How Do I Lose Fat From Here? The Myth of Spot Reduction

A common concern I hear among clients is “how can I lose fat from my *insert area of interest here*.  Although the thought of “toning” and/ or losing fat in a certain area (i.e. spot reduction) is certainly attractive, it is unfortunately theoretically faulty.

The very smart business and marking people of the fitness industry have latched on to these spot reduction dreams we have and prey on our misconceptions. You see programs and products everywhere promising decreased belly fat, arm fat, “love handle” fat and long lean muscles. These cleverly marketed products, however, are merely falsities.

I’m writing this post not to berate you for wanting to lose fat or look better in a certain area of your body (hell I would love to have a little less softness in some places), but to educate you on the reality of being a fit and healthy person and the aesthetic desires that often accompany these aspirations. Without going on a “we are a product of socialization and should not care what we look like” rant, I’ll stick the premise that we want to look good…for now.

Basically, the reason we can’t lose fat in a certain area, like our lower abs, by simply “working” that area is because the body will take fat from where it wants to. Depressing, I know, but this is just the physiological truth of our body.

We are all genetically different, so we will lose fat from places first before others. For example, I lose fat in my boobs first, then my stomach, then my legs, then my butt. How do I know this? Because I have been working out and changing and playing with my diet for almost a decade now.

To help you understand how and why our body loses fat, I’m going to give you quick exercise physiology crash course on what happens during and after exercise.

As you know, when you work out your heart rate increases, you sweat, you get uncomfortable. This is what you want, because all the good stuff happens when you’re in this state and more importantly, directly after. Without going into crazy detail, the increased contraction of your muscles and heart rate causes the release of chemical messengers such as norepinephrine. While working out, these messengers cause vasodilation (increase of blood flow) to the working muscles and vasoconstriction (decrease of blood flow) to the non-working tissue (i.e. fat).

Due to where blood is flowing during exercise our body mainly burns carbohydrates in their simplest (glucose) and stored (glycogen) forms. “But I want to burn FAT Robyn not carbs!” I know, I know I’m getting to that.

So when you stop exercising the exact opposite happens with blood flow. You get vasodilation to the non-working tissue during exercise (i.e. fat) and vasoconstriction to the muscles. Now, this is a good thing because your catecholamine (blood chemicals) will still be elevated from the kick ass circuit training you just did, which will bind on to receptors and cause lipolysis or fat burnage.  So, in theory, the harder you work, the higher your catecholamine levels and the more lipolysis that happens when you stop.

The bad news is, especially for us women, not all fat receptors are made equal. Some fat receptors (called beta adrenergic receptors) do not cause lipolysis when these messengers bind to them.  Women have these receptors, in my opinion, mainly for protection as we still need a set amount of body fat to menstruate. Unfortunately, we cannot change these receptors, you can get rid of them threw liposuction, but I don’t recommend this of course.

Therefore, because your blood goes everywhere in your body, which you cannot control, you cannot spot reduce as it is physiologically impossible. Some trainers (either ignorant or trying to sell you something) may promise you loss in belly fat without losing it from your boobs, but I can assure you this is false. Promises of certain “target fat burning” exercises may even feel like they are burning fat on your inner thighs, butt, abs ect, but you are actually strengthening and building muscle under the fat. This is great and will increase your BMR and muscle tone (see previous posts), but it won’t burn fat from this area.

So what can you do to lose fat in those areas you want to? Well, as always I have some tips to decrease body fat, while acknowledging what you are in control of. Those tips, however, will be for my next post.

As always, I appreciate comments, questions and feedback.

Stay Strong

Byn