If you spend a little time scrolling through social media, you’re bound to see ads promoting targeted fat loss.
These ads promote a concept known as “spot reduction” and claim that specially designed exercises and workouts can help you burn fat in specific areas of your body, usually the belly area.
It’s also common to see advertisements promoting special diets, pills, and supplements that will help you burn fat in targeted areas. These ads may seem unbelievable, often featuring impressive before and after photos taken every few weeks.
Unfortunately, spot weight loss is another myth about weight loss. It is impossible to target where fat will be lost. Here’s why:
1. Our bodies are wired to utilize and burn all stored fat for energy.
To understand why spot reduction is a myth, it’s important to understand how body fat is stored and used.
Fat stored in our bodies is in the form of triglycerides, a type of lipid or fat molecule that can be used for energy.Approximately 95 percent of dietary fat What we ingest is neutral fat.and when we eat, our bodies also convert the expended, unused energy into triglycerides.
Triglycerides are stored in special fat cells called adipocytes, where they are released into the bloodstream and transported to adipose tissue (commonly referred to as body fat).
This body fat is found everywhere in our bodies, but is mainly stored under the skin as subcutaneous fat and around internal organs as visceral fat.
These fat stores act as important energy stores, and our bodies mobilize them to access stored triglycerides to provide energy during prolonged exercise. We also tap into these reserves when we diet or fast.
However, contrary to what many spot-reduction ads would have us think, our muscles cannot directly access and burn specific fat stores during exercise.
Instead, it uses a process called lipolysis to convert triglycerides into free fatty acids and a compound called glycerol, which is transported to the muscles via the bloodstream.
As a result, the fat stored as energy when we exercise comes from all over the body, not just the areas targeted for fat loss.
Research supports how our bodies burn fat when we exercise, confirming spot weight loss is a weight loss myth.This includes randomized 12 week clinical trial The results showed no significant improvement in abdominal fat loss among those who followed the abdominal resistance program in addition to dietary changes compared to the diet alone group.
Even further away, 2021 Meta-Analysis Of the 13 studies involving more than 1,100 participants, localized resistance training was found to have no effect on localized fat deposits. In other words, exercising one part of your body didn’t reduce fat in that area.
the study Studies purporting to show spot reduction effects have yielded clinically meaningless results in a small number of participants.
2. Our bodies decide from the beginning where to store fat and where to lose fat.
Factors outside of our control affect the areas and order in which our bodies store and lose fat.
- our genes. Just as DNA dictates whether we’re short or tall, genetics plays an important role in how we manage our fat stores. Research shows that our genes may be to blame. 60% of where fat is distributed. So if your mom tends to pack her weight and lose weight on her face first, there’s a good chance that you will too.
- our gender. Our bodies are inherently hardwired to store fat. driven by our gender, including women who have more fat mass than men. This is primarily because women’s bodies are designed to store fat to support pregnancy and lactation, and women shed weight first from their faces, calves, and arms because they are least affected by childbirth. This is because it tends to reduce and at the same time preserve the fat stored around the waist and thighs.and butt
- our age. The aging process causes changes in muscle mass, metabolism, and hormone levels, which can affect where and how quickly fat is lost.postmenopausal woman and middle age male Visceral fat tends to accumulate in the midsection, which is where it’s difficult to move fat.
3. Commercially available pills and supplements cannot effectively target fat loss.
Most of the advertisements for these pills and dietary supplements, including those claiming to be the “best way to lose belly fat,” do not guarantee that the product’s results are backed up by “clinical trials” and “scientific evidence.” I proudly claim that I am.
But in reality, many independent studies do not support these claims.
This includes two recent studies by the University of Sydney that examined data from more than 120 placebo-controlled trials. herbs and diet remedy supplement. None of the supplements studied resulted in clinically meaningful weight loss in overweight or obese people.
conclusion
Spot loss is a myth and we have no control over where on our bodies we lose fat. However, by targeting overall fat loss, you can achieve the results you are looking for in specific areas.
Although exercise won’t make you lose weight in a specific area, all physical activity helps burn body fat and maintain muscle mass. This can lead to body shape changes over time and can also help with long-term weight management.
This is because your metabolic rate, or how much energy you burn at rest, is determined by how much muscle and fat you carry. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat (meaning it uses more energy than fat), so people with more muscle mass have a faster metabolic rate than people with the same body weight and more fat mass.
Successful long-term fat loss requires losing weight in small, sustainable increments, with periods of weight loss followed by periods of weight maintenance, until you reach your goal weight.
You also need to make gradual changes to your lifestyle (diet, exercise, sleep) to ensure you develop habits that will last a lifetime.
The Borden Group at the Charles Perkins Center studies the science of obesity and conducts clinical trials for weight loss.you can Register here to express your interests.
nick fullerCharles Perkins Center Research Program Leader; University of Sydney
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
