The Secrets of the Skinny Fat (Part I)
The skinny fat "look"
No. This isn’t meant to be an oxymoron. No, I’m not a moron. Skinny Fat is a real thing. It’s like a syndrome.
It’s happening every day. 90% of people I see on the street have “skinny fat syndrome”.
You know what I’m talking about: guys walking around with scrawny arms, a little too much belly fat, and the occasional puffy nipples or man boobs (we can call them moobs).
The fact is: this look is so common these days that it makes people who actually are fit look even fitter.
The Problem with Being Skinny Fat
It’s not a good look. The way that their T-shirts are loose around the arms and tight around the belly fat is not appealing to girls. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I have a feeling that you already knew this. It’s logic.
This can lead to feeling insecure.
I should know, I used to be skinny fat.
The thing is, I just blamed it on bad genetics. Now I know what a huge lie that is. Everyone who is out of shape blames it on genetics. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. That. Is. BS.
Even though I started to accept having “bad genes”, it still scared the crap out of me. I thought that I was going to have scrawny arms, no six pack, and puffy nipples for the rest of my life.
Maybe I could live with that, but maybe I couldn’t live with everything that came with being skinny fat.
You know: stuff like taking your shirt off in public (it’s embarrassing), going to the beach, I didn’t like getting my picture taken, it sucked looking in the mirror and not liking what I saw – and worst of all – it was tough getting a girlfriend. To tell you the truth, it was tough even getting a girl to look at me. *sniff sniff* so sad…
The Habits of the Skinny Fat
When trying to un-skinny fat yourself (AKA finally look awesome), a lot of people have the same things in common.
First of all, skinny fat people will work out a lot – but do a bunch of the wrong things. What are the wrong things?: cardio and sit-ups. Seriously, they will go to the gym and run for like 20-30 minutes, and then go do a bunch of sit-ups and other abs exercises, call it a day and go shower.
I want to tell you right now that this may (and I use that word lightly) help you lose weight, but not the fat. You want my secret to getting a six pack?: Focus on losing the fat over your abs instead of losing weight. You see, when you do a bunch of cardio, you lose weight. Sometimes the weight you lose is fat, other times it is muscle. Since your six pack is a muscle, you are essentially losing your six pack too. Not good.
What else do skinny fat people do wrong? They eat every 2-3 hours. Why? Because that’s what they’re supposed to do, right? Dead. Wrong. I fell into this trap years ago. Every 2-3 hours I would eat. If I couldn’t eat right then and there, I would panic. This panicking would lead to stressing myself out. You know what happens when you become stressed out? Your body produces a hormone called cortisol. Basically, cortisol tells your body to breakdown muscle and store it as fat.
The other obvious problem with eating every 2-3 hours is that it makes you feel hungrier throughout the day. You see, your body adapts to habit. If you make a habit of eating frequently, then your body will actually start to feel hungry frequently. When you are frequently hungry, doesn’t it make sense that you will eat more food? Doesn’t it make sense that you will eat too much food? Doesn’t it make sense that you won’t lose any fat? Yes, yes, and yes.
Ding Ding Ding Round 2
In Part 2 of this series, I will give you the solution to the skinny fat problem and tell you how you can cure it once and for all.
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Tags: bad genes, genetics, how to lose fat, intermittent fasting, man boobs, puffy nipples, secrets of the skinny fat, six pack, skinny fat, skinny fat people
Hey Jason,
Your article is very interesting to me, as I suffer from a similar body type. I am just confused about your section on nutrition here. You say it is a bad habit to eat every 2-3 hours, but I had always read that was the best way to feed your muscles in addition to spark your metabolism rate. Is this simply a myth? I always eat fruit/veggies and a handful of nuts in between meals and it is true I have yet to see the results I would like, but I had assumed that was me just being impatient. I also thought eating in between meals meant you are less likely to gorge during the bigger meals and eat unhealthy.
I thought eating less would mean less nutrition for your muscles to grow. I look forward to reading part two of this post but I would appreciate it if you could address my concern as I feel many I wondering the same thing.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Love always,
The Jackson
A.K.A . Stud
P.S. Your blog is great. It sometimes gives me boners when I read it.
Hey Dude,
Newer research has proved that it’s a myth to need to eat every 2-3 hours.
The reason why I don’t recommend it is because there’s a hormone called ghrelin that your body releases and tells your body that it is hungry. By eating every 2-3 hours, your body adapts to eating this often and will release ghrelin often. Which means that you will be hungry often. It’s better to just train your body to eat like 1-3 meals per day. This way, you won’t always be stressing out over missing your eating window.
Let me know if you have any other questions “The Jackson”.
Where's part 2?
dude thx for your tips im like 20% of skinny fat but my arms r ripped and my shoulders r kinda wide so i dont luk that bad but i have a huge problem of loosing belly fat !
Omar, this will definitely help out!