YOU CAN’T TARGET FAT LOSS
I’m going to rip the bandaid off fast with this one:
Belly burning tea, guaranteed workouts that get you ‘abs in 3 weeks’, and literally thousands of Pinterest posts promising to ‘Blast Belly Fat Fast’ are all lying to you. You cannot target a specific area of the body for fat loss.
But we all really, really want to believe it, right? I bet we share this experience, or something similar:
Here I am, casually scrolling through Insta when BAM some get-toned-quick post appears promising me a six pack. I save it, thinking I’ll add it into my routine and in just a few short weeks I’ll look just like this Fitstagram star. I follow the program (maybe), and nothing really happens. I blame myself and my body.
Yikes.
That is definitely misguided fitness marketing and absolutely NOT how the science of our body works. We should not feel like we’re struggling against our bodies but instead like we’re refining them to be the strongest, most efficient systems possible. Now THAT is fucking sexy.
Let’s get really clear on the science of fat loss so we can break free of the nonsense and get back to building an unstoppable, healthy you.
The body burns fat based on your overall energy output and you can't choose where exactly you start to break down adipose tissue, better known as fat. The idea of spot reduction (aka targeting fat) has forced many people to focus on their ‘problem areas’ and not the body as a whole, which usually leaves people unsatisfied with their progress.
I know it’s what we’ve been trained to want but I'm not going to give you a long list of ways to lose fat. As coaches and fitness professionals we need to stop selling the idea that drastic changes in your lifestyle is the best way to achieve a healthy body. Following a science-based strength and conditioning training program focused on total body movement is what will create that change without putting you at war with yourself.
In order to increase your overall energy output so you can burn fat efficiently, you have to work the body as a whole. You can:
Incorporate complex movements that recruit larger muscle groups and challenge the anaerobic system.
Lift heavy weights - especially my female athletes out there!! It will not make you bulky, that’s just another myth.
Complex movements that recruit larger muscle groups are a more efficient way to increase your overall energy output. For example, doing a heavy goblet squat challenges the body much more than doing a leg extension (a targeted movement). In a squat, you’re recruiting the quads, glutes, core and your postural muscles to perform the exercise as opposed to activating only the quad in the extension. It increases your heart rate, challenges the respiratory system (you’re breathing hard) and aids in your metabolic function (you’re burning more calories).
Adding heavy weight to these exercises challenges the muscular system increasing strain/stress on multiple muscle groups which increases the metabolism.
Complex movements + heavy weight = working the body as a whole = increased metabolic burn all day long.
Forget about targeting fat and focus on the quality of your training program. Are you feeling challenged? Are you incorporating multiple muscle groups? Are you getting your heart rate elevated? Focusing on the true fundamentals of a strength and conditioning program will help you become the strongest and healthiest version of yourself every single time. As long as you go All In.
xo,
Coach Katie
