Spot Reduction – Myth or Reality Part 2

Hi,

In the last post we explored the myth of spot reduction.  But, then we found out that maybe there is something to it after all.

In this post we will talk about the why it might be possible.

Whenever you exercise intensely (we’ll get to that in a later post) your muscle fibers get damaged.  There is more muscle trama. 

This trauma and damage needs to be repaired.  In order for your body to repair it you need more energy. 

Your metabolism is raised because it is working to repair the damage. 

The great thing about raising your metabolism for this repair process is that it will stay raised until the repair process is finished.  This can take 48-72 hours.

While your metabolism is raised your body is using fat stores to help supply the energy necessary for the repairs.

It was always thought that this process utilized fat from everywhere in your body equally. 

But, as was pointed out in the last post, if that were true, then why do some people have muscular arms but a fat belly?

Part of it is because of hormones, but is it possible that some of that comes from the fat surrounding the exercised muscles?

After all everyone uses their arms all day long.  Even if they sit all day at a computer, they are still using their arms for typing, talking on the phone, reaching, grabbing, etc.

Meanwhile the abs are just doing pretty much nothing. 

The latest research shows that you do burn a little bit more fat around the exercised muscle. 

Now, this study (mentioned in the previous post) was dealing with intense exercise.  Not with everyday movements.

But, it makes sense to me that if you are moving your arms constantly, then it would be harder for fat to get deposited in those areas.

I have no proof of this – just a thought.

So does that mean that you have to do intense exercise for your abs or glutes in order to lose the fat there.? 

Either that or do a thousand ab exercises and squats everday. 

Most of you won’t do that. 

However, you can try this instead.

Start moving more.  Don’t sit for long stretches of time.  Get up and do a few squats.  (In a later post I will give you a few sitting ab exercises.)

When you do exercise your abs, don’t make them an afterthought.  And do more than just crunches.  Your abs are complex muscles and need more than exercise in just one plane. 

Now here is the key.  This spot reduction is limited.  It is not going to help you burn fat over your whole body. 

For that you need whole body exercises  – like squats and deadlifts for example. 

And you need cardio exercise.  This also has to be more intense than you might be used to doing.

Do all three of the above and you will be burning fat almost constantly. 

Thanks,

PS.  You might have noticed that I have a lot of – later posts – coming up.  There is so much to write about and discuss.  Hope you stay tuned as we approach the new year. 

Spot Reduction – Myth or Reality?

Hi,

Research has shown that spot reduction is a myth.  However, there has always been a problem with this.

Now it is true that fat is non-discriminatory.  That means when you exercise and burn fat the fat will be burned throughout your body. 

You can’t exercise your arms and expect to burn fat on you glutes. 

But, if you exercise your arms hard enough to get into a fat burning mode, then you will lose some fat over your whole body. 

However, I always had a problem with that. 

Why could some people have big, muscular and ripped arms and a fat belly or fat thighs. 

Part of that has to do with where fat is deposited and the belly and glutes seem to attract more fat. 

I remember having this discussion with some of my fellow master students (in physical education at UC-Berkeley).

However, we exercise our arms much more than we exercise our belly and glutes. 

Our arms are almost constantly moving everyday.  Even if you sit at a desk all day, you are typing, answering the phone, writing, reaching, grabbing and so on all day long. 

All the while that you are sitting and not exercising your belly and glutes. 

So what if you did several thousand ab exercises and body weight squats all day long?  Would you have ripped abs and glutes?

Turns out that now there is some research showing that a tiny bit of spot reduction is possible.

A study from 2007 in the American Journal of Physiol Endocrinol Metabolism (292(2):e934-9 showed that “an acute bout of exercise can induce spot lipolysis and increased blood flow in adipose tissue adjacent to contracting skeletal muscle”.

That means that if you exercise your abs hard enough that you will be able to burn some surrounding subcutaneous fat around your abs over and beyond what you would get from an overall fat burning effect.

Note, this is only for subcutaneous fat.  Deeper fat is not affected by this.

So why does this possible spot reduction take place?  Stay tuned for the next post to find out why.

Thanks.

The reason you get this spot effect is because any time you exercise intensely your body needs to repair the damage that the exercise caused your muscles. 

This repair process takes energy