Each of us has one or more trouble spots. These are areas of our body which seem like real fat magnets. The fat just piles up there and seems to hang on for dear life. Regardless of what we do, the fat doesn’t budge. It doesn’t matter what we eat or how we workout. Nothing seems to work.
Some of the more common trouble spots are the abs, waist, butt, and thigh areas.
A lot of people try to do specific exercises to burn off the fat from their trouble spots. That’s why you see so many people doing endless crunches and sit-ups on mats in gyms everywhere. They desperately want to burn off their belly fat and they think this is the way to do it.
The attempt to lose flab from a specific body part is called spot fat reduction and it’s one of the biggest misconception in the fitness field in general.
Is spot fat reduction a myth or can it really be done?
The truth is that spot fat reduction is a myth. Our body simply doesn’t work that way. We shed fat from different parts of our bodies according to our genetics. Some body parts just get leaner faster than others. It’s just the way we are. That’s why doing a 100 sit-ups won’t get you flat abs since you’re not really burning off belly fat. You’re working the muscles alright, but the fat loss is distributed all over your body.
The reason why spot fat reduction is considered true is that it seems very logical. You work one body part so that body part should get leaner, right? It may seem logical but, as I said, it just doesn’t work out that way.
To tone your trouble spots you need to begin thinking of your body as a whole. You can’t break it up to different body parts. Your body burns fat as one complete unit and you must treat it that way.
So, from this moment on, you need to concentrate on doing fat burning workouts regardless of which body part they focus on. Doing squats is much better for losing belly fat than doing sit-ups because squats burn more calories and fat. And this is just one example.
The next time you go to the gym, do a complete workout to firm up your entire body. This will do much more for your trouble spots than any attempt at working on them specifically.
