How To Get Rid Of Muffin Top?
The Muffin Top
If you’re here reading this article, you probably know what a muffin top is.
For those who don’t, it is simply the extra bit of fat that hangs around the waist.
A muffin top body won’t always show until you start wearing form-fitting clothes.
The simplest example of this is a muffin top with jeans, where the jeans are so snug at the waist that you end up with the fat hanging over your waistline, giving the area a muffin type of appearance (and hence the name ‘muffin top’).
People generally refer to the fat located around the lower midsection and lower back as muffin top, but it is often also used as a synonym for love handles.
While you will find a lot more content geared towards a woman with muffin top on the internet, this can be just as problematic for men.
In this article, I outline what does and what doesn’t need to be done to get rid of muffin top once and for all, irrespective of gender.
If you were wondering about how to lose muffin top or were on a quest for the best workouts for muffin top, I hope you have answers by the time you reach the end of this article.
Let’s begin!
The Biggest Muffin Top Mistake
Let’s start with the biggest muffin top mistake on our list;
Wasting Time On Spot Reduction
When we start (or restart) our fitness journey, we often like to believe that we are the only ones walking in the opposite direction of the wind.
We like to believe that it is smooth-sailing for everyone else but us.
Maybe it’s our genetics.
Maybe it’s our hormones.
You see, there are actually tons of people who often face the same problems, and the muffin top is one of the best examples of that.
There can be a completely skinny fat beginner who wants to get rid of muffin top, and at the same time, there could be someone who has been hitting the gym and watching his diet for years, but still hasn’t been able to get rid of muffin top.
Almost everyone on the spectrum of ‘types of people trying to get rid of muffin top’ makes the same mistake.
They all try to target the muffin top to get rid of the muffin top.
I mean, it’s absolutely logical, right?
Target the lower abs, lower back and obliques with sufficient intensity along with some ‘clean’ eating, and, voila!
Sadly, this doesn’t work for everyone.
And no, I’m not saying this to convince you that your hormones and metabolism are broken just to sell you my *fat melting extract tea*.
Why the majority of us fail to get results despite trying to put in the work is because we end up wasting time on spot reduction.
And based on the current literature, we know that spot reduction doesn’t work the way we would like it to.
This means that doing countless crunches will not burn belly fat the same way doing countless squats will not burn thigh fat.
In fact, I want you to remember this the next time someone makes a claim that sounds too good to be true.
Arm blasting workouts will not burn arm fat.
Hip thrusting will not burn glute fat.
Doing weird stuff with your jaw will not burn face fat.
Apply this to any muscle group, and the answer is the same.
Spot reduction will not get you results.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to keep their wallet happy.
Once you know this, the next question that arises is how can you actually lose the muffin top then?
How To Lose Muffin Top
The answer to losing muffin top is simple;
Lose body fat.
“But I don’t want to lose more fat! I just want to lose the muffin top.”
Everyone who says this should go back to the previous paragraph.
If you have understood that spot reduction doesn’t work, you wouldn’t make such a statement.
The often unspoken truth is that we need to lose a lot more weight than we would like to look the way we like.
This comes down to body fat distribution patterns, more so to how your body actually burns off fat.
For most of us, our bodies burn the fat stored around the muffin top region and the glues at last.
Of course, the extent to which this happens will vary from person to person, but in most cases, if you still have a muffin top, you still have fat to lose.
This brings us to the next problem, which is trying to lose fat around the muffin top.
People are so busy wasting time on spot reduction, they often forget to do what really matters;
Create a calorie deficit.
I didn’t say ‘clean’ eating and eliminating the foods you like.
I didn’t say eating so little that you’re starved 24/7.
I didn’t say working out so much that you can barely move.
All I said is create a calorie deficit.
This is the most basic fundamental of losing fat.
Energy balance applies to everyone, irrespective of hormones, metabolism, age, weight, gender, etc.
In the simplest sense, you have to follow a few key principles and you’ll make progress faster than you ever have.
I outline these in my post “The Weight Loss Plan That Really Works”, but here’s a quick gist of what is needed to be successful with losing your muffin top.
1. Create A Calorie Deficit
The first step is to eat lesser calories than your body burns.
