Spot training is when you do intense exercise for a muscle hoping that it will burn fat in the area of the muscle. Spot training is a favourite amongst many, as the first option to lose fat around the belly. Many people do hundreds of crunches hoping that this will help flatten the stomach. Well they are partially right and also very wrong. Let me explain.

Always remember that fat is stored in your body like the layers of an onion. It also peels off the same way. If you ever feel like doing a hundred crunches, take an onion and peel its layers. Let this thought settle in. The only way you are going to get a big chunk off the middle of an onion without peeling, is by cutting it. The same goes for you too. You could achieve spot fat reduction around your belly by going for lipo-suction or some sort of surgery. A hundred crunches just is not going to do it.

Another thing you should remember is that the first place in your body to store fat is the last place to lose it and vice versa. You probably know your body’s fat storage pattern. Some people put on weight on their face first. Others pile it on their thighs and some on their hips. Look back at how your body puts on fat. It will come off in that same manner. For me, the first place to put on weight is my face and the last is my stomach. So when I lose weight, I first lost the weight on my face and the last place to lose it was the stomach.

Do note though that if you are going to continuously do hundreds of crunches, you are eventually going to end up with very very strong abdominal muscles. Strong muscles are usually slightly enlarged. This is the same as would happen to a man’s biceps when it increases in strength after intense training. This could make things worst as the enlarged abdominal muscle, covered by the layer of abdominal muscle could actually make your waist look larger.

There is current research that shows that muscles usually tap into energy stores nearest to it when trained. So theoretically, you could spot train but this could be carried out when you are very lean. For people who are carrying large deposits of fat, have patience and peel of the fat layers, one layer at a time.

The best way to get the fat off is via proper nutrition and exercise. In the long run, with patience, you would probably get better results as any other method would result in yo-yo weight loss.

Lose weight correctly, once and for all!