Don't Burn Fat This Way

I'm sure I have blogged about this topic before, but it is something that just won't go away.  If you could only ask personal trainer one questions, what would it be?  There are many responses that might come up, but the overwhelming majority is, "How do I lose fat on my [insert body part here]?"

This is referred to as spot reducing.  While I'm sure there will be more research to be done on this topic, the direction that current researching is pointing is that you can't do this.  I know it sucks, but we need to accept it and move on.  If you don't believe me here are some examples:

1.  The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a study in 2011 that 6 weeks of abdominal training lead to know fat loss of the abdomen.  It did improve the muscular endurance of the abdominal muscles.

2.  In 1971 UC Irvine performed a study on tennis players.  If spot reduction worked we would see less fat in the dominant arm of tennis players versus their non dominant.  Again this was shown to be false.

3.  A more recent study in 2007 from the University of Connecticut had subjects only train one arm to see if fat loss occurred only at that site.  Again they found that fat loss was more general all over the body and not only in the one arm.

So as tempting as it is to get on the inner/outer thigh machines to burn thigh fat or doing a million sit ups to burn stomach fat, please don't.  You select exercises for two reasons mainly.  One to train that specific muscle or movement to gain strength, endurance, or power.  The second is to select exercises that burn a lot of calories in general.  Not just at a specific location.  I know it sounds crazy, but doing squats can help burn belly fat.

In the latest issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning research, I came across an interesting study.  Sometimes research is way behind current training practices, but it is great when it catches up.  Something that we have been doing for years is using total body, high intensity exercises to try and burn as many calories as possible versus overtraining one specific area trying to spot reduce.  This study found that a few nontraditional exercises that are becoming more popular today were better at burning calories than traditional exercises.

Since I'm sure you don't want to read the study, I put together a short video of the exercises used in the study.  If you have trained with us before these should look familiar.  If not, give them a try and see how you do.  Just follow the instructions in the video for sets and reps.

Have fun!

So in summary, to burn fat, pick higher intensity total body movements.  Get off the inner/outer thigh machines unless you specifically want to improve the strength of those muscles.


You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training