How Do I Trade My Belly Fat for a Six Pack?

The belief that you can target particular areas of the body to get rid of unwanted fat is an enduring myth that serves only to keep ab-blast gym classes in business.

The principle of “spot training” or “spot reduction” is, unfortunately, nonsense—belly fat (or indeed any areas of unwanted fat) can’t be banished by repeated squats or abdominal crunches. Fat cannot turn into muscle; they are two very different, independent tissues. Fat is a bumpy, yellow tissue, made up of millions of cells called adipose cells, each containing a tiny droplet of fat. Muscles are long, protein-filled, electrified red fibers that shorten and thicken when they contract.

When you exercise, your body uses up fat reserves from all over the body—not necessarily from the area that’s doing the work

To remove all doubt, a study at the University of Massachusetts saw a team of volunteers go through a 27-day training program of sit-ups, whereby each person crunched more than 5,000 times a day. Thanks to the extra exercise, their fat tissue reduced—each droplet of oil in the adipose cells shrinking slightly—but the shrinkage was equal right across their bodies.

Spot reduction exercise, if it is intensive enough, might seem to work at first because fat is lost in the target area, but you’ll notice that fat is also lost all over the body.

So to return to your bothersome belly fat—if you undergo weeks of sweaty ab crunches, your abdominal muscles will indeed be more visible, but you might have got there even quicker with a different fitness regime.

Live Your Best Life | How Do I Trade My Belly Fat for a Six Pack?