Spot Reduction – Myth?

One thing I want to address is spot reduction. What am I talking about? I’m talking about wanting to maybe lose a little bit around the stomach.  Or maybe you want to make the arms a little leaner or take some off the hips or butt. Let me explain why that’s not exactly possible and what is possible.  I’ll tell you why spot reduction is a myth!

What is fat?

So, fat is all over the body. When you eat food or drink something other than water, the calories are used by the body as a whole, not just certain body parts. These calories and macronutrients are broken down and used.  Anything not used is stored as fat in the tissues. The body may have spots that are prone to accumulate fat, but in order to then lose that fat, you have to be in a caloric deficit so that fat is then burned. When fat is burned, it’s burned to make energy for the body to use, but it’s not preferentially burned—it’s burned all throughout the body. So if you want to burn more fat off your stomach, for example, you have to burn enough fat from the whole body to then see the stomach fat go.  This is why spot reduction is a myth.

How do I lose fat in those places?

When embarking on a fitness journey to lose weight or to trim certain places, know that it all comes down to burning fat overall. When the body fat percentage is low enough, you’ll see leaner abs, leaner arms, leaner hips or thighs. But you can’t tell your body to only lose the fat in a certain area. How do you burn fat? By burning more calories than you take in. When you do this, your body, needing energy, turns your stored fat into usable energy to keep going. This will burn that fat and lean you out.

Best exercises for fat loss

Another reason spot reduction doesn’t work is because, typically, when you try to reduce the fat or size of a certain body part, you’re generally working only smaller muscles or only one muscle group, rather than working multiple, larger muscles. For example, when some people want to lean the arms, out, they only work on the arms with things like biceps curls and triceps work.  When that happens, the caloric expenditure is lower, and for all the time spent on those muscles, you’re getting less in return. It makes more sense to work larger and multiple muscle groups to burn more calories and build bigger muscles. Bigger, stronger muscles burns more calories all the time, even when you’re at rest, so it’s beneficial to strengthen those muscles!

What you can do

Now that we have that straight, what can you do if you want to trim fat off a certain place? Watch what you eat and drink (good foods in moderation—I have tips!).  I also wrote a post about nutrition that you can find here.  You should also start a good exercise plan (I can help with that!) that has you moving and burning calories. With that, you will see your goals reached.