Spot Reduction is Still a Myth…
Every so often, I’ll field a question on one of the forums I moderate about the best exercises for – say – losing excess fat around the midsection or thighs…and I always respond the same way:
“Spot reduction is a myth. The fat around your <insert body part here> belongs to your whole body, and exercising that area won’t do anything to shift it, except as part of a comprehensive workout/reduced calorie diet program.”
After all, do you know anyone who ever got rid of excess belly fat by doing crunches? Nah gah happen.
I’m a science-type however, so I have to shift my opinion when the facts are against me, and it just so happens that I wuz wrong about this. Spot reduction really does occur.
Well, sorta…
In a study published in 2006, researchers took 10 moderately active men, and had them exercise only one leg, using a “knee extension ergometer” at different intensities. This way, they could compare the lipolysis (i.e., fat breakdown) in the subcutaneous fat over the exercising muscles, and compare it to that of the non-exercising leg. And lo and behold, it turns out that there was a larger amount of fat burned in the area over the exercising muscles, thanks to the increased blood flow and subsequent rise in temperature.
Great news, eh? Unfortunately, there’s a catch…
Each subject exercised a single leg for a minimum of 30 minutes (!!!). The researchers found the rate of lipolysis in the fat over the exercising legs translated to an extra 0.6 – 2.1 milligrams per 100 g of fat released over a 30 minute period.
That ain’t a lot.
In other words, spot reduction happens, but it’s only a very tiny amount. You’d have to do something like 30 minutes worth of crunches a day, for weeks in order to lose that ab flab. And, of course you’d lose such a small amount per session, that cutting calories would still be necessary to keep from replenishing the fat after you were done exercising.
As the researchers concluded: “More calories are expended during aerobic, whole body exercise than by exercise with local muscle groups, and, accordingly, a person seeking to loose fat must be advised to perform whole body exercise.”
So spot reduction is still a myth…even though it isn’t.
