What Happens if You Lose Your Tummy Fat & Will You Have Flab?

Losing tummy fat is always a challenge, but even if you are successful in shedding the fat, you might notice some changes in your body. These can include flabby excess skin or an untoned appearance to your abs. In some cases, additional exercises can help you reduce the flab, but in others, the flab may be permanent.

  1. Losing Belly Fat

    • Even if you're dedicated to situps and crunches, you probably won't burn a noticeable amount of tummy fat if you don't add in cardio exercise to your routine. You can't spot-train your abs. Instead, you have to lose weight throughout your body. Cardiovascular exercise such as swimming, running, jumping, cycling and aerobics is more effective at burning calories than calisthenics, so aim for 30 to 60 minutes a day of cardio to cut the flab.

    Loose Skin

    • When you gain weight, your skin has to stretch to accommodate the fat; this is why you might notice stretch marks on your stomach. After you lose the weight, the skin remains stretched, and this can create the appearance of flab. Age and skin damage due to smoking and sun exposure can increase your risk of getting flabby skin. If you're left with flabby, loose skin after weight loss, there's no miracle potion that will eliminate it, but plastic surgery might be able to help.

    Toning Muscles

    • Even if you lose the fat on your tummy, your abs could still look flabby and weak if you don't have noticeable muscle development. The best way to avoid this is to do a combination of cardio and stomach-toning exercises. Try situps, crunches, planks and captain's chair exercises. Remember to use only your abdominal muscles -- and not your back or arms -- to lift your torso when doing these workouts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a minimum of two days of muscle-strengthening activities per week to maintain health. If you're hoping for rapid improvement, though, dedicate 10 or 15 minutes of your daily workout routine to strength-based activities.

    Other Flab

    • Everyone develops fat differently. Women, for example, tend to accumulate fat along the hips and thighs, while men are susceptible to belly fat. Even if you lose fat in your stomach, you might still have some flab in other areas. Sticking to your cardio routine can help you gradually reduce fat throughout your body, and exercises that engage the muscles in your problem areas can help you create a toned appearance.