Wondering how to get rid of back fat? You’re not the only one. Back fat is one of the biggest issues women struggle with when it comes to losing weight, and your back can fall by the wayside if it’s not a focus of your workouts. While certain exercises can work to strengthen and tone your back, an overall healthier lifestyle, following a healthy diet and tweaking your workout regime are the best ways to slim down your back. Let’s dive deeper with our best tips to stop back fat in its tracks.
What Causes Back Fat?
There are a number of things that can result in excess back fat, including poor nutrition, a lack of exercise and genetics. All of these things play a role in where your body stores fat. The combination of poor nutrition and lack of exercise contributes to fat tissue accumulation around the back and leads to the appearance of back flab around your upper and lower back.
A diet that’s particularly high in sodium and sugar can contribute to inflammation in the body, making back fat and bloating appear more prominent. If you do exercise, you may notice more back fat if you’re not using resistance training or doing cardio.
Resistance training is one of the best ways to burn calories and body fat effectively and if you want to lose back fat, it’s important to focus on exercises that intentionally target your lower and upper back. While spot treating areas of fat on your body doesn’t work, there are certain exercises that tone your back muscles. And cardio is one of the best ways to lose overall body fat.
In more serious cases, back fat can be associated with insulin resistance, high testosterone and a low carbohydrate tolerance, so if you’ve been dealing with it for a long time, even with a healthy diet and active lifestyle, you may want to get in touch with your doctor.
5 Exercise Essentials to Invest In
1. Workout mat
2. Dumbbell set
3. Kettle bell
4. Punching bag
5. Water bottle
6 Best Exercises to Get Rid of Back Fat
1. Reverse Fly
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding dumbbells by your side. Bring your pelvis back and chest forward until it’s parallel to the ground. There should be a slight bend in your knees. You should also have a slight bend in your arms with your palms facing each other and weights hanging towards the floor. Embrace your core, straighten your back and tuck your chin. Raise your arms to the sides while squeezing your shoulder blades together. Lower the arms back to starting position and repeat 10 times, do 2 to 3 sets.
2. Super Wo(Man)
Lie on your stomach on an exercise mat. Lengthen your arms and legs or bring your hands to your temples with your elbows out to the sides. Engaging your core and glutes, lift your hands and feet off the ground at the same time (aim to get them about 6 inches off the ground). You should be lifting your head at the same time as leaning forward, rather than aiming upwards.
3. Kettlebell Swing
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a kettlebell with both your hands in the centre of your legs. Keep your back straight, bend your legs slightly, push your hips back and swing the kettlebell in between your legs. Once the weight is behind your body, engage your glutes and thrust your hips forward, swinging the kettlebell to chest level. Repeat 10 times, doing 2 to 3 sets.
4. Rowing
Rowing is an incredible workout for your entire body, and targets and tones the back. Try a basic seated cable row. Sit on the rowing machine with your back straight and hands gripping the row machine handle. Draw your arms in, bending your elbows and pulling as you lean back. Return to starting position and repeat. Try to repeat this exercise quickly for several minutes to get some cardio in too!
5. Speed Bag
While it’s best to use a boxing bag for this exercise, you don’t need to! It’s great to tone your arms and upper body, including your back. Stand in a fighting stance with one foot a couple steps in front of the other and your hands in fists, close to your jaw. Set a timer between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. With your knuckles facing outward, aim to hit your bag (or invisible bag) as many times as you can within your time frame, rotating between your arms. Do up to 3 sets.
6. Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand (with your palms facing each other). Bend your knees slightly and bring your torso forward by bending at the waist. Keep your back straight and bend until you reach a 60 degree angle. The weights should hang directly in front of you and perpendicular to the floor. Bend your elbows and lift the dumbbells to your side, keeping your arms close to your body. Squeeze your back muscles and hold for a second, then slowly lower the weights to starting position. Repeat for 10 reps.
4 Lifestyle Tips to Get Rid of Back Fat
1. Focus on Healthy Eating
A diet that’s rich in fibre and protein, and low in sodium can help decrease body fat and “water weight” that your body may be storing in your back area. Focus your meals around healthy whole foods like avocados, hard boiled eggs, leafy greens, broccoli, sweet potatoes, salmon, tuna and lean chicken breast. Eat tons of fruits and vegetables on the daily and emphasize whole grains and healthy carbs.
2. Cut Refined Sugars and Carbs
Eating foods full of refined sugars and carbs, like white bread and pasta, pastries, pizzas, donuts, and white rice, isn’t doing you any favours. They slow your body down and don’t provide any nutritional value. If you want to start working out more, it’s important you feel energized, and these foods can make you feel sluggish and fatigued. Avoid them as much as possible and focus on nutritional foods with adequate vitamins and minerals.
3. Decrease Your Alcohol Intake
Alcohol can contribute to excess body fat, including back fat, in numerous ways. It prevents your body from burning fat, can make you feel hungry and leads to cravings for salty and greasy foods. Plus, unless you’re drinking pure spirits, alcoholic drinks are typically full of sugar and calories. Try to cut out alcohol as much as possible on your weight loss journey.
4. Stress Less
Stress is horrible for the body and can lead to everything from high blood pressure and heart disease to obesity and diabetes. Stress hormones actually slow down your body’s ability to burn fat. Your mental health is just as important as physical health when it comes to weight loss, so it’s important to take care of yourself. Getting outside for daily walks, practicing yoga, doing meditation and journaling are some of the best ways to relieve stress.
If you’ve noticed more back fat accumulating than you want, try these exercises and lifestyle tips to make some healthy changes!
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