{"id":85,"date":"2008-04-10T20:59:40","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T18:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/spot-reduction-is-still-a-myth\/"},"modified":"2015-02-14T17:34:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T22:34:49","slug":"spot-reduction-is-still-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/spot-reduction-is-still-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Spot Reduction is Still a Myth…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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:<\/p>\n

“Spot reduction is a myth.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

After all, do you know anyone who ever got rid of excess belly fat by doing crunches?\u00a0 Nah gah happen.<\/p>\n

I’m a science-type\u00a0however, so I have to shift my opinion when the facts are against me, and it just so happens that I wuz wrong about this.\u00a0 Spot reduction really does occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, sorta…<\/p>\n

In a study published in 2006<\/a>, researchers took 10 moderately active men, and had them exercise only one leg, using a “knee extension ergometer”\u00a0at different intensities.\u00a0This way, they could compare the lipolysis (i.e.,\u00a0fat breakdown)\u00a0in the subcutaneous fat over the\u00a0exercising muscles, and compare it to that of the non-exercising leg.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Great news, eh?\u00a0 Unfortunately, there’s a catch…<\/p>\n

Each subject exercised a\u00a0single leg for a minimum of 30 minutes (!!!).\u00a0 The researchers found\u00a0the rate of\u00a0lipolysis\u00a0in the fat over the exercising legs\u00a0translated\u00a0to\u00a0an extra 0.6 – 2.1 milligrams per 100 g of fat\u00a0released\u00a0over\u00a0a 30 minute period.<\/p>\n

That ain’t a lot.<\/p>\n

In other words, spot reduction\u00a0happens, but it’s only a very tiny amount.\u00a0 You’d have to do something like 30 minutes worth of crunches a day, for weeks in order to lose that ab flab.\u00a0 And, of course you’d\u00a0lose such a small amount per session, that cutting calories would still be necessary to keep from replenishing the fat after you were done exercising.<\/p>\n

As the researchers concluded: “More calories are expended during aerobic, whole body exercise <\/sup>than by exercise with local muscle groups, and, accordingly, <\/sup>a person seeking to loose fat must be advised to perform whole <\/sup>body exercise.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

So spot reduction is still a myth…even though it isn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[456,633,1521,1648],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8527,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/8527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}