Health & Fitness
Think You Can Spot-Reduce? Think Again!
Estée is a certified Sports Nutritionist and Personal Trainer. She welcomes your comments at eross@goldsgymtewksbury.com.
Dear Fitness Coach,
I am a 34-year-old woman who is looking to get rid of my belly and back fat. What exercises should I be concentrating on?
Wantin' to Whittle
Dear Whittle,
This seems to be a fitness myth that just will not go away. There is no such thing as spot-reducing. You cannot lose weight in just one area.... When you lean down, you do it all over - not just in specific areas.
The most productive and efficient type of exercise you can do to burn off that belly and back fat is intense interval training that involves strength training movements (such as push-ups) in combination with jacked-up cardio (like plyometrics) that puts your body in a fat-burning mode. These type of workouts, called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), not only torch fat during your workout but long after you finish. This is one reason HIIT has become very popular.
Although cardio is important for stress reduction and increasing energy levels, building muscle anywhere on your body will increase your metabolism and fat-burning potential everywhere. Muscles are more metabolically active than fat and help your body turn into a 24/7 fat-frying furnace!
