Spot treating fat....

[bstregs]

So I've read in a dozen magazines, articles, forum posts, etc., that you cannot spot treat fat, period. I just recently read, however, in the March edition of the "Muscle and Fitness" magazine that stuidies have shown that you can spot reduce fat. I gotta hear some opinions on this...

[HawkLifter55]

I believe the consensus here will be, There is NO such thing as spot reduction of fat.

[oxley]

If some old mate has a big gut, he then smashes himself with situps. He will build muscle under the fat gut.

From what I have been told, that pretty much sums up attempts at spot fat reduction.

*Awaiting correction*

[TXScout2]

Theres been some things written about controlling certain hormone levels that are associated with body fat in certain spots. For example, cortisol being involved in the storage of abdominal fat. Each of the areas has certain hormone levels that contribute to storage in that area. Through various supplementation one can try to alter their hormone levels.

Theres also been studies that show that the increased heat and blood flow near a muscle being worked will stimulate more fat burning in that area relative to other areas that arent being worked.

The question with those studies is whether or not the body will store fat in that specific area as soon as it has a chance and erase whatever "spot reduction" you just did. Hard to measure that.

Spot reduction is definately a possibility, but certainly nobody has it down to a science.

[Carmen0857]

I beleive it works somewhat, but better results will come with good diet and cardio.

[Grizzly Adams]

my vote goes for "not possible"

[feltmann]

The only spot reduction is using lipo. Otherwise the genes determine fat distribution & reducing everywhere is a must. Developing a certain area increases muscle tone which appears to be getting leaner (people usually do both at the same time) so it looks as if it is spot reducing.

[jked4life]

There is no such thing as spot reduction... period.

They may have 1 study that says its true, but there are thousands that say otherwise. Until then, I'm gonna stick with the generally accepted opinion.

Besides with the thousands of people that buy those gimmicky ab machines off the TV, you'd think everyone would have a 6 pack.

[jackfast1]

considering your source, 'muscle & fitness', they are probably gearing up for a new pill that they can market to magically 'spot reduce'...just in time for summer!

watch for 'further breakthroughs' in upcoming issues!

[TWright]

my opinion- no such thing. Do cardio and watch your calories..... It's not rocket science.

[Random Guy]

Originally Posted by bstregs

So I've read in a dozen magazines, articles, forum posts, etc., that you cannot spot treat fat, period. I just recently read, however, in the March edition of the "Muscle and Fitness" magazine that stuidies have shown that you can spot reduce fat. I gotta hear some opinions on this...

Do yourself a favor and stop reading magazines

[DJAuto]

No. Don't we all wish, though.

[Negatron617]

this is what i believed the article said

if you do ab work and stimulate some of your stomach fat by working it out it can make the fatty acids or whatever easier to mobilize and if you do cardio right after that the people in the study lost more "weight" or whatever in their stomach than the ones who didnt do the ab work
it said it was just 1 study and nothing is conclusive

[tenthirtytwo]

I've heard an analogy likening spot fat reduction to using a bucket to remove water from one part of a pool.

[Defiant1]

Originally Posted by TXScout2

Theres been some things written about controlling certain hormone levels that are associated with body fat in certain spots. For example, cortisol being involved in the storage of abdominal fat. Each of the areas has certain hormone levels that contribute to storage in that area. Through various supplementation one can try to alter their hormone levels.

Theres also been studies that show that the increased heat and blood flow near a muscle being worked will stimulate more fat burning in that area relative to other areas that arent being worked.

The question with those studies is whether or not the body will store fat in that specific area as soon as it has a chance and erase whatever "spot reduction" you just did. Hard to measure that.

Spot reduction is definately a possibility, but certainly nobody has it down to a science.

Good answer.

In fact, anyone who says one CANNOT should be looked at with a skewed glance. SPOT REDUCTION IS POSSIBLE. Via localized glycogen usage. NO ONE denies this. It isn't permanent though. The question is about localized lipolysis.

If one looks at the ACTUAL research, there is very little, and in fact, as much says one CAN spot reduce fat, than one CAN'T. The OPs comments that "it is said a lot" is just repetition of the same thing. There will be no evidence presented if the sources are followed.

Important note-the research that says one CAN is newer, and based on newer technology for measurement.

[Defiant1]

Maybe people should read MORE of those "dum-dum magazines"....

