The Spot Reduction Myth and How to Effectively Lose Fat

Despite what fitness advertisements and commercials may tell you, there is no way to reduce body fat from a specific area. As unfortunate as it sounds, no amount of crunches, side bends or body contour wraps will remove subcutaneous fat from a specific desired location.

Our bodies store body fat as an overall percentage of our weight. All people store adipose tissue as a survival mechanism when there is a net caloric surplus from consuming too many calories or from being physically inactive. The actual distribution of subcutaneous fat is dependent on numerous variables such as gender, age, hormone levels and genetics. Because of the unique aspects of how each person stores body fat, the physical looks and aesthetics of a person’s body is highly varied based on their percentage of body fat and the areas in which they store fat. Despite how gifted or unlucky your genetics are, no amount of isolated exercises to blast the fat away from a specific site will reduce fat in that area. In fact, isolated exercises will only train the muscular strength and endurance of that particular muscle.  So although you may experience an increase in localized strength or endurance from isolating a targeted muscle, the layer of fat that is covering the lean muscle mass will still exist despite your efforts.

 So what is the most effective way to reduce fat?

Because your overall body fat percentage is directly correlated to your net caloric energy intake, the only way to reduce your overall body fat percentage is through creating a caloric deficit, which means consume less calories and/or burn more through physical activity.

By following a healthy eating plan that takes into account your caloric and macronutrient needs as well as engaging in a periodized strength training and cardiovascular program, you can reduce your body fat percentage and dramatically improve your body composition. Your focus should be on compound movements that build lean muscle mass and also create the largest calorie deficit, that means get off the seated thigh abductor or crunch machine and start performing squats, deadlifts, rows and bench presses. The intensity of your program should be progressively more challenging as you begin to plateau. Once you are able to successfully accomplish 30 minutes of steady state cardiovascular exercise look to challenge yourself with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) which will give you a bigger bang for your buck in terms of burning calories.

By focusing your efforts on adhering to a longterm comprehensive fitness and nutrition program, rather than short term fads, products and myths, you can improve your body composition drastically and reduce your overall body fat percentage.