Tip # 18: Three Ways to lose fat in trouble areas

Do spot-reducing exercises work?

So you want to lose some arm flab. Or get rid of those saddle bags, or your belly. Time to do some curls, crunches and leg lifts, right?

Not really. There is no such thing as a “spot reducing” exercise.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) says it best: “You can burn off fat by exercising, but it comes off proportionately throughout your body. You may see more of a difference in some areas compared with others, but your body always maintains the same basic proportions. You can IMPROVE the look of those proportions with resistance training.”

For example, doing crunches or sit-ups to spot-reduce ab fat will “help strengthen the abdominal muscle, but the big belly that you might be trying to get rid of is fat that lies on top of the muscles (or underneath, as in visceral fat),” says ACSM. “To lose the fat, a combination of consuming less calories and spending more energy through exercise is the tried and true approach.”

In other words, specialized exercises won’t burn enough calories
to get rid of the fat covering the muscles you want to tone…

But here are three ways to help you get the results you want:

Do at least 30 minutes some sort of cardiovascular exercise most days of the week. This can be anything that gets your heart-rate up.

Strength-train, but do it smartly. Do exercises for the larger muscle groups like squats, lunges, push-ups and rows. You can also combine some of these with exercises for smaller muscles like the triceps and shoulders to increase calorie burn and metabolism and achieve balanced fitness throughout the body. For example, don’t just do overhead presses, add a squat to up the calorie burn.

Healthy eating matters A LOT. You can’t out-exercise a poor diet. Focus on eating whole, natural foods to fuel your workouts, while limiting sugar, monitoring portions and changing any destructive eating habits. What are whole foods? Here’s an article that has great info and photos.

I hereby commit to posting extremely brief tidbits of useful wisdom, termed “Trainers Tips,” on a regular basis.  You may ponder, ignore, or do as you wish with them as you go about your day.

Info about what?  Well…fitness.  Exercise tips, motivational tips, nutrition tips, health and well-being tips.  Maybe mind-blowing, maybe obvious but perhaps overlooked.  Tips to help you in your quest to become the happiest, healthiest you ever, one day at a time.