After a winter of “falling off the wagon” with my exercise kick, I know that I need to get moving again. Dang, it’s hard.
Today, I dragged out my exercise bike and biked a bit while watching TV, and I can already feel it in my legs.
Now, my fat is not in my legs, but mostly in my mid-section.
I’ve been told that exercise is exercise – that my body will burn off energy (fat) from where-ever it sits, regardless of which muscles are used doing the exercise. Does anyone know whether this is true? I realize that, ultimately, I should be doing some core body workouts to move more of my body parts, but I’m just wondering: If I did nothing else but ride my exercise bike, would I eventually lose fat around my middle, or would it only affect my leg-fat?
I appreciate any wisdom from folks smarter than me.
You cannot target fat loss. As a general rule, you lose fat in the reverse order of however your body put it on. For example, in my case, as I gained 40 lbs. in 10 years, first I put on tummy fat, then neck fat, then thigh fat, then finger fat: my pants size changed, then my shirt collar size, then my underwear started chafing, and finally I found I had to get your wedding ring resized.
Then, as I lost the fat, first my ring got looser, then my pants crotch area (thighs) got looser, then my shirt collar and pants waist felt looser.
Another word of advice: exercise is important but not enough. You have to eat less too. Too often people unconsciously eat more along with an increase in physical activity, thus netting out the impact. Rule #1 in losing fat is to watch/track what you eat. Plan it in advance. Don’t eliminate favorite foods from your diet but do make sure, at the end of a week, you eat a specific targeted number of calories that you set as a fat-loss threshold. If you don’t lose fat at that target, reduce it – but keep it moderate! Don’t starve yourself either.
Thanks for the response – you confirm what I was told, then, that exercise will burn energy / fat regardless of how you exercise and where your fat is located.
I understand the part about eating less as well as exercising more. <sigh> It’s a never-ending battle.
While exercising your abs won’t make fat on them go away, it will make it wrap your newly formed muscles in a more shapely looking manner. Same is true for the rest of your body, if you hit a particular part the fat won’t go away from there, but it’ll look better when it contours to the muscles underneath it.
I agree with everything said so far, but I would like to reiterate that diet is very important. It’s generally 80% diet, 20% exercise when it comes to fat loss.