If you feel tired of seeing the stubborn stomach lines around your midsection, you’re not alone. According to CDC, obesity prevalence in the United States increased from 30.5% to 41.9% between 2017 and 2020. Since then, it’s been on a constant rise.
There are many downsides to being obese or having excess fat. Getting stomach creases is one of them.
It mostly happens when the skin over your belly folds or rolls as you sit down or bend over. Repeated skin folding then results in the formation of slight lines on the stomach.
Even if you have a low body fat percentage, you might see stomach crease lines because of cellulite in the abdominal region.
While these belly lines are common in most adults, they can lead to some amount of insecurity. Fortunately, we have come up with the perfect solution to get rid of fat lines on the stomach, irrespective of their causes.
So, let’s dive straight into it!
Key Takeaways
- Crease lines on the stomach mostly appear due to repeated skin folding when you bend over or sit down.
- Belly lines are commonly seen in overweight people, people who lose weight drastically within a short span, aging people, or visible cellulite in the stomach region.
- Different factors, including physical factors (weight, body fat percentage, activity level, etc.) and lifestyle factors (hydration, sleeping patterns, smoking or alcohol consumption, and stress) can directly or indirectly result in stomach lines.
- Adopting a healthy lifestyle and making a few adjustments in your habits, like improving your posture, can help you get rid of the horizontal lines on your stomach.
- People with relatively flat stomachs and low body fat percentages can also get stomach creases, mainly because of excess cellulite in the abdominal region.
Why Are There Lines on My Stomach?
In simple words, stomach creases are the lines that appear on your skin where your belly is most likely to fold when you’re bent over. Repeated folding in one area leads to a crease line on the stomach. After a while, you’ll see that line even when you’re standing up.
In most cases, stomach creases are caused due to excess fat around the waist region. However, many other factors can cause them too:
- Excess Stomach Fat: Overweight people with more fat in their bellies are more likely to get stomach lines. That is because their belly skin folds more when they are sitting or bent over.
- Cellulite: Cellulite can cause belly lines for overweight people as well as individuals with a regular build. It occurs when the subcutaneous fat in the abdominal region is herniated, leading to lumpy skin and prominent folds.
- Old Age: As you age, your skin will start losing its elasticity and firmness. The excess skin becomes difficult to manage, which can lead to the formation of skin folds and belly lines.
- Genetics: According to research, excess fat in the belly region is mostly (more than 60%) due to genetic factors. The study also reveals that your genetic layout will determine if your belly fat is visceral (deeper) or subcutaneous (closer to the skin).
- Lifestyle Factors: Lifestyle factors like hydration, sleep patterns, posture, and smoking (or drinking) habits can also contribute to the formation of skin folds around the midsection.
Are Stomach Crease Lines permanent?
No, stomach lines are not permanent. While getting rid of stomach creases will take some time, you can take solace in the fact that it’s not impossible to do so.
Can You Get Rid of Stomach Crease Lines?
Yes, you can remove the fat lines on your stomach with regular exercise, healthy lifestyle habits, and a proper diet. Depending on the root cause of these creases, there are different solutions to achieving a flat, toned, and smooth abdomen.
Even if the appearance of these belly lines is mainly due to genetic factors, you can still make them appear less prominent on your skin by using some techniques.
How to Get Rid of Stomach Lines?
Getting rid of the horizontal lines across the stomach above the belly button completely can be difficult. But it can be done if you are persistent enough in changing your lifestyle, diet, and activity levels.
Depending on why these belly lines might be appearing on your skin, here are some solutions that you can try to make them disappear:
Cut Down Calories (Eat Healthy Foods)
The fastest way to lose weight and bring down the overall body fat percentage is to start eating healthy. That also includes being in a state of caloric deficit while satiating your tummy with fibrous and nutrient-rich foods.
By following a proper diet, you can burn the fat deposits stored in the abdominal region. Over time, your stomach folds will disappear, and the belly lines will go away too.
Ideally, you need to reduce your daily calorie intake by 500 kCal if you want to lose 1 pound in a week. That’s the target you should set if you want to burn fat in a healthy and sustained manner.
