Nutrition plays primarily an accelerating role in eliminating belly fat. But restricting calories alone is not always effective in revealing your abdominal muscles. On the contrary, some people on a diet can feel like they are gaining belly fat.

A medical study done by the (American Journal of Phisiology – Endocrinology and Metabolism) illustrates this perfectly. In 5 months on a low calorie diet, women saw the size of their abdominal fat cells increase by 5%.

This is easily explained. When the body experiences a calorie deprivation, it mobilizes a large amount of lipids from fatty tissue, it burns only one-third of this fat at most. This means the other two-thirds are re-deposited in fatty areas. Furthermore, lipids are stored in the “calmest” areas – that is, places not disturbed by intense blood circulation.

This physiological characteristic explains why your body stores fat first on the muscles that are not frequently used, such as the abdominal muscles or the glutes. Unless a person is severely obese, it is rare to have a lot of fat on the forearms or the calves (these muscles are frequently used, which activates blood flow in those areas).

So you need to regularly work your abdominal area to help fight the fat and tone the area, which in turn will help enhance its visibility.