Are blood flow and lipolysis in subcutaneous adipose tissue influenced by contractions in adjacent muscles in humans?
Bente Stallknecht1*, Flemming Dela1, and Jorn Wulff Helge2
1 Department of Medical Physiology, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2 Medical Physiological Department, Panum Institute, Blegdamsvej 3, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Medical Physiology, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: b.stallknecht@mfi.ku.dk .
Aerobic exercise increases whole-body adipose tissue lipolysis, but is lipolysis higher in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SCAT) adjacent to contracting muscles than in SCAT adjacent to resting muscles? Ten healthy, overnight-fasted males performed one-legged knee extension exercise at 25% of maximal workload (Wmax) for 30 minutes followed by exercise at 55% Wmax for 120 minutes with the other leg and finally exercised at 85% Wmax for 30 minutes with the first leg. Subjects rested for 30 minutes between exercise periods. Femoral SCAT blood flow was estimated from washout of 133Xe and lipolysis was calculated from femoral SCAT interstitial and arterial glycerol concentrations and blood flow. In general, blood flow as well as lipolysis was higher in femoral SCAT adjacent to contracting than adjacent to resting muscle (time 15-30 min: blood flow: 25% Wmax: 6.6 ? 1.0 vs. 3.9 ? 0.8 ml 100 g-1 min-1, P < 0.05; 55% Wmax: 7.3 ? 0.6 vs. 5.0 ? 0.6, P < 0.05; 85% Wmax: 6.6 ? 1.3 vs. 5.9 ? 0.7, P > 0.05; lipolysis: 25% Wmax: 102 ? 19 vs. 55 ? 14 nmol 100 g-1 min-1, P = 0.06; 55% Wmax: 86 ? 11 vs. 50 ? 20, P > 0.05; 85% Wmax: 88 ? 31 vs. -9 ? 25, P < 0.05). In conclusion, blood flow and lipolysis are generally higher in SCAT adjacent to contracting than adjacent to resting muscle irrespective of exercise intensity. Thus, specific exercises can induce "spot lipolysis" in adipose tissue.

[M.Bison]

even if spot reduction is scientifically possible the noticeable difference is negligible

keep in mind that if you work out the muscle rectus abdominis in this case increased working out of this area could cause the muscle to increase

so if you increase muscle by 1cm and decrease fat by 0.5cm then you have made a potential increase in waist size

[dance2trance]

I'm active in research in exercise physiology, and although spot reduction is not the main focus of the lab im apart of, those who keep a closed mind or a narrow mind towards the information they read and selling themselves short. Science is forever going to be a bunch of paradigm shifts, a bunch of estimates that better and better.

Take free radicals for example, for a long time its was widely regarded as a nothing but a damaging by-product in cells and indiscrimanantly targets random things in the cell (like DNA, structural lipids and membranes etc.)...The current paradigm states that although too much certainly not good, a little bit is needed, as shown by its importance in the mediation of the immune system and cell cycle. (via signalling in NF-kB and p53) and thats just 2 examples where free radicals (or reactive oxygen species) play a BENEFICIAL role (Finkel & Holbrook, 2000). There is strong evidence for it however im sure will there will always be those who would laugh at me for saying that.

I'm not saying don't be a skeptic, im saying don't keep such a closed mind to things and to consider something when you see it.

Stallknecht et al (2006) presents a situation where 10 subjects did one-legged leg extensions, they found that lipolysis (fat breakdown for energy) was greater in the leg that had endured the hardest leg extensions. (read article)

Firstly, p < 0.05.

Secondly, human study.

Thirdly, the fact that spot reduction was even observed, albeit in tightly controlled conditions.

However, n = 10. Not a huge sample size and therefore isn't very powerful for generalisation.

Personally, i dont yet believe spot reduction is reality, but i will definately keep human studies like those in mind and if im satisfied by future information, i may start to really believe it.

Who knows, maybe in 20 yrs the popular paradigm will be that spot reduction is a reality.

[IronAbrams]

Originally Posted by bstregs

So I've read in a dozen magazines, articles, forum posts, etc., that you cannot spot treat fat, period. I just recently read, however, in the March edition of the "Muscle and Fitness" magazine that stuidies have shown that you can spot reduce fat. I gotta hear some opinions on this...

If I remember that issue right, the effect was negligible enough that you'd have to do an hour of intense ab exercise with no rest everyday for several months to see a change.

So pretty much no spot reducing.

[phat_endo]

Originally Posted by jked4life

There is no such thing as spot reduction... period.

They may have 1 study that says its true, but there are thousands that say otherwise. Until then, I'm gonna stick with the generally accepted opinion.

Besides with the thousands of people that buy those gimmicky ab machines off the TV, you'd think everyone would have a 6 pack.

Very true, if spot reduction was highly effective then people wouldn't bash the gimmicky ab machines.

[dance2trance]

Originally Posted by phat_endo

Very true, if spot reduction was highly effective then people wouldn't bash the gimmicky ab machines.

Saying that sentence on its own is totally flawed arguement to put forward.

We know the people who do nothing but ab machine exercises wont burn much fat because working the abs doesn't burn many calories.

You can't prove that spot reduction DOESN'T exist because there are plenty of people who incorporate isolated ab workouts WITH cardio and weight lifting and are losing weight. Mind you this doesn't prove the spot reduction phenomenon correct either...This is what research is for.

The questions are...where is this weight being lost? Is lipolysis concentrated at a particular region immediately after training of the muscle in that particular region???

[trivium9]

The only thing that would mimic spot reduction is your own genetics. Your body stores fat in certain locations over others. Males typical stomach area, females in hips. Your body will use fat from the largest fat location first. Then will move to other areas.