Can spot reducing really work?

[Chairman_Pow]

@Dr_Paprika

Need more sleep. You can correct the obvious spelling errors, missing verbs, whatever you pedants want ;).

More sleep should help as proper rest helps reduce cortisol levels which are partly responsible for fat gain/retention.

@telemark

Actually, jogging for 45 minutes would have more effect on your stomach pudge. It depends on how you did your 100 sit-ups, did you do them fast enough and without rest to make it aerobic. In fact, doing the situps will make your ab muscles larger, and might emphasize your pudge until you eventually lost the weight.

But larger muscles would increase your basal metabolic rate which would in turn burn calories when you’re not exercising. If your diet is set up correctly, you could even be burning the fat then, no?

Showing off your six-pack is all about dieting, not doing sit-ups. We all have abs buried under there somewhere.

Being able to see your six-pack does rely on it being somewhere, but wouldn’t it be easier to see larger muscles at a given bodyfat % than smaller ones?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Dr_Paprika

I think it’s fair to say that physiology is far more complex than our current ability to do tests which apply to all people in all circumstances. It’s not always so easy to test things like spot reducing well (working out one body part and seeig no spot reduction implies that particular exercise doesn;t work for spot reduction, but says nothing about other exercises/diet/medicines, etc.). Defining spot reduction is a start, say you define it as the ability to want to lose fat in a certain spot (usually the stomach where plenty of people deposit it preferentially). Some limited stuidies show fat loss in general occurs over the body. This does not show spot reduction is not possible in some circumstances. Expert opinion is a weak form of evidence. I give people medical advice almost every day, and plenty of the stuff I learned in medical school (benefits of drugs like Prepulsid, hormone replacement therapy, etc. etc.) has been greatly modified. Plenty of people who promote drugs promising “spot reduction”, including my take on yohimbine cream, are scam artists. Doing a web search for “spot reduction” shows lots of people repeating “spot reduction is a myth”. Doing a search for “spot reduction journal article” does not return a cornucopia of good research, however. If you believe something just because people say it a lot, perhaps the terrorists have already won.

If I read this correctly, however, while you decry all the claims that “spot reducing is a myth” you have not a particle of evidence that spot reducing can be done in any practical way either. Or impractical way, for that matter.

Spot reducing may or may not turn out to be a myth in the long run, but it’s certainly a myth today and the default should be that any claim of spot reducing should be considered to be a scam until proved otherwise.

[Telemark]

You are correct that jogging will likely be using bigger muscles and burn more calories than situps which are just using a few quite small muscle groups.

Seeing your abs is really about bodyfat. If your BF isn’t low enough it really doesn’t matter how big your ab muscles are. Lose the weight and something will show up. Once you are close enough then the size of your abs will make some difference, but for most of us it’s not the problem.

[Dr_Paprika]

while you decry all the claims that “spot reducing is a myth” you have not a particle of evidence that spot reducing can be done in any practical way either. Or impractical way, for that matter.

I don’t “decry” the claims that spot reducing is a myth. I’m entitled to my opinion that the jury is still out. Where are the journal articles and solid research proposed by those on this board he see things “blacker and whiter” than I do? On what evidence do you think it impossible?

[astro]

Some articles on the topic

Spot Reduction - Myth or Truth?
[
URL=http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitnessqa_display.aspx?itemid=341]
Q: Why is the concept of spot reduction considered a myth?

Weight loss & getting great abs

[astro]

Some articles on the topic

Spot Reduction - Myth or Truth?

Q: Why is the concept of spot reduction considered a myth?

Weight loss & getting great abs

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Dr_Paprika

I don’t “decry” the claims that spot reducing is a myth. I’m entitled to my opinion that the jury is still out. Where are the journal articles and solid research proposed by those on this board he see things “blacker and whiter” than I do? On what evidence do you think it impossible?

I didn’t say it was impossible. I said that there is no current evidence that it can be done and that you certainly have not provided any.

With the huge numbers of people searching for a way to do this, which means enormous potential profit, any legitimate means would have been pounced upon and touted endlessly. It hasn’t. None exists anywhere that anyone has mentioned. Again, including you.

That’s pretty black and white. Some day an effective way of spot reducing may exist. It may exist now in some lab someplace. But it doesn’t exist in public as a medical fact.

If you have different evidence, fine. Put it on the table.