Anyone who disagrees with needing to create a calorie deficit for fat loss is basically ignoring the plethora of research that indicates that this is actually the case.
When you consistently eat lesser calories than your body burns, your body will tap into your fat stores for energy.
Since we already established the fact that where you burn fat from first will depend on your fat distribution and how it comes off, you need to be patient to see the changes happening to your muffin top.
This is simply because you could lose fat from other areas before your body taps into the energy stores around your midsection.
To get an idea of how many calories you need to be eating, you can check out “How Much Should I Eat To Lose Fat?”.
2. Eat Sufficient Protein
The second step is to ensure you’re eating sufficient protein.
Protein helps with retention of lean mass, which, in turn, helps you burn fat in a calorie deficit.
If you don’t eat sufficient protein, your body will start using muscle tissue for energy, which means you’ll lose weight without seeing a significant difference in your muffin top in the long run.
Instead, you’ll end up skinny fat and just look like a smaller, flabbier version if what you were when you started.
To get an idea of how much protein you need to be eating, you can check out “How Much Should I Eat To Lose Fat?”.
3. Fix Your Workout Plan
The next step is to train properly.
Since you won’t be wasting time on spot reduction and trying to target your love handles every workout going forward (knowing the truth about spot reduction), you can direct that effort towards training that actually yields beneficial results.
The right workout plan will help your preserve muscle mass and get the toned look you desire.
If your goals are to put on muscle while losing fat, using a workout plan that focuses on what matters is more so important.
Almost any well set-up workout plan will give results as long as you progressively get stronger.
Looking for a total guide on losing body fat along with a FREE Workout Template?
Check out the link below!
“The Truth About Getting ‘Toned’ As A Woman” for Women
“3 Steps To Get Ripped” for Men
4. Get More Sleep
The last step is to focus on getting sufficient recovery.
This also includes managing overall stress levels.
Getting in sufficient sleep is very important for fat loss.
Not only that, but it also helps with training performance, which helps us retain/build lean muscle.
Apart from the physiological impact of sleep, psychologically you might find it easier to stick to your diet when you get in proper sleep.
Once you have a thorough understanding of what needs to be done, the next step is to make sure you don’t make mistakes that slow down your process.
A lot of people know the things mentioned above, but they still end up making the mistakes mentioned below and end up giving up on their journey to get rid of muffin top.
Muffin Top Mistakes To Avoid
Muffin Top Workout Plan Mistakes
If the goal is muffin top reduction, here are the key workout mistakes you should be avoiding.
1. Only Focusing On Ab Work
Guess what?
This links back to the point on spot reduction.
I keep repeating this like a broken record, but trust me, far too many people just don’t get this right.
Often, it’s not even the fact that they don’t know.
Being impatient can make you feel like you could get faster results if you just did “that” one thing, in our case, excessive ab workouts.
To add to this, there isn’t a lack of “get abs in 30 days guaranteed” workouts on the interest.
If you’re someone who already feels that you’re not doing enough, watching this kind of content will just lead to confirmation bias.
In reality, as long as you create a calorie deficit and train with a well structured program, you will need minimal ab work to get rid of your muffin top.
2. Prioritizing Cardio Over Weight Training
If you think just your diet and cardio will help you lose muffin top, you’re mistaken.
In most cases, dieting without weight training will make you end up looking worse than when you started.
This is one of the biggest culprits of skinny-fat.
To be completely honest, you can get rid of muffin top without any cardio at all.
Yes, it’s possible!
Cardio is just a tool to help us create the calorie deficit.
You could create this same deficit with your nutrition and by simply being more active as well.
Does this mean you shouldn’t cardio?
No!
It just means that you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
As long as you create a calorie deficit, you’ll be fine.
That said, in most cases, I recommend throwing in some form of low intensity cardio a few days a week.
This isn’t taxing on the body and allows you to eat slightly more calories.
Check out “Cardio For Fat Loss” for more on this.
Also, keep in mind that resistance training will be superior to cardio if we talk about how you end up looking.
If you have to choose between the two, resistance training is always the answer.
If you do both, prioritize resistance training.
3. Not Progressively Overloading
No workout plan will work if you don’t progressively overload over time and all plans will work if you do.
