Spot Fat Reduction
This blog will continue to look at a collection of common myths around fitness and health. These are called myths but some may turn out to have some truth behind them! So read on and find out…..
Spot Fat Reduction
I think I could safely say the majority have a specific place on their body they would like to lose a little excess. It’s common for people to assume exercising this body part will cause the body to reduce the excess in that specific area. For example, those wanting to lose around their belly doing extra abdominal exercises in the hope that will make it get slimer.
I would have and have previously coached that this does not work for a number of reasons. Firstly the body will decide where it accesses energy from and my assumption would be the area you want would be the last possibly because it was the first area to go on. Purely my own theory. Secondly, the body needs to be in a caloric deficit in order to utilise the bodies store of energy (Body fat). Therefore, without addressing diet there wouldn’t be any change regardless of how much exercise was performed.
However, in looking a research into to my surprise were a few studies claiming to have found protocols that did spot fat reduction! What, how has this not become mainstream?!
Paoli and colleagues (2021) is one such study that claimed to have reduced fat specifically around the belly! The volunteers were split into two groups which had the exercises matched so one was not doing more than the other. One group swapped between resistance training exercises and conditioning, whilst the other did endurance conditioning to start followed by resistance training. All the same exercises and amounts.
But, the study did a whole body protocol, not just the endurance but the resistance training. Hardly the traditional spot fat reduction. So it was just a whole body fat reduction and so happened the endurance followed by resistance lost more around the middle and overall lost more. So is there something in the protocol.
A second study (Kostek et al, 2007) looked specifically at training the arms, the way people normally assume they can train to lose body fat on a specific area. One arm they trained the other arm they left as a control. They found after 12 weeks no difference between the arms.
A third study however may have something more convincing than the two above. Brobakken and colleagues (2023) had one group running (27min) and performing abdominal exercises (4x4min) and a control group just running (45min). Their energy expenditure was matched so the running group wouldn’t over exert more than just doing ab exercises. The results, both groups lost body, but the running and ab group lost fat around the trunk whereas the only running group didn’t. Another interesting result was the only running group also lost lean mass, i.e muscle, which isn’t good for being healthy.
Before you all jump onto this protocol to lose your belly this protocol was 84mins 4 times per week for 10 weeks. Extensive training for the majority. What I am taking from this is looking at training abdominals at the end or after some kind of conditioning/endurance work. Plus training ab exercises together back to back for an appropriate amount of time for that client, whereas I previously would intersperse them throughout the whole session.
A myth that may not be as much of a myth as I first thought.
· Brobakken MF, Krogsaeter I, Helgerud J, Wang E, Hoff J. Abdominal aerobic endurance exercise reveals spot reduction exists: A randomized controlled trial. Physiol Rep. 2023 Nov;11(22):e15853. doi: 10.14814/phy2.15853. PMID: 38010201; PMCID: PMC10680576.
· Kostek MA, Pescatello LS, Seip RL, Angelopoulos TJ, Clarkson PM, Gordon PM, Moyna NM, Visich PS, Zoeller RF, Thompson PD, Hoffman EP, Price TB. Subcutaneous fat alterations resulting from an upper-body resistance training program. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007 Jul;39(7):1177-85. doi: 10.1249/mss.0b0138058a5cb. PMID: 17596787.
· Paoli A, Casolo A, Saoncella M, Bertaggia C, Fantin M, Bianco A, Marcolin G, Moro T. Effect of an Endurance and Strength Mixed Circuit Training on Regional Fat Thickness: The Quest for the "Spot Reduction". Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 6;18(7):3845. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073845. PMID: 33917584; PMCID: PMC8038840.