Spot burning your trouble spots

Don't let the title throw you. I'll say up front that it doesn't work. For those not in the know, spot burning is the idea that you can workout a specific area of your body to try to burn away the fat from that area, such as doing lots of ab work to get rid of belly fat.

First, you have to understand what fat is. Fat is one way your body stores energy. Each time you eat, your body store the excess energy as fat. Your body stores fat beneath the skin(subcutaneous fat) and around organs(visceral fat). Fat, even on lean people, is by far the largest store of energy your body has.

I've seen these numbers cited for a 154 pound male. Scientists say he has about 1000 calories of energy stored as glycogen in the blood, liver, and muscles. This the the faster burning energy source and is used first in your workouts. Protein is the second largest store of energy at about 25,000 calories (your muscles). Finally, in the same man, you would find about 100,000 calories stored in fat. So besides insulating and cushioning, fat serves the purpose of storing energy. It's what Yogi Bear survives on while he's hibernating.

This fat is predisposed to be stored differently on different people. Men are more prone to store fat in the mid-section (the infamous beer-belly) and women in the hips and thighs. The body stores the fat where it wants, and when it converts the fat back to energy, it takes it from where it wants.

Doing push-ups will make your arm and upper torso muscles stronger. But it won't necessarily burn the fat hanging under your arm. When your body needs energy to do the push-ups and repair the muscles, it may draw on energy stored in your butt fat.

I think where I hear people talk about this most often is the stomach. In an effort to burn stomach fat, you may be tempted to kill yourself with crunches. But, alas, this will not necessarily mean that you will burn off the belly fat any faster. What can happen, is that you tone and strengthen the ab muscles under the fat. This can lead to a leaner looking stomach as those muscles firm up and your posture improves. That is some benefit, but is not the same as burning the fat from just the stomach.

Your body will tend to take the fat somewhat evenly from the body. So if we look at this picture of a pound of fat again




that doesn't mean that doing crunches is going to take that much fat from your belly. Instead, your body will take that fat for energy from throughout the body. The only way to remove that fat solely from your bellied is through surgery (liposuction).

So if you have a stubborn area of fat that seems to be reducing slower than the rest of your body, don't despair. Keep doing what you're doing, controlling your diet and keep at your strength and cardio work, and it too will eventually be returned to energy and melt away.

Until next time, why not take your family out for a 30 minute bike ride?

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