How to get rid of back fat

The best form of exercise to get rid of back fat is the type that is done consistently. Otherwise, there is no 'best' exercise for dropping body fat from a particular area - it's more about finding the best exercise for you.

How to lose the back fat

There are 2 essential things to do to reduce back fat:

• Reduce body fat stores from the area by reducing your intake of calories and improving the use of these body fat stores through cardiovascular exercise.
• Tone the muscles under the diminishing body fat stores through strength and core exercise.

There's a widely held belief that cardiovascular exercise is the 'best' way to drop body fat - but this isn't strictly true. Cardiovascular training is an effective method for burning calories and training your body to use body fat as fuel, but it doesn't have the longer term benefits of resistance training.

Metabolic rate is increased from the development of muscle that results from resistance training. This is because muscle fibres are like little power houses that burn energy 24/7, meaning you burn more body fat, more of the time.

So our advice on how to get rid of back fat - perform resistance training around the back to tone the muscles under the fat, whilst reducing your calorie intake alongside cardiovascular exercise.

If you prefer weight training then stick with it and try a whole body circuit approach where you perform your exercises in a circuit-style fashion, one after the other, with minimal rest. This means you activate muscle tissue and achieve the effects of cardiovascular training because the circuit format keeps your heart rate raised at an effective level. You could even do a bodyweight circuit at home if the gym isn't a realistic option.

An example might be:

• Press ups (knees or full) - 15 reps
• Lunges - 10 reps each leg
• Sit ups - 20 reps
• Single leg squats - 10 reps each leg
• Abdominal plank - 30-40 second hold

Cardio training

If you're happy to do cardiovascular exercise, make sure you do combination training - where you alternate weight training days with cardiovascular training days. This allows your body to recover properly and provides the best of both methods. The fastest way to burn back fat is to exercise more often! So see how many sessions you can squeeze into your weekly plan.

Nutrition

As always, nutrition plays a big part in losing weight. So eat healthily, eat less, move more, and be patient as your body starts to utilise the different fat stores around the body.