Spot reduction

 

How to lose fat in a certain area… Best exercises to lose belly fat…. Best exercises to lose fat around waist… Can you concentrate on my arms please, I really need to get rid of this flabby fat…

As a personal trainer I get asked questions like these all the time. It often is that one area of your body which you’re not happy with that finally pushes you to take action to start training or dieting.  You may see a photo of yourself, or a reflection, or your clothes won’t fit and finally decide that enough is enough- It is time to get rid of those unwanted fat  around your hips/your arms/your stomach/your back/your thighs/your buttocks or bum..

So is spot reduction possible? Many clients come to me with very specific requests to concentrate on these mentioned areas.

I have learned that in real life it is not always in your best interest to hear the truth. Or the whole truth. The last thing I want is to discourage someone from exercising, so I carefully consider my response, because after all, people come to me because they have a desired outcome in mind. I always aim to give them what they want, and I usually succeed.

Women typically want to lose fat around their waist and probably even more often from their upper arms. Men, as you might have guessed, want to lose belly fat.

So, when obliged to do so, exactly how do I get people to lose fat in a certain area?

I prescribe exercises like these:

Spot reduction for abdominal fat:

Mountain climbers. Lots of them. Burpees too.

Spot reduction for arms:

Jump rope, man-makers, jumping jacks and depending on the persons’s fitness and ability something like burpees into chin-ups.

Spot reduction for legs:

Burpees again. Jump lunges. Prisoner squats. Shalom bench jumps if you are fit and able.

Spot reduction for butt:

Stairs running, reverse lunges, prisoner squats, sprints, Bulgarian split squats.

I think you have noticed that all of these exercises are relatively high calorie burning movements that require you to use your whole body. That, my hopeful reader, is the harsh reality. You need to do exercises that have a high metabolic effect that will burn calories during and after your workout.

A good workout program will allow you to burn fat by using fat as fuel during the workout and by changing your hormonal health. The fat burned will however be all over your body, and that should be your focus.

So yes, the exercises I prescribe for spot reduction is in fact full body exercises that will challenge you and burn a lot of calories. The truth is spot or regional fat reduction is not completely a myth, but to focus on trying to lose fat in a certain area and doing countless repetitions of a certain body part is not a good investment of your time.

So what should you do right now to solve this problem area of yours? First, you should stop searching the internet for spot reduction exercises.

All you’ll end up in search results are these online magazine articles with some cheesy headline claiming to show you five tips on on how to lose fat on problem areas, but trust me-almost guaranteed it will be written by someone who’s job it is to write articles. This person will most certainly be without any real knowledge of fitness or any suitable formal qualification.

Other articles will tell you the over-simplified rule of calories in vs calories out is all that matters. With cliche advice like your abs are made in the gym and revealed in the kitchen.

Sorry if I sounded a little negative for a moment there but the generic articles these days really annoy me.

If you have flabby arms or some flab on your stomach or love handles, you have to face the fact that you still have a lot of body fat to lose all over. Your best course of action would be to let a professional determine your body fat percentage. Once you know this, focus on reducing your body fat and changing your body composition. This simply means to do workouts that will maintain or grow your muscles, while burning fat.

The best way to get lean all over is to follow a professionally written program that will make you fitter, stronger and even younger. The right approach will change the way your body do things. Changes occur at cellular level that allows you to burn fat for fuel more easily, to send signals to your muscles to grow, increase mitochondria and  even make positive changes to your DNA.