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There is a pervasive notion among the people across the lands. Its a sinister, misleading and incorrect idea that fat can be "burned away" from certain areas of the body by performing exercises on the muscle group covered by said fat. I think it may afflict women at a greater rate than it does the men, but I've been asked by both sexes about "problem areas." For men, its always the abs and low back and for women its usually the thighs and upper arms.
And what do you suppose my response to them is? The same you'd probably give - "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT FAT REMOVAL!!!" Sure you may reduce the "flabby" appearance of these areas through hypertrophy but are you really burning the fat away? No, you are simply growing the muscle to push against the skin and squeeze the subcutaneous fat more tightly in place. But that fat is still there!
Burning fat is all about caloric intake. If you are eating less calories than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure then you're going to lose fat. You can either decrease your caloric intake or increase your TDEE through vigorous activity, but either way its always going to come back to what you put in your mouth.
Misinformation out there though of course lends itself to the multi-billion dollar exercise device industry who preys on naive, ignorant and/or lazy individuals. They serve as something of a "sister" organization to the supplement industry that bottles up inexpensive ingredients, promises massive fat loss and puts in the fine print:
as part of a diet and exercise program
But is that entirely true? Well apparently not!
In a study which asked the question
Are blood flow and lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue influenced by contractions in adjacent muscles in humans?
In the attempt to collect an answer to this question it was found that healthy males which exercised in a fasted state, performing resistance exercise had greater levels of lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue in the areas adjacent to the muscles worked. In this example, leg extensions were performed and lipolysis was measured in the quads.
If that doesn't blow your mind a bit, or at least make you confused or feel anything, try reading it again.
Now does this really carry over to our training? I'd say no. As we're generally all about hypertrophy and strength, it looks like we would have to perform such a tremendous amount of repetitions to burn off excess calories that we'd stop growing our Type IIb muscle fibers.
So in sum, continue with the thought that there is no such thing as spot fat reduction. Focus on your diet for fat reduction. And you should be doing cardiovascular exercise or HIIT for good heart health anyway.
How's that for a 360??? You dizzy
----PoB----
ps - this article is not intended to encompass the various peptides, hormones or other injectables that may or may not cause spot reduction in adipose tissue.
And what do you suppose my response to them is? The same you'd probably give - "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT FAT REMOVAL!!!" Sure you may reduce the "flabby" appearance of these areas through hypertrophy but are you really burning the fat away? No, you are simply growing the muscle to push against the skin and squeeze the subcutaneous fat more tightly in place. But that fat is still there!
Burning fat is all about caloric intake. If you are eating less calories than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure then you're going to lose fat. You can either decrease your caloric intake or increase your TDEE through vigorous activity, but either way its always going to come back to what you put in your mouth.
Misinformation out there though of course lends itself to the multi-billion dollar exercise device industry who preys on naive, ignorant and/or lazy individuals. They serve as something of a "sister" organization to the supplement industry that bottles up inexpensive ingredients, promises massive fat loss and puts in the fine print:
as part of a diet and exercise program
But is that entirely true? Well apparently not!
In a study which asked the question
Are blood flow and lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue influenced by contractions in adjacent muscles in humans?
In the attempt to collect an answer to this question it was found that healthy males which exercised in a fasted state, performing resistance exercise had greater levels of lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue in the areas adjacent to the muscles worked. In this example, leg extensions were performed and lipolysis was measured in the quads.
If that doesn't blow your mind a bit, or at least make you confused or feel anything, try reading it again.
Now does this really carry over to our training? I'd say no. As we're generally all about hypertrophy and strength, it looks like we would have to perform such a tremendous amount of repetitions to burn off excess calories that we'd stop growing our Type IIb muscle fibers.
So in sum, continue with the thought that there is no such thing as spot fat reduction. Focus on your diet for fat reduction. And you should be doing cardiovascular exercise or HIIT for good heart health anyway.
How's that for a 360??? You dizzy
----PoB----
ps - this article is not intended to encompass the various peptides, hormones or other injectables that may or may not cause spot reduction in adipose tissue.
