Why is the ‘puson’ so stubborn?
Each year, I often hear people talk about their fitness and diet plans that usually begin four to six weeks before the Lenten season—cutting back on sweets or sugar and committing to a beach-body workout program to confidently enjoy time at the beach with friends or family.
And the most common goal: getting rid of—or at least reducing—what many Filipinos refer to as the lower belly or the puson, an area often described as the “muffin top” in Western fitness culture.
I completely understand the concern. Personally, despite years of regular exercise and mindful eating, I still find the puson one of the most challenging areas of body fat to manage. However, when too much focus is placed on the puson, many people can resort to unhealthy quick-fix strategies that can lead to imbalanced programs, frustration, and health risks.
It is time to better understand the science, common misconceptions, and more sustainable strategies for managing the puson, so that even after the beach season ends, you can continue supporting not just your body composition, but your overall health and wellbeing.
The physiology of puson
The puson is the soft, superficial fat you can pinch in the lower midsection. Many people find this small bulge frustrating, especially when compared to the perfectly flat stomachs often seen on social media. But maintaining an extremely flat lower abdomen can require strict dieting and intense workouts that may be difficult to sustain. In fact, a small amount of fat in this lower abdominal area supports hormonal balance and protects the body.
Genetics influences fat distribution. Asian women may have a greater tendency to store fat in the lower abdomen compared with Western populations.
It is also important to distinguish the puson from the deep visceral fat that surrounds internal organs and is linked to serious metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, and is actually the more important type of fat to address. Reducing visceral fat often leads to overall fat loss, which may also gradually reduce puson. For this article, however, I will focus on managing superficial abdominal fat (puson), which may also reflect improvements in deeper visceral fat stores.
Why the puson behaves differently—and how to manage it
1. Misconception: Spot reduction and focused ab workouts
Real solution: Full body workouts that improve circulation and fat metabolism
A study shows that abdominal fat spot reduction does not work. You need to lose total body fat to be able to target the puson as well.
Overemphasizing ab exercises such as crunches can increase the risk of strain or injury, and eventually discourage regular exercise. So, balance your ab workouts with low-back and waist exercises to fully target the core.
Lower abdominal fat tends to receive relatively less blood flow than other fat depots, which may slow the transport of fatty acids released during fat breakdown. Make well-rounded, full-body workouts that activate large muscle groups and increase circulation a part of your routine. Full body compound strength training, walking, running, or circuit training can help improve overall fat metabolism, which may gradually influence stubborn areas such as the puson.
2. Misconception: Rapid weight loss
Real solution: Building muscle while staying active
Belly fat management goes beyond the simple equation of eating less and burning more. Resorting to rapid weight-loss strategies in the hope of achieving a flat tummy, especially through extreme calorie restriction or excessive cardio, can sometimes work against your long-term goals of reducing the puson. Along with fat, the body may lose muscle, leaving you with a weaker metabolic powerhouse.
After a meal, glucose from carbohydrates enters the bloodstream, and muscles act like a sponge, absorbing it and storing it as glycogen for future energy use. When muscle mass is low or/and when we remain sedentary, excess glucose is more likely to be stored as body fat, particularly around the abdomen. This is why building and maintaining muscle through resistance training is an important part of managing body fat.
Simple movements involving large muscles can also help. Even a 10- to 15-minute walk after meals can activate the large leg muscles, helping them absorb glucose from the bloodstream and use it for energy.
When muscles contract, they activate glucose transporters known as GLUT4, which help reduce post-meal blood sugar spikes and improve insulin sensitivity, both of which are closely linked to abdominal fat regulation.
3. Misconception: Underestimating the effects of stress on belly fat
Real solution: Daily cortisol regulation
Prolonged cortisol elevation from chronic stress can promote fat accumulation in the lower abdomen.
Start the day with a protein-forward breakfast, which may help stabilize blood sugar levels after the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR)—the natural rise in cortisol that occurs during the first hour after waking. Stable blood sugar levels that start early in the day can help regulate appetite and cravings throughout the day.
Prioritizing sleep, along with the routines, can also support better stress regulation. This includes finishing meals three hours before bedtime and limiting foods that may disrupt metabolic balance late in the evening, such as deep-fried foods with refined carbohydrates (pastries, white rice, pasta, bread, and noodles), sugary beverages, and alcohol. Excessive late-night intake of these foods may elevate blood sugar levels and disrupt metabolism. You would not want habits that encourage abdominal fat storage even while sleeping.
It is also helpful to reduce unnecessary stressors, such as overloading your schedule or spending time with people who drain your energy. Simple nervous system regulation practices—such as mindful breaks or recovery strategies like contrast therapy—may help the body return to a more balanced physiological state.
4. Misconception: Constant eating is harmless as long as calories stay within the daily limit
Real solution: Tolerable fasting windows to mobilize stored fat
Metabolic inflexibility occurs when the body becomes less efficient at switching between carbs and fat as energy sources, resulting from frequent eating, sedentary lifestyle, ultra-processed foods, and chronic stress. Ideally, the body should use carbs after meals and shift to burning fat between meals, during fasting periods, or/and during physical activity. When this flexibility is reduced, the body may rely heavily on glucose for energy and become less efficient at mobilizing stored fat.
Aside from all the strategies mentioned above, one of the best ways to support metabolic flexibility is to allow the body periods without food so it can gradually shift from using glucose to using fat for fuel. Short fasting periods, such as 12 to 16 hours overnight, may help encourage this transition. This helps the body access stored fat more efficiently throughout the body, including stubborn areas such as the puson.
However, fasting does not need to be extreme. For some people, extreme fasting windows may increase stress and elevate cortisol levels, which could work against efforts to manage lower-belly fat.
