Spot reduction refers to the claim that

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...

in a certain area of the body can be targeted for reduction through

exercise Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic ...

of specific

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

s in that desired area. For example, exercising the

abdominal muscles The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

in an effort to lose weight in or around one's midsection.

History

Over time it has become clear to trainers and health professionals that the idea of working out certain muscle groups, in order to burn fat in that specific area, is not possible. Advertisements, magazines, internet trainers, and social media continue to push the idea that exercising small isolated muscles, such as abdominal muscles, will help the fat above the muscles disappear. Fitness professionals say this is false, yet even trainers still use phrases like "burning fat" and targeting "troubled areas" like "muffin tops" to pull people in. These phrases are considered misleading to those trying to lose weight. Fat cannot physically "burn" off one's body. The burning feeling people describe when practicing

resistance training Strength training or resistance training involves the performance of physical exercises that are designed to improve strength and endurance. It is often associated with the lifting of weights. It can also incorporate a variety of training te ...

is caused by the production and accumulation of

lactic acid Lactic acid is an organic acid. It has a molecular formula . It is white in the solid state and it is miscible with water. When in the dissolved state, it forms a colorless solution. Production includes both artificial synthesis as well as natu ...

in muscle during exertion via the process of

anaerobic respiration Anaerobic respiration is respiration using electron acceptors other than molecular oxygen (O2). Although oxygen is not the final electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain. In aerobic organisms undergoing re ...

, and has nothing to do with the fat surrounding the area. Muscle development and improvement can be shown more easily in lean people. Those who are overweight have a better chance of reducing fat if they increase their overall fitness levels. This can be achieved by doing both

high-intensity interval training High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a training protocol alternating short periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods until the point of exhaustion. HIIT involves exercises performed in repeated quick bu ...

cardio and resistance training that focuses on gaining muscle mass in both large and small muscle groups. This increase in muscle mass will create a larger need for energy that comes from fatty acids in stored fat cells.

Myth

Although professionals know spot reduction is a

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

, many people still believe that it is possible to choose where fat can be lost on one's body because of the continual misleading information fitness settings and the internet are providing. The scientific consensus among fitness experts and researchers is that spot reduction is a myth. This belief has evolved from the idea that gaining muscle increases

metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...

, resulting in fat reduction. People think that fat loss in a specific region could be targeted by building muscle around it. Studies have shown that it is not possible to reduce fat in one area by exercising that body part alone. Muscle growth in a region does not reduce fat in that region.Harshbarger, Dave
Wellness Program
West Virginia University. Instead, fat is lost from the entire body as a result of diet and regular exercise.

Research

All body shapes are different, meaning people carry fat in different places. Moreover, research suggests that variation in both overall adiposity and regional fat distribution is highly genetic. Some locations on the body are more metabolically active than others, and those areas will lose weight quicker than those that are not as metabolically active. For many people, abdominal fat is more metabolically active and can be reduced easier than fat in the lower regions of the body. The reduction of these metabolically active sites is not due to an increase in

abdominal muscle The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

contractions. While exercising, fatty acids are being mobilized due to the presence of

hormones A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of cell signaling, signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and beh ...

and

enzymes Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecule ...

. These create a negative energy balance in the body. Fat is reduced over the whole body. Exercise of certain muscles cannot signal a specific release of

fatty acids In chemistry, particularly in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an unbranched chain of an even number of carbon atoms, f ...

for the specific fat deposits above those muscles being activated.

Muscle growth vs fat reduction in human body

In a randomized control study, scientists sought to determine a link between skeletal muscle size and surrounding fat on a specific body part when exposed to strength training. They compared the muscle and fat content of high-caliber tennis players' dominant and non-dominant forearms. The method used in this study to examine the amount of subcutaneous fat between the tennis players' arms, was a skinfold caliper. (There are a multitude of tests that can help determine

body fat percentage The body fat percentage (BFP) of a human or other living being is the total mass of fat divided by total body mass, multiplied by 100; body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fat. Essential body fat is necessary to maintain life and ...

). After measuring the two arms, they found that the girth of the dominant arms was greater because these muscles were used more than the non-dominant arm muscles. However, the skinfold measure showed no difference if the amount of subcutaneous fat on either of the arms. This proved that the muscles on the dominant arms grew due to

hypertrophy Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells. It is distinguished from hyperplasia, in which the cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.Updated by Linda J ...

of the muscle, yet the amount of fat surrounding the muscle on the dominant arms was not reduced from this increase. There was no proof of spot reduction taking place.

Abdominal exercise vs abdominal fat

In another randomized study, scientists divided 24 sedentary adults, ages 18–40, into an exercise group and a

control group In the design of experiments, hypotheses are applied to experimental units in a treatment group. In comparative experiments, members of a control group receive a standard treatment, a placebo, or no treatment at all. There may be more than one tr ...

. The exercise group added 7 abdominal exercises, 2 sets of 10 reps each, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks, into their daily routines. The scientists discovered that at the end of the 6 weeks, through comparing a variety of endurance tests, body composition tests, and anthropometrics, the subcutaneous fat around the abdominal region did not shrink. However, muscular endurance of the core region did improve when comparing the before and after of the number of sit-ups between the post-study exercise group and control group. Therefore, even though an increase in muscular development of a certain region in the body took place, it did not remove the fat around the muscles. Again, there was no proof of spot reduction taking place.

References