Progressive overload simply means to do more than you can do right now.
More weight, more reps, more volume - More of anything that allows you to progressively force your muscles to adapt!
This is as simple as keeping track of how many reps you perform with as given weight on an exercise and trying to add a rep every session till you hit the top of your required rep range.
Over time, the more tension you place on the muscles, the more potential growth you can see!
I also recommended checking out the “5 Training Mistakes Slowing Down Your Progress” to make sure you’re getting the most out of your training!
Muffin Top Diet Plan Mistakes
On the nutrition side of things, these are a few major red flags you should look out for in the typical muffin top diet.
1. Depending Solely On ‘Clean’ Eating
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is relying solely on ‘clean’ eating as a proxy of being in a calorie deficit.
Just because you eat clean foods doesn’t necessarily mean you are in a calorie deficit.
It is very easy to overeat calories even if you focus on just ‘clean’ eating.
Here’s an example of a few ‘healthy’ foods that can unknowingly pile up more calories than you’d like and stall your fat loss.
Also, if you have the mindset of eliminating ‘tasty’ food to get rid of muffin top, you’re going to have a bad time.
Not only will you feel restricted (even if you aren’t in a deficit), but you will also find it difficult to maintain results once your ‘diet’ is over.
This is why it is crucial to develop a sustainable fat loss plan that allows you to keep the results and get rid of muffin top once and for all instead of ending up in a binge-restrict cycle.
The best way to go about this would be to follow the simple outline mentioned in “The Weight Loss Plan That Really Works”.
This will allow you to eat the foods you like in moderation while achieving your physique goals and losing your muffin top.
2. Cutting Calories Too Low
There is such a thing as ‘too much’.
People like being at one extreme or another, whether it is with working out or diet.
Well, let me tell you that aggressive cuts in calories aren’t going to help you in getting rid of your muffin top.
No, aggressively low calories won’t turn off your metabolism or put you into starvation mode.
While metabolic adaptation will take place, you will still be able to lose weight, and this has been shown time and time again in countless starvation or restricted feeding studies.
What it will do is increase the risk of muscle loss and increase the risk of binge eating.
I’m sure you’ve heard of various rebounding stories after aggressive diets.
If you truly want to lose fat and keep it off, it is recommended to lose no more than 0.5%-1% of your bodyweight weekly.
You can push that up to 1.5% of bodyweight per week if you have a lot of fat to lose.
This will allow you to consistently burn fat in a sustainable manner.
If you still want to go aggressive for a few weeks, I highly recommend doing it right.
For more on aggressive dieting, check out “The Guide To Aggressive Mini Cutting”.
3. Trying To Overcomplicate Things
Even the best of us fall for this.
With the vast amount of information available online, it is very easy to get lost.
People often end up overcomplicating things a lot more than needed.
Here are a few examples;
Type A vs. Type B Fat Cells
Subcutaneous Fat vs. Visceral Fat
Fasted vs. Fed Cardio
HIIT vs. LISS
Low Carb vs. Low Fat
Keto vs. Vegan
These are just a few examples, but the list can continue.
It’s not that these things are wrong.
It’s just that the average person wanting to lose fat and get lean doesn’t need to waste time complicating things.
The simplest way to check if you’re stuck in this trap is to ask yourself if you’re checking the below-mentioned boxes before you start worrying about fine-tuning the details;
Moderate Calorie Deficit
Sufficient Protein Intake
Balanced Carbohydrate and Fat Intake
Sufficient Micronutrients
Well Set Up Training Program
Some Form Of Cardio (if needed)
Once you are sure you are checking all these boxes for a few weeks consistently, you can then dive deeper into the complications, if you’d like.
Funny enough, in most cases, just checking these boxes will be more than enough to get you in the best shape of your life.
Lifestyle Changes To Lose Muffin Top
Here’s a list of simple lifestyle changes that can help you lose fat and get rid of your muffin top.
1. Stop Unplanned Snacking Between Meals.
Snacking between meals can be a major culprit in weight loss stalls.
It is very easy to grab a handful of nuts or a few chips between meals.
If you do want to have snacks, note them down in your Diet Log the night before.
This will allow you to plan out and allocate the calories needed.
