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How to burn body fat in problem areas

I am a 41 year old male. I am 5'7, 165-170lbs. My mid and upper body, arms, back, and lower legs are all well toned. My problem areas are my lower stomach at and right below the belly button with a bit of excess fat and just a tad bit of love handles on the sides. My "backside" has some excess fat and some cellulite dimples, and the back of my thighs have some slight cellulite dimples.

I have recently stopped drinking anything with sugar and consuming any type of fast food burgers and fries. What is the best way to burn away the excess body fat from these problem areas? Is it simply just burning more calories a day than what I consume in food per day? Please, any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
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649848 tn?1534633700
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hello and welcome to our community.  Unfortunately, you can't really "spot reduce", as it appears you'd like to do.  When we lose weight, we lose from the whole body.  

It's important to note, that losing weight, isn't always just a matter of "calories in/calories out"; however, we do have to make sure we don't take in more calories than we need as they will be stored as fat.  What those calories consist of, it equally important.

The less processed food you eat, the better.   One of the most recommended diets is the Mediterranean Diet, which centers around vegetables, healthful fats, such as those found in  fish, avocados, olive oil, nuts, etc.  

Too much sugar (and other simple carbs) can increase insulin production.  Insulin is known to be the "fat storage hormone", so decreasing simple carbs will help decrease insulin production.

Of course, exercise is necessary to stay healthy, but studies show that we don't really lose a lot of weight with exercise.  It's possible the muscles in the areas you mention may need to be toned, which can reduce the appearance of excess fat.  
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Avatar universal
Calories are not the best measure relating to overall weight loss.  They are a factor, but how you metabolize your food and how well you digest it is far more important.  A generalization is that belly fat is caused by the consumption of excess simple carbs, ergo the term beer belly.  On the other hand, no individual is a generalization.  You don't say what your overall diet or exercise level is like, so it's impossible to be very specific here.  Since you're doing pretty well overall, it might just be this is who you are.  When you eat a basically good diet, it doesn't mean you suddenly turn into a perfect specimen.  We are who we are, to some extent.  But given you have one problem area, assuming you are eating well, focusing your training more on that area of your body might help tone it more -- doing more ab work, for example.  By the way, I'm not sure a lifetime of burning more calories than you consume is what you're looking for -- that's what starvation is.  What you want is to consume enough calories to support your level of energy output and to get enough nutrients you need to prevent disease states.  Metabolism of what you eat is a different story, and has more to do with whether it stores as fat or gets burned.  But again, when you see people at the gym with huge muscles and absolutely flat stomachs who are your age, most often they are consuming steroids and other things that aren't healthy and are eating an excess of protein that also isn't healthy and are working out a ton.  There is a cost for the average person who doesn't have genes that produce that kind of body, and if you ever look at photos of people who live a more instinctual life, they don't look like that.  They very often have bellies.  It doesn't bother them as it does many of us.  So it goes.
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649848 tn?1534633700
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