bully yourself. Time is on your side!

Keep in mind that, if you aim to look and be fit like a famous person, that won’t happen. You are you and you won’t look like anybody else. Everybody has flaws and limitations even though they try their hardest to mask them.

In the comments, could you tell us your height and your ideal body weight?

Thank you for reading.

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