Selective Body Fat Reduction: Myth or Not?

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IN TODAY’S ISSUE
Can You Choose Where You Lose Fat From?

This is a bit of weird article for me to write, as until coming across a recent study and diving more into the topic, I’d admittedly have told anyone who asked that it’s not possible to spot reduce fat, and that your parents / genetics dictate where you predominantly lose fat from.

However a randomized controlled trial from 2023 has shed some light on the subject leading me investigate further.

In case you feel this is “clickbait”… the principles of fat loss still apply, ie. a calorie deficit, and that doing 5000 sit-ups every day, will not magically get you a “six pack”.

What You'll Find Out

• 🔥 How We Burn Fat

• 🔬 Can We Target Where We Lose Fat From?

• 👉 How To Implement The Above Information

• ✍️ TL:DR - Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

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WHAT’S UP
How We Burn Fat?

Most people have areas of their bodies they wished they lost fat from more than others, typically for men this will be fat on their belly, and for woman fat around their thighs and upper arms.

In order to “burn fat”, your body must first “mobilise” the fat from the fat cells. This process is known as Lipolysis.

EVIDENCE
Can We Target Where We Lose Fat From?

What we do know is that you can acutely burn more fat in areas of the body near active muscles than in fat regions further away from active muscles, and that local fat oxidation appears to be the result of the increased blood floow and temprature near the exercised tissue (Stallknecht et al., 2007).

We also know that just doing direct ab work alone will not induce spot lipolysis, no matter how much you do (Vispute et al., 2011). In this study, no fat loss in the body was achieved at all, so spot lipolysis wouldn’t even be possible.

The Recent 2023 Study I Came Across

A Randomised Controlled Trial by (Brobakken et al., 2023) had 16 overweight men split into two groups, both performing 4 training sessions for 10 weeks.

1. A Control Group - 45 minutes of treadmill at 70% max heart rate.

2. (AG) A Spot Reduction Group - 27 minutes on the treadmill at 70% max heart rate + 2x Abdominal exercises.

This study also measured and matched calories burned between groups to remove that as a variable which could influence the results.

The Results?

After the 10 weeks (as you can see from Figure A, below) both groups lost similar amounts of total body fat, with the combined group showing a slight favour. (This again shows the importance of resistance training to lose body fat over just aerobic training alone).

What’s interesting however is that the combined group (AG) lost significantly more body fat from around their belly than the control group (CG).

Another takeaway from this study was that the control group (CG) lost marginally more fat from their legs than the combined group. This makes sense given the findings above, as they were running using their legs during the whole training session. Giving further evidence to spot reduction.

More Evidence…

After finding and reading the above article, I looked for further confirmation, as one study isn’t enough evidence.

Unfortunately I was only able to find one other recent study, which looked at combining direct resistance work with aerobic work with a decent study quality.

In 2017 (Scotto di Palumbo et al., 2017) researchers had 16 physically inactive woman undertake an 8 week program to see if they could induce spot lipolysis. One group performed upper body resistance training followed by 30 minutes of cycling at 50% VO2 Max, the other group performed lower body resistance training followed by using an arm ergometer at 50% VO2 Max.

Both groups lost similar amounts of body fat, however the upper resistance group lost more fat in the upper body and the lower body resistance group lost more fat in their lower body.

WHERE NOW?
How To Implement The Above Information?

Energy Deficit

No amount of rope crunches, squats and cardio are going to equal fat spot lipolysis without a total energy deficit.

For spot lipolysis to even be possible you need to be in a state where you are able to lose total body fat.

Exercise Intensity, Followed By Energy Expenditure

From the research available it seems that the region you want to lose fat from needs sufficient temperature increase and blood flow.

Followed by more energy expenditure, as once we have mobilised the fat from the fat cells, we want to “burn it off”.

Caution however, we know that combining aerobic training and strength / hypertrophy training can have a negative interference effect on strength / hypertrophy when performed in the same session (not separately as we have discussed in a previous article). So you should weigh up the potential benefits and drawbacks before chasing spot lipolysis.

TL:DR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

• In order to burn fat, your body first needs to release fat from it’s fat cells through mobilisation (lipolysis).

• Local fat oxidation appears to be the result of the increased blood flow and temperature near the exercised tissue.

• Direct Ab work alone is not enough to spot reduce belly fat.

• Studies focusing on combining resistance training to the desired area of which you want to lose fat with aerobic work have found promising results.

• Energy / Calorie Deficit is a must! In the studies where spot lipolysis was achieved, the subjects also lost total body fat. This happens through a calorie deficit.

So far, there isn’t much evidence available, with only a handful of studies having been done on the subject. With some of poor quality and others not accounting for calories etc.

I have only been able to find two credible studies, so if anyone (as sad as me scouring journals and research papers), reading this has came across any more, email it over!

Ironically (and I can’t believe im typing this), these two studies give some credit to the countless fitness bro’s in magazines who claim having a direct ab work + cardio day will get you a 6 pack… While in a calorie deficit of course.

But as I’ve stated above, these are only two studies. Not enough for me to say it’s solid, but interesting enough for me to bring it to you this Monday Morning!