Photo: Harry Cooke

Where is the first place you gain weight?

midsection According to our experts, the reason you gain weight so rapidly in your midsection and not in, say, your calves and forearms is because the adipocytes (or fat cells), which are found throughout the body, are more plentiful in the hips, butt, stomach, and thigh area for women and stomach for men.

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I once had a conversation with my mom about how our bodies fluctuate, particularly when it comes to weight. "My face always thins out first," she said, which got me wondering whether her observation carried weight (excuse the pun) or if the change there is simply more obvious because the face is more conspicuous than, say the midsection. I always notice weight gain in my stomach and thighs more than any other area. In turn, I find it increasingly difficult to lose weight in those areas and will instead lose it in a random place like my upper body while my thighs and stomach remain virtually the same. The body's ability to transform itself is equally fascinating as it is frustrating, and the more I thought about it, the more I needed an answer: Why doesn't the body lose and gain weight in a steadier, less site-specific manner—or is that not the case at all? Does it just appear to be that way?

Ahead, fitness experts settle the debate and share where you lose (and gain) weight first and why.

Where Do People Lose Weight First?

STUDIO FIRMA / Stocksy

"In terms of loss, it may be easier [depending on the individual] to shed fat in the trunk and ab area as opposed to the leg and gluteal area, which is why it appears that men lose weight/fat faster than women," says Lisa Wheeler, who works with Apple Fitness+. Similarly, Wheeler says that women who tend to carry weight in the trunk and ab area seem to lose weight faster than women who carry weight in their glutes and legs. In other words, while weight loss and gain can differ by gender, it can also differ greatly from person to person.

What Areas Are More Prone to Gaining Weight?

According to our experts, the reason you gain weight so rapidly in your midsection and not in, say, your calves and forearms is because the adipocytes (or fat cells), which are found throughout the body, are more plentiful in the hips, butt, stomach, and thigh area for women and stomach for men. Women may be more prone to fat along their hips, thighs, butt, and stomach because of something F-Factor creator Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD, and best-selling author of The F-Factor Diet, calls "sex-specific fat," or stubborn fat that "serves as an energy reserve for the demands of pregnancy and lactation. It is typically the last place you will lose weight, as your body wants to save it to help fuel the demands of childbearing," she explains. For men, there is no "evolutionary purpose" for harboring belly fat, also known as visceral fat, a dangerous type of fat that envelopes your organs and is linked to metabolic disease, she says. The upside: Zuckerbrot says that, overall, it's the easiest type of fat to lose because it breaks down more quickly. Research shows that fiber intake can help to reduce this dangerous visceral fat. Wheeler says that genetics also play a large role in how we gain fat and claims that there are four primary patterns of fat storage:

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An even distribution throughout the body The trunk and abdomen (predominantly men) The trunk, legs, and glutes (predominantly women) The abdominal area only

Factors That May Impact Weight Loss

Weight loss is largely a product of burning more calories than you ingest, and in general, a deficit of around 3500 calories will yield one pound of fat loss. With that said, various factors affect your metabolic rate and subsequent weight loss, including the following:

Age

Sex

Activity Level

Diet

Genetics

Medications

Alcohol Consumption

Sleep Quality and Quantity

Stress Levels

Thyroid Health

Hormonal Balance

Can You Target Specific Areas for Weight Loss?

Belly fat-burning elixirs will not target stomach fat and melt it away as they claim. The same goes for the foods you eat. Zuckerbrot explains that while fiber has been shown to help decrease the amount of visceral fat in the abdominal area, subcutaneous fat (the kind that lies directly under the skin) will decrease only with overall weight loss. Creating a caloric deficit (consuming fewer calories than you burn) can help to decrease overall fat stores as well as eating whole, fresh foods instead of processed fat and sugar. Ideally, the key to reducing fat is through exercise, but know this: You can't reduce fat in different areas of your body through targeted workouts. Sure, you can tone these areas and may, in turn, burn more calories via muscle development, but there is no "fat-busting" exercise for your stomach or butt. Instead, you need to utilize an overall approach to fitness. "Doing total-body workouts will help to reduce total body fat, and strength training will tone up and build muscle that will then define parts of your body," explains NASM-certified personal trainer, Amanda Butler. This can be achieved through high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and lifting weights to build lean muscle, which increases your metabolic rate and subsequently supports overall fat loss. Jeffrey Gladd, MD, a member of the Care/of Scientific Advisory Board, echoes these sentiments. He warns against focusing on specific areas of the body when working out, noting that "a holistic approach to losing fat will likely be more effective." Like Butler, he advises against pinpointing singular body parts—like the abs—as doing so wastes time that would be "much more wisely spent on big muscle groups," he says, "providing the greatest bang for your buck for overall fat loss."

How Much Weight Loss Is Considered Safe?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week is considered a safe and sustainable rate for most people. Anything more aggressive can be unsafe and unsuccessful in the long term. Plus, if you go down the extreme diet and exercise route rather than something more reasonable, you risk losing too much lean muscle mass, which will slow your metabolism. You want to lose fat tissue (adipose), not muscle. And, like many of the best things in life, that requires some patience and a slower, more measured approach. If you're aiming for one pound of fat loss per week, try creating a 500-calorie deficit per day.

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The Best, Healthiest Ways to Support Weight Loss

According to some, another way to support weight loss is by recalibrating your hormones. Charles Passler, a nutritionist to models like Bella Hadid, says an estrogen imbalance may create the inability to lose weight and, conversely, the ability to gain it very easily. "At normal levels, estrogen helps insulin do its job to manage blood sugar," he explains. "When estrogen gets thrown off, it turns the body into a weight-gaining machine." While regulating your hormones sounds like a tall order, the solution may lie in your diet. "When you eat carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises," Passler says. "Insulin lowers blood sugar by depositing it into three different places in your body. When insulin is working correctly—not too high and not too low—it sends a small amount of glucose to your liver, a large amount to your muscles to use as fuel, and little or none to fat storage. When everything is balanced, you produce the right amount of insulin to have your blood sugar maintain the proper balance." However, according to our experts, when estrogen levels are high, the cells that produce insulin are not able to function properly and you can become insulin-resistant, and, as a result, insulin loses the ability to deposit glucose into the liver and muscles, which means sugar levels are raised and glucose is stored as fat. "The fat related to an estrogen imbalance is typically deposited in the hips," he explains. "This is the classic pear-shaped body type and why the pear-shaped body type is much more common in women than men." To prevent excess fat storage, Passler suggests eating foods that decrease estrogen in both men and women, such as cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower), green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, apples, and flaxseeds. In contrast, he warns against these estrogen-boosting foods: soy-based products, sugar, red meat, any item with added hormones, and cow's milk and other dairy products, as well as foods and liquids stored in plastic that contains BPAs. Passler says you can also decrease estrogen levels by reducing stress, getting more exercise, and sleeping more.

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