Spot Reduction – Does it Work?

I’ll admit it, I’ve laid on the ground doing countless ab exercises praying that tomorrow would be the day I would finally have abs. Spoiler alert, they never came. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in this. We all have that specific area of our body that we would like to tone or flatten. We will do almost any exercise over and over again until we see the progress we want to see. 

Is this even possible? Does targeting individual muscles allow us to lose fat where we want to?

I’m a big supporter of evidence-based science. Let’s look at a couple of studies I’ve found, tell you about how you can lose that fat you want to lose, and how I back this up with my own story as well. 

MYTH OR FACT?

A 2013 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research tested 7 men and 4 women who trained on their non-dominant leg for 12 weeks, at 3 sessions per week. Here is a quote from the Abstract:

At the whole-body level, body mass, bone mass, BMD, lean mass, or body fat percentage were not significantly changed. However, body fat mass significantly decreased by 5.1% (preexercise: 13.5 ± 6.3 kg; postexercise: 12.8 ± 5.4 kg, p < 0.05). No significant changes in bone mass, lean mass, fat mass, or fat percentage were observed in both the control and trained leg. A significant (p < 0.05) decrease in fat mass was observed in the upper extremities and trunk (10.2 and 6.9%, respectively, p < 0.05). The reduction of fat mass in the upper extremities and trunk was significantly greater (p < 0.05) than the fat mass change observed in the trained leg but not in the control leg (R.Ramírez-Campillo, D.C.Andrade, C.Campos-Jara, C.Henríquez-Olguín, C.Alvarez-Lepín, M.Izquierdo, 2013).

TLDR: In the study, working out with only one leg reduced body fat mass in the upper body and core.

Wait….WHAT?

You’re telling me that working out on only one leg DIDN’T make the fat in that leg go down. Instead, these participants lost fat in their upper body and midsection?? 

Isn’t that crazy? Maybe not that crazy if you actually think about it. 

Here’s another one:

A different study from 2007 by the University of Connecticut did a similar experiment with 104 participants who worked out with only one arm for twelve weeks in a resistance-training program. The MRI results of this study also showed that the fat loss was spread around the body, not localized to the arm that was trained (*Perry, 2011).

SO WHAT DOES WORK?

Math.

Calories Burned > Calories Consumed.

This simple equation is how you will lose that fat. It comes down to how many calories your body burns in a day, compared to how many calories of food you’ve consumed. When the left side is bigger, you will lose weight.

Exercises that are targeting specific muscles don’t burn as many calories as cardiovascular exercises like running. You’d be better off going for a run than doing 200 sit-ups! I don’t know about you, but hearing that is relieving to me. In my mind, it makes the task of losing weight just a little bit simpler. Getting your body moving will help no matter what it is!

Now, I need to say this. 

DO NOT get into the mindset of eating as little as possible to lose weight. That isn’t healthy, and it won’t make you successful in the long run. Slow weight loss (about 1 pound a week) is a healthy rate to lose weight. Losing weight at this rate also gives you a greater chance of keeping it off! 

All of those weight loss challenges to “lose 10 pounds in 10 days” will never make you successful. Most of that is water weight, which is incredibly easy to gain back right away when you’re done. Most of those challenges also make you so hungry that it’s possible to gain that weight back and even some more!

Consistent, slow weight loss is the key. It’s not an easy road. It’s long and hard, but let me tell you it’s worth it!

MY EXPERIENCE

I wanted to add in my own experience with attempting to spot reduce. It’s all great and dandy to read scientific studies, but it’s also hard to connect with them. 

I decided to write this post because I’ve tried my fair share of spot reduction strategies by trying to reduce my love handles. For the longest time, I would try any exercise to get them to go down. It’s only been recent that I’ve been able to see progress in reducing my love handles. It wasn’t by specific exercises, it was from overall weight loss. 

This was one of those realizations that changed my life. 

No more did I have to feel the need to do specific exercises to target certain areas. I shifted my focus to my eating habits, and that’s where I really started making strides. 

I had heard about Renaissance Periodization from a couple of members at the gym I attend, and I decided to give it a shot. In short, it’s macro counting which takes into account the time you workout in the day. Cutting weight is limited to 12 weeks long, at which point you must add calories back in to maintain that new weight a minimum of 8 weeks before trying to lose weight again. 

In fact, I cut weight for 12 weeks and maintained for multiple months before cutting again. Approaching weight loss this way has made it must easier mentally. Losing weight is hard! Cravings ensued which I had to fight and I missed out on treats everyone else got. Limiting this to 12 weeks allowed me to have a light at the end of the tunnel. 

After 12 weeks of losing weight were done, I added calories back in to boost my metabolism back up. This is in order to not get stuck in chronic dieting. Gaining 3-5 pounds when going to maintenance is typical and shifting my perspective to wanting to fuel my body properly helped me get over this mental hurdle of gaining some weight back.

I also should mention that this program allowed me to lose weight and PR in the gym at the same time! It was hard to believe until I did it. Just a couple weeks ago I was cutting weight and I PR’d my snatch. 

It was just the other day that I saw a picture of myself front squatting and had to do a double-take. Those love handles? They are much smaller!! 

If you are looking for a program to help you lose weight while maintaining your strength, Renaissance Periodization is my recommendation. 

They have templates as well as an app you can try for free for the first 2 weeks!

Have you found a different program that also works for you? I’m always interested to hear about how you are working to better yourself. Contact me and let me know!