Lately there seems to be a lot of talk about whether or not its possible to spot reduce body fat. Spot reduction would be like doing crunches in an effort to lose your gut. The concensus has long been that its not possible to spot reduce but tjis hasn't stopped the As Seen On TV Scam team and the other magic potion pedalers from trying their best to get you to ignore that fact.
To keep it simple, up until now the only thought on the matter has been that the only way to lose weight body fat is an overall caloric deficit and this would remove fat from the entire body and not just the part you want it to be removed from. Also, because exercises like crunches don't burn many calories, you can do them all day and you will probably never end up losing any weight.
To me, and to many other people for years this has made perfect sense. However there are a few arguments coming out now that say that we may have been wrong. Hey, it wouldn't be the first time the health and scientific communities were wrong now would it?
There are now two arguments for spot reduction that seem to really be riling people up and they both seem quite viable. The first is spot reduction through hormone manipulation. Basically, this says that if you have a "problem area" it has to do with your hormone production being off balance. We know some of this is true. For instance, people with high insulin resistance tend to have more belly fat. If a guy has "man boobs", it can be due to his high amount of the female hormone; estrogen.
Since there are diets and routines out there that can make huge differences in your hormone makeup, this would give us the ability to spot reduce. If you want to see more about this, check out John Romaniello's new product, Final Phase Fat Loss. I picked this up at the launch and started reading through it for after I get off my current program. I must say its fascinating stuff and really seems to have merit.
So the first type of spot reduction is hormonal and seems to make a great deal of sense to me. However, it still doesn't allow you to just go to work doing crunches to lose belly fat so its probably more than most people really want to deal with no matter how effective.
My secret is 200 crunches per day
The second type here is right up the lazy persons alley though. Through a recent study by scientists in Copenhagen which was recently talked about by renowned fitness author, Jeff Anderson, it seems that when exercising a specific body part with the right combination of resistance and aerobic activity, the muscles will release natural heat and spur hormones that will cause it to reach out to the nearest energy source (fat store) for break it down for energy.
Now this is in fact a heavy finding. Of course I only know of one study now that's found this and I don't really know the details of the study but the finding is still pretty huge none-the-less.
Now I like to be open minded so I won't burn Jeff at the stake for repeating a very interesting study llike some of his readers seem to have done. However, I will have to think about this with some good old fashioned common sense.
First, I have to look at the results around me and say, I have never seen someone go into the gym fat, do a million crunches and come out with a fat arms and legs but a trim waist. I have seen a lot of overweight people do months of crunch-a-thons though. Next, I've seen people that are push up machines that have manboobs. This also doesn't seem to jive with the study.
See, here's the thing. This theory could, and probably is, 100% true. The problem is that its not the only factor. OK, so maybe crunches will cause your body to burn more belly fat than say thigh fat but what does that matter if 100 crunches only burns 50 calories total? So 30 of those calories are burned from your stomach? Big deal, that's less than 1% of a pound of fat. Remember, one pound of fat is about 3500 calories and total body calesthenics only burns about 550 calories for an entire hour.
The second thing I see as a problem is that any exercise that involves both resistance and aerobic work is not for the faint of heart. Even the best of us have a very limited amount of time we can do these movements before we're in the bathroom sorting through our pre workout meal. What this means is, unless its a small amount of work to get you there (which I doubt or we would have discovered this effect long ago), most people will probably never be able to do enough work in a specific area to see any real results.
Here's a few other questions to keep in mind...
How long into the workout does this take effect?
Does it maintain its effects after the movement is finished and if so for how long?
How effective is it actually?
Do we have to first deplete out glycogen stores for it to be effective?
Please, check out Jeff Anderson's article here and leave your comments to tell me what you think. Do you think this is worth further exploring? Does the prospect of spot reduction excite you? Do you think its all a hoax? WIll this change anything in the industry? Should Jeff be burned at the stake (sorry Jeff)?
Until next time,
Kris
Thanks for the amazing post, Now I will follow your instructions...!!
Posted by: Lipo 6 Black | 15 April 2010 at 01:47 AM