Also, it will make sure you don’t randomly snack on something just because you’re bored.
You can read more about unplanned snacking in “The 2 Diet Tips Everyone Should Know”.
2. Stop Drinking Caloric Beverages.
It is a good idea to stop drinking beverages that have calories.
You will be better off allocating the same calories to food which will keep you satiated for longer.
Instead, swap caloric beverages with calorie-free beverages like green tea, black coffee, or diet sodas.
You can read more about caloric beverages in “The 2 Diet Tips Everyone Should Know”.
3. Increase Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) By Walking More.
NEAT is the calories your body burns doing everyday tasks including things like fidgeting.
This does not include calories burned at rest or calories burned from exercises.
Walking more can help you increase NEAT and speed up fat loss.
In fact, setting up a step target can help you lose weight without the need of any cardio.
4. Stay Hydrated.
This is common sense but staying hydrated is crucial to stay alive.
Not only that, but it will also fill you up and stop you from randomly binging on food when you’re bored.
5. Experiment With Meal Timing.
If you find it difficult to eat small meals spread out through the day, try experimenting with meal timing.
The simplest example of this could be trying an Intermittent Fasting set-up where you fast for 16-18 hours of the day and eat only for 6-8 hours.
While this isn’t anything magical, it does allow you to spread out your calories in a smaller time window, which then makes it easier for you to eat bigger meals.
For those who love eating big meals, this can be a great way to structure their diet plan.
6. Follow A Fixed Routine.
The most important thing you can do for your results is following a fixed routine.
No matter what approach you choose, in the end, getting results will come down to consistently adhering to your program.
Following a fixed routine can help you adhere to what you’ve planned and reduce the chances of you falling off the wagon.
Muffin Top Workout
I keep this towards the end because a ‘muffin top workout’ is one of the least important factors for muffin top loss.
This might seem top contradict with all the workouts you find online promising you quick results using the best exercises for muffin top.
But if you’ve made it this far, I’m pretty sure you know how insignificant they are.
In fact, you could get rid of your muffin top without performing a single workout focusing on your muffin top.
That said, if you do want to ensure you have a perfectly sculpted core when you get lean, it is advisable to perform at least some form of direct core work.
Again, your nutrition will form the base of the cake, a well set-up training program focusing on compound movements will form the icing, and only then will the following exercises form the cherry on the top.
Here is a list of the best exercises for muffin top;
Reverse Crunch
Plank
Side Plank
Cable Crunch
Ab Wheel Rollouts
Hanging Knee Raises
Wood Choppers
This is a list of some of my top picks, but you are not limited to just these exercises.
As long as you pick 1-3 exercises and focus on progressively overloading every time you perform them, you have nothing to worry about.
Treat your abs like any other muscle group and focus on getting them stronger over time.
Also, I don’t recommend performing ab exercises in a circuit fashion.
Your core workout is not primarily meant to burn calories.
Your core workout is primarily meant to develop your core.
Even if you perform these in a cardio circuit-style manner, you won’t be burning a significant amount of calories.
But doing so will lead to a decrease in performance in your working sets and will lead to sub-optimal results.
Here’s how you can set up the workout;
Ab exercise 1: 2-3 sets
Ab exercise 2: 2-3 sets
Low Intensity Cardio: 30-45 minutes
This simple set-up can be performed on your rest days (2-3x a week).
Pick 2 ab exercises and focus on getting stronger on them for 4-6 weeks, at which point you can swap them out for different exercises.
You don’t need to do tons of exercises for your lower back, lower abs, obliques and upper abs.
If you are paranoid, perform upper abs and obliques in one workout, and lower abs and lower back in another.
But I would stick with just progressing on 1-2 exercises at a time to make sure you’re squeezing whatever you can out of them.
This might seem like unconventional advice, but follow this article as outlined and not only will you will get rid of your muffin top, but you will also end up with a godlike physique in this process.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of this article.
I hope you have a clear picture of what needs to be done going forward.
Consistently and patiently applying the above-mentioned steps will lead to success with losing muffin top once and for all.
If there is anything that is not clear, feel free to drop a comment below!
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*This is education content and should not be confused for medical advice. Please consult a medical practitioner before commencing a new dietary or exercise regimen.
