A virtual wellness program offered by the National Institute for Fitness and Sport and provided to you through your employer.

Spot Reducing

These days there are an immeasurable number of fitness sources available on every topic. Unfortunately it is hard to tell the uneducated from the experts and easy to be caught up in false information. For example, there are plenty of workout videos and fitness equipment that promise to lose fat in specific areas, such as the stomach, or the thighs. The commercials say their product will tone, tighten and magically remove all the unwanted fat.

The truth is, while these devices might build muscle through strength training, they will not and cannot remove any fat in a specific area of your body. Increasing muscle mass in one area might make the layer of fat lay slightly smoother, but it will not necessarily remove any from the area. The difference between muscle tissue and fat tissue and the effect of cardiovascular exercise on the body will shed the truth of spot reduction.         

Muscles are made up of many fibers that are bundled together. The stir stick used to mix sugar into coffee is a great example of a muscle cell - long and thin. If a bunch of stir sticks are grouped together with a rubber band wrapped around them, it forms a cylindrical bundle. This is a simplified version of a muscle. Fat on the other hand is composed of big sphere-like cells that expand in every plane, similar to soap bubbles. Muscle cells contain structures specifically for action, like a car motor, while fat cells contain mostly space for storage, like a car trunk. There is no physical possibility that these cells can convert to one another. Therefore, working a muscle in a specific area of your body will not make fat vanish.

Cardiovascular exercise along with decreased caloric intake is the only method to directly lose body fat. Strength training will increase the body’s metabolism and therefore burn more calories. However, this is a long term result. Unfortunately, the body decides when and where this fat will be removed. And since every body is different, the rate and area of fat loss is also different. Therefore, regular cardiovascular exercise coupled with strength workouts can decrease your overall body fat percentage and tone the areas that need improvement.

View Animated Exercise Pictures using many different pieces of equipment!