How to ACTUALLY Lose Belly Fat in 2026 (Using Science)

This is Nimesh. At 35, he had the most belly fat ever in his life — enough for it to bulge through his shirts. But less than a year later, his belly fat is now lower than 98% of men. And it’s because almost nobody approaches how to lose belly fat in 3 layers, where each layer needs a slightly different strategy. Most people get stuck in Layer 1 in their how to reduce belly fat journey, which is exactly where Nimesh started, at 29.5% body fat on Day 1.

LAYER 1:
For Nimesh, his belly fat clocked in at 34.4% — higher than anywhere else. Nimesh felt like he’s genetically cursed, and the uncomfortable truth is… he wasn’t wrong. Almost every guy I’ve run through a Day 1 DXA scan shows the same pattern: the belly carries more fat than anywhere else.

To see how consistent this is (and whether it holds true for women), my team analyzed 8 years of DXA scans from nearly 18,000 men and women. What we found explains why how to reduce belly fat feels so frustrating: at higher body fat levels, fat drops faster from easier areas (arms/legs/hips)… while the belly lags behind. Then once you get lean enough, belly fat starts to come off faster.

For women, it’s a bit different — they usually store less fat in the belly and more in hips/legs/arms. My friend Nicole started at 33%, and her belly fat was almost identical to her overall body fat — meaning she often sees belly changes sooner than a guy at the same starting point.

Layer 1 is that soft outer belly fat that hides any ab definition. It’s usually “gone” around ~20% body fat for men and ~28% for women. The good news? This layer takes the least effort to burn off.

For Nimesh, it came down to 4 habits:
3 workouts/week (so weight loss comes from fat — and maybe even muscle gain)
Simple diet rules: protein at every meal, mostly home-cooked, built around core foods
8,000 steps/day
Track morning weight aiming for a loss of ~1 lb/week

But even though Layer 1 is easiest physically in the how to lose belly fat journey, it’s the hardest mentally — because you can be losing fat and still feel like your belly hasn’t changed. By Day 30, Nimesh was down 7 lbs and doubting everything. But measurements showed he was already down 3cm on his waist — exactly what the DXA data predicts.
By Day 90, after losing 12 lbs of fat, Layer 1 was burned off and his upper abs finally showed.

LAYER 2:
This is where most people give up when figuring out how to reduce belly fat. Layer 1 feels like nothing’s changing… but Layer 2 is where fat loss actually slows or stalls — because your body starts fighting back.

After a big drop in weight, your calorie burn drops (less body mass + subtle energy conservation). You move less without noticing. The strategies that worked in Layer 1 stop working.

So for Nimesh, we bumped steps from 8,000 to 10,000/day (a simple “insurance policy”), increased strength training volume (from a 3-day split to a 4-day split), and introduced calorie targets — because getting through Layer 2 usually means making sure your deficit is real.

We landed at ~2000–2200 calories/day, built around a structured meal plan (plus low-calorie snacks and room for one daily treat so compliance stays high).

This phase is also tricky because not everyone’s metabolism responds the same. Some people keep losing steadily. Others adapt hard and slow down — which is why tracking and adjusting matters.

By the end of Layer 2, belly definition really starts showing — but most people still have softness in the lower belly and love handles.

LAYER 3:
This is the stubborn belly fat layer — and less than 1% of people ever push through it.

Here’s the twist: visually, this layer progresses the fastest (because there’s less fat covering your abs). But every pound feels like a battle. Stubborn fat areas tend to have more alpha-2 receptors (brakes) vs beta receptors (gas), which makes lower abs/love handles/hips harder to lean out.

At this stage of your how to lose belly fat journey, hunger ramps up, energy drops, and stress hormones rise — which can also make you hold water. So you can wake up feeling like your belly looks worse overnight even when you’re doing everything right.
For Nimesh, we used 2 strategies:
Make every calorie count (small swaps, fewer liquid calories, more satiety foods)
Diet breaks — bring calories up for 5–14 days (often improving sleep, stress, hunger, and water retention)

After 5 days, his abs looked sharper again and he was ready to push forward.

From start to finish, Nimesh’s journey took 275 days (including a 5-week trip where he focused on maintenance). Final results: total body fat dropped from 29.5% to 16.7%. Belly fat dropped from 34.4% to 13%. And he gained almost 7 lbs of lean mass.

0:00 - Belly Fat Science
3:20 - Layer 1
6:58 - Layer 2
12:31 - Layer 3
18:40 - Final Result