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Who wouldn’t love to “spot-reduce”—selectively trim down a specific part of the body by exercising it? Unfortunately, with the exception of liposuction, spot-reducing was, is, and
always will be a mythological phenomenon. It just doesn’t work that way.
If your stomach, hips and/or thighs really are bigger than they should be (and are they, or
are you just falling prey to the distorted body image that has become prevalent in Western
societies?), it’s because that’s where you’re genetically programmed to carry excess body fat. When you exercise that specific part of the body, you strengthen the muscles that lie
beneath the fat layer, but you don’t make the fat go away. Only one thing gets rid of body
fat, and that’s the old-fashioned method: burning more calories than you take in over an
extended period of time. Calories in vs. calories out is still the bottom line.
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Confused? |
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Hearing that “there’s no such thing as spot-reducing” can be
confusing, because we do say that exercise can make you lose inches even
if you don’t lose weight. But it’s not quite that simple. When you
lose inches as a result of exercise, it’s because your caloric expenditure
exceeded your intake, causing you to lose some of your stored body fat. If
you lose inches but not pounds, it’s because you’ve lost fat and built
some muscle, which weighs more than fat but takes up a lot less room. |
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This is not a new discovery. We’ve known it for a long time. It’s just that we keep hoping
to find a quick fix. So every few years someone does another study that proves yet again that
spot-reducing is a myth. But the myth lingers, fueled by a barrage of ads for “new scientific discoveries”—the latest supplement, formula, diet, special combination of foods, magical slimming girdle or bikini, exercise video, or piece of equipment that will give us the trim waistline and flat belly we all long for.
“It’s well accepted that it’s impossible to spot reduce—in other words, to remove fat from only one part of the body. Your body has certain areas where it stores fat and you
can’t do an exercise to remove fat from only that area. Fat is eliminated evenly over the whole body during weight loss and it comes off last in the areas of greatest deposition. So the best way to reduce the weight on your hips is to undertake a moderate and sensible plan of nutrition and exercise. Then be patient!”
Brad Kearns, noted multi-sport speaker, author, coach, and former world-ranked triathlete: “You cannot spot-reduce the size of your hips with some magic exercise (despite what the infomercials say). You get rid of excess body fat by eating and exercising properly. You have to adopt healthy diet and exercise habits that ensure permanent weight management.”
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