Start Working Out
Simply changing your diet will not yield the most efficient results. To make the overall process faster, it’s important to complement your eating habits with a good training program to burn fat faster.
If you have a sedentary lifestyle right now, start with brisk walking and jogging. From there, you can move on to strength and cardio training, as it allows you to burn visceral fat in your tummy faster.
Furthermore, to get rid of belly lines due to excess fat or cellulite, you should exercise as if you are training to lose weight. If you are up for it, incorporating High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) into your training plans can help significantly.
Stay Hydrated
A small lifestyle tweak can help you reduce your stomach creases efficiently. All you need to do is start drinking more water.
According to research, increased water consumption can result in more effective weight loss for middle-aged and older adults. Another study indicated that drinking more water can improve a person’s satiety throughout the day and also contribute to lipolysis for faster weight loss.
So, drinking more water can help you get rid of stubborn belly lines over time. But you’ll also need to have a balanced lifestyle to see noticeable results soon.
Improve Your Posture
The majority of people suffer from poor posture nowadays, primarily due to spending long hours slouched down before a computer screen.
Repeated slouching can result in a permanent bent-over posture, which can indirectly lead to stomach creases. That’s because when you’re hunched over, your torso will push down on the belly region.
This will undoubtedly lead to the formation of a horizontal line across the stomach due to skin creasing in that area. Poor posture can even result in belly lines for people who are not overweight and have less stomach fat.
Quit Smoking
If you’re a regular smoker, you’re more likely to get belly lines. Apart from causing numerous other health problems, excessive smoking can also promote visceral fat storage in the belly region.
According to multiple studies, avid smokers are more likely to store fat deposits in the belly region instead of storing them in other regions like the thighs or hips.
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Get 7-8 Hours of Sleep Every Day
Sleep is extremely important for controlling your weight. If you are not getting regular doses of healthy and deep sleep, your body’s normal hormonal activity will be impaired.
Let’s delve deeper into this concept. There are two main hormones that control food intake in your body – ghrelin and leptin.
Leptin is the satiation hormone while ghrelin is the hunger hormone.
If you are not sleeping regularly (less than 5 hours every day), your body will release more ghrelin compared to leptin. This will result in more hunger pangs and less satiety over time, leading to binge eating and accumulation of belly fat.
Having a good sleeping pattern can reverse this, make you feel fuller and energetic throughout the day. However, oversleeping is also not a solution. It’s shown that sleeping for longer periods can also lead to fat gain.
Perform Abdominal Isolation Exercises
Your ultimate goal is to get ride of stomach creases and belly lines. They mostly occur when your skin is prone to folding as it’s not tight enough.
There is one simple fix for this – workout your abdominal and core muscles.
That is the fastest way to get a flat and toned stomach without any creases or belly lines. The stronger and tighter abs that you have, the less prone your belly skin will be to roll or fold when you’re hunched over.
But remember that spot fat reduction is not possible. So, only performing ab workouts every day will not do you any favors.
Listed below are some abs exercises that you can incorporate into your training routine-
- Crunches
- Russian twists
- Leg raises
- Bicycle crunches
- Mountain climbers
- V-ups
- Flutter kicks
- Hanging leg raises
- Decline crunches
- Plank
Wear Looser Clothes
If you wear clothes that are too tight and hug your skin a little too firmly, you are more likely to develop belly lines over time.
Similar to the effect of skin folds due to slouching, tight clothes can dig against your stomach and cause the appearance of creases and lines.
Wearing baggier and looser clothes is a simple solution to this problem.
Apply Skin Tightening Creams
Finally, you can use skincare to get rid of stubborn belly lines. There are many effective skin tightening creams in the market that you can try.
Their purpose is to tighten the skin and make them less prone to folding or creasing. Ultimately, they can help reduce the prominent of lines, wrinkles, and creases across your stomach region.
However, these creams will not work if you have excess belly fat. Using skin tightening products is not a permanent solution. It will only work if you are already following our other suggestions to lose weight, reduce belly fat, and get a toned stomach.
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Final Words
Belly lines are normal and should be acceptable for everyone. However, they may seem unattractive to some people and it’s normal to want to get rid of them.
Fortunately, they are not permanent and can be removed through a combination of training, dieting, and lifestyle tweaks.
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