Local Blood Flow and Weight Loss Spot Reduction
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you listen to the run of the mill weight loss wisdom regarding spot reduction you will get the party line ‘spot reduction is not possible’
New research suggests otherwise. The outdated understanding of weight loss and fat storage is that we store and burn uniformly over our body. This is simply not accurate.
Recent evidence clearly indicates that depot specific fat storage, even without overeating, can and does occur. The weight loss article on trans fats on the bottom right of the screen is just the latest in a long line of new weight loss research on this subject.
So what about spot reduction? If depot specific fat storage is a fact, what about depot specific fat loss?
Recently we ran a weight loss article regarding evidence for resistance training and localized fat reduction.
New evidence now gives us a biochemical basis indicating that in fact, spot reduction weight loss may be the inevitable physiologic outcome of certain types of resistance training.
Spot reduction – The Biochemistry
Recent research into obesity has shown blood flow has a lot to do with local deposits of fat. Excessive body fat locally increases what is called perivascular fat - fat within arterioles.
Excessive perivascular fat creates signaling molecules that both interfere with insulin and impair blood flow within arterioles in response to insulin.
This means 2 things…
It means that the fatter you are in a given region of your body, the more likely you are to store carbs as fat in that region.
Further, it implies a relationship between vasodilatation and LOCAL fat deposition.
In other words, the research suggests there is a relationship between excess fat locally impairing dilation of the arteries and promoting local fat storage. If you are trying to lose fat, then the areas of your body with the most fat are at a disadvantage. The scale is tipped in towards fat storage in those regions.
What anyone who has ever attempted any kind of weight loss or fat loss program understands is that you burn fat in certain areas much faster than others.
The new research into vasodilatation and fat storage implies that localized areas of the body with greater fat deposits have impaired vasodilatation that further promotes difficulty losing fat in those areas.
What this suggests is that exercise induced blood flow in to problem fat areas may have the affect of alleviating local vasoconstriction from excess local fat. This also suggests that you can improve your ability to burn fat in specific regions by increasing blood flow.
The practical application of this idea and the research is this…
During a weight loss program, localized exercise that increases vasodilatation in problem areas may aid fat loss in those problem areas.
Again, I would refer to our previous article to indicate there is something at work here when combining localized resistance training with a fat loss program.
The basic idea is that certain exercises like resistance training and yoga allow you to increase blood flow locally into problem areas. The increased blood flow has a positive effect on insulin signaling and at the very least would enable you to burn fat in problem areas at a rate similar to non-problem areas. What many gym rats have known for years is that the parts of your body that are resistance trained tend to have lower fat than the parts that are not resistance trained. Improved vasodilatation from may be the underlying reason why.
Rule of thumb: Want to lose fat in problem areas during a weight loss program? Resistance train those problem areas and go for a maximum pump by going to failure over 4 sets for approximately 15 to 20 reps.
Reference:
Vasocrine" signalling from perivascular fat: a mechanism linking insulin resistance to vascular disease.
Yudkin JS, Eringa E, Stehouwer CD.
|
|
Print Article
Email to a friend