How to Fix Skinny Fat

Now that we have scientifically answered what is skinny fat, the next logical question is how to fix skinny fat, scientifically. The first step is to scientifically determine and understand your unique genetic body composition. Are you experiencing genuine skinny fat tissue — cellulite and/or thin fat — and, if so, where exactly on your body? (The Scientific Body Type Quiz accurately determines your unique genetic body composition.)

Understanding your unique genetic body composition helps you keep body shape/figure/physique (body type) and regular white/yellow fat weight loss expectations and goals realistic and achievable (and any body dysmorphia in check). If you are genetically blessed with a genetic scientific Standard Body Type One/BT1 (1, 2) with minimal to no skinny fat, then all you have to do is lose the excess regular fat that is covering your genetic muscles and you are once again a Standard BT1. You can no less than add muscle mass to improve definition, bulk, and overall appearance.

How to Fix Skinny Fat – How Much Thin Fat and Cellulite Tissue Do You Have?

If you are experiencing enough skinny fat tissue, then how much determines if you are a genetic scientific Body Type Two (BT2), Body Type Three (BT3), or Body Type Four (BT4) (3). If you are a BT2, then it is more probable that with proper diet, exercise, and lifestyle you can recomposition your body and fix your skinny fat. This is accomplished by safely losing any excess regular fat and then adding muscle mass where you have skinny fat. With enough hard work, you may be able to reduce your skinny fat enough to look like or close to a Standard BT1.

The more skinny fat tissue that you are experiencing, like with a BT3 or BT4, the less likely it is that you can fully recomp your body and reduce your skinny fat enough to look like a Standard BT1.

You can experience skinny fat at any BMI. Underweight BMI (18.49 or less), overweight BMI (25 to 29.99), obese BMI (30+), and morbidly obese BMI (40+) can experience five types of skinny fat including thin fat, cellulite, loose skin, saggy skin, and crepey skin. Normal weight/healthy/safe Standard BMI (18.5 to 24.99) can experience those same five types along with type six, normal weight obesity.

The Science of Body Recomposition – Genetics, DNA & Genes

What almost every fitness, weight loss, and diet influencer and the like along with many medical professionals fail to tell you is, body recomposition is not permanent. It is temporary. The internet, especially social media, is inundated with professionals and laypeople alike, making, at best, misleading claims that make it sound like you can permanently fix and get rid of your skinny fat with enough hard work.

It is a scientific/medical fact that your genes are inherited (5) from your parents and cannot be permanently changed. This includes unique genetic body composition. You cannot naturally change your hair, eye, or skin color any more than you can change your height, facial features, or the like.

Genetics determined all of it. You can choose surgery, contact lenses, hair dye, etc. to unnaturally/temporarily change things as you want. But, at this time, you cannot inherently change your unique DNA (6), which is responsible for building and maintaining your unique human structure, or genes, segments of your DNA that give you physical characteristics that make you unique. It is no different for genetic body composition.

You can temporarily change your muscle mass, regular fat (visceral and subcutaneous), and skinny fat (subcutaneous) with diet, exercise, and lifestyle. And, with enough consistent hard work for the rest of your life, you may be able to maintain those changes. But they are not permanent. Some people point to epigenetics (7), a field of study that focuses on how genes respond to environmental influences. However, there is no scientific evidence presently that indicates that epigenetics causes permanent changes in the underlying DNA sequence; instead, non-genetic factors cause the organism’s genes to behave or “express themselves” differently. 

The Genetics of Added Muscle Mass – How to Fix Skinny Fat

Like every other human being on the planet, you will gradually begin to lose any added muscle mass that you build above and beyond your original default genetic body composition, if/when you stop (8) the exercise(s) that built the added muscle mass. For some people, added muscle mass loss can start in as little as two weeks. Three to four weeks is more typical.

The more skinny fat tissue that you have, the less likely it is you can add the muscle mass you want to that area of your body. Anyone who claims that they can turn skinny fat tissue into muscle tissue, or that muscle tissue turned into skinny fat tissue, needs to provide the scientific data, evidence, and facts to back up their claim.

The thing is, it is possible for someone with skinny fat to add enough muscle mass to look like a Standard BT1. In that moment, the influencer screams, “see, I told you so!”. As if they permanently fixed or got rid of that person’s skinny fat. But, there is no science to back up this claim either. Let’s see that person, and anyone like them, 10 years from now when life takes over and they no longer have the time or motivation to maintain the added muscle mass. And they are back at their original default genetic body composition including skinny fat. The skinny fat never went away or goes away, it was and is only reduced.

You can reduce your skinny fat three ways: 

1 – Diet: safely and sustainably lose regular white/yellow fat.

2 – Exercise: add muscle mass.

3 – Pay for a few FDA-approved methods.

What is the Best Skinny Fat Diet According to Science?

References

1. innerbody: The Muscular System, July 25th, 2024 (last updated), Tim Taylor. https://www.innerbody.com/image/musfov.html
2. KevinMD: Why body type standards are wrong in measuring health, November 4, 2022, Marc Nelson. https://www.kevinmd.com/2022/11/why-body-type-standards-are-wrong-in-measuring-health.html
3. Fellow One Research: Body Type Science Research Data, https://www.fellowone.com/category/fellow-one-research/the-four-body-types/body-type-science/body-type-quiz/research-data/
4. Fellow One Research: Body Type Test (Quiz) Results 1170 – Body Type Three (BT3) Female (Woman), Generation Z, February 2022. https://www.fellowone.com/fellow-one-research/the-four-body-types/body-type-quiz/body-type-test-quiz-results-1170-body-type-three-bt3-female-woman-generation-z/
5. Cleveland Clinic: DNA, Genes & Chromosomes, May 20, 2022. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23064-dna-genes–chromosomes
6. Healthline: DNA Explained and Explored, February 11, 2022 (last updated), Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph.D. (reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D.O.). https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-dna
7. Wikipedia: Epigenetics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
8. Healthline: Exercise Break: How Long Does It Take to Lose Muscle Mass?, November 01. 2018, Lindsay Ross-Hazel. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-long-does-it-take-to-lose-muscle-mass