Hi all, I have a question regarding burning fat. Most people seem to think that if you work a certain area of your body you will loose fat there. For Example, If you do situps, you will loose fat on your stomach.

I don't think this is true as it is not logical, but then again our bodies are not very logical. Can someone verify this?

So in order to get rid of that annoying layer of fat at the bottom of your stomach, you would have to run and do heaps of cardio until your body decides to burn fat there?

or is there a way of focusing areas to burn fat off?

Please comment if you actually know what your talking about, but feel free to state your opinion, as long as you have some sort of reasonable explanation.

It's pretty highly documented that the body cannot do spot reduction when it comes to fat lose. Doing lots of sit ups will tighten and firm your abs, but you won't see them til you lose the fat from around your mid section, which is one of the bodies favourite places to store fat, especially in men. Women tend to hold more around their thighs and bum. Most guys find when leaning up the last bit to lose it from is from the sides at their hips and lower back.

So how do you loose it? just lots of cardio and let your body choose, and eventually it will go?

Eat healthy, do cardio AND weights and don't lose too much too quick. 1kg a week is the maximum weight I would be looking at losing.

false

think of your fat sorts as a pool of water, if you scoop out a bucket of water from a pool what happens? the total pool water level goes down slightly.

B unit posted a nice article up here recently, if it is indeed factual, according to the article, the fastest way to lose fat is to eat really clean.


Good analogy

The human body tends to store essential fat supplies around the mid section. It provides your organs with protection and warmth (Usually applies to males, women store it mostly around the legs, ass) Your body is extremely reluctant to reduce this area of fat storage, which is why it is harder to get a defined mid section than it is anywhere else on the body (you tend to lose it form your face first). Fat anywhere else is just excess basically (Everyone is different however, but this is a general rule of thumb).

Just incase anyone was wondering.

I'm pretty skinny and small as it is, I workout at the gym, light routine, I'm 52kg, 172cm, hardly any fat, just that annoying little bit at the bottom of my stomach, that i've been trying to get rid of for months. I run 5km twice a week, gym 3 times a week, but I eat like a pig so i am kinda defeating the purpose of all my work. So I guess I should cut down on the junk and that should do the trick?

ah k so im hopeless then. lol

Cut down on the junk and do a bit of work on your abs, you notice the flabby bits less if there's plenty of muscle behind it

No one is hopeless, some people do have a harder time than others (genetics plays a part) but it is possible, just keep at it.

This is so true. I'm a bit chubby at the moment, but it still looks like I have abs simply cause they are qiuck thick from years of training.

will do, thanks for the advice

im pretty much the same as you in the eat like a pig department hahaha, my 2 large mc chickenshit meals as 4am sunday morning while being drunk didn't really help either But yeah im 176cm/75kg's with a real low BF %... as for abs what i've found works best is what Greek Warrior (i think) said, build up the muscle and you'll see them alot better. I used to do hundreds of normal bodyweight situps and crunches and got ok results but no the best, i changed it up a bit and now try and lift reasonably heavy weights in a drop set routine on a decline bench and it's worked very well for me. what i do is get 3 5kg plate weights and pile them on my upper chest and then do 12 reps with real good slow technique focusing on crunching real hard right up the top and then drop setting it straight down with no rest.

ah k ye sounds about right.. you can see 4 of my abs, and the bottom two look like they are not there, then you pull abit and it shows..sigh.

But yea will do, I have been neglecting my ab workouts lately, too lazy lol, but will do thanks.

Don't get into the hundreds of situps routine, there are MUCH better ways of working your abs out. I only do situps as part of my warmup.

if this is any reference from last monday I weighed in at 85.9kgs, changed my diet and eat fruit/yoghurt for breakfast. Chicken and salad for lunch with two boiled eggs and for dinner either a salad with meat/no meat or steamed veg.

weighed in this morning at 83.1kgs, I do a bit of walking day to day at work and I do 3 sessions of cycling per week. I have stopped gym at the moment as Im trying to drop down another 5kgs before I get back to weights.

Diet is a main contributor to dropping the kgs

Ye I don't have situps as a part of my routine, I do swiss ball crunches, and planks. They seem to work reasonably well, but I just have to be persistant, can't slack off.

With my abs I do leg raises (I'm sure they aren't called that) and declined bench situps holding a medicine ball usually about 4x12 reps on each.

When I say abs I mean the place on my chest where they should be. I'm 94kg atm.

You should keep up the weights, otherwise once you start again you will more than likely gain instant weight. The more muscle mass you can hold, the faster your metabolic rate will be, which will mean more calories burnt whether you are exercising or resting.