A little confused about lifting.

R

RadioActive

New member
I know how to work out of course and this may sound like a really stupid question but when I am working on my upper body (shoulders, arms, back, whatever) am I starting my metabolism to burn fat around my entire body or just around the area that the muscles are worked?
 
Keep remembering that you CANNOT SPOT REDUCE. :) Remember all the threads you see here about "how do I lose my stomach fat" and the responses that tell you that you cannot target weight loss? Same thing.

Raising your heart rate and your metabolism by lifting weights affects your entire body. Just as you can't target one part of your body to lose fat from, you're not going to restrict the effects of exercise to one part of your body to lose fat from.

Now mind you, working your arms isn't going to give you stronger legs, for example ... but I think that's pretty much obvious. :)
 
KaraCooks said:
Keep remembering that you CANNOT SPOT REDUCE. :) Remember all the threads you see here about "how do I lose my stomach fat" and the responses that tell you that you cannot target weight loss? Same thing.

Raising your heart rate and your metabolism by lifting weights affects your entire body. Just as you can't target one part of your body to lose fat from, you're not going to restrict the effects of exercise to one part of your body to lose fat from.

Now mind you, working your arms isn't going to give you stronger legs, for example ... but I think that's pretty much obvious. :)
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Ya haha I didn't know for sure and I really have no shame in asking questions so thanks for the response!
 
Oh no problem. And honestly I don't think it's a dumb question. Weight lifting can add a layer of confusion simply because of the mix up between not being able to spot reduce fat vs. the concept of working groups or sets of muscles. Because it's possible to isolate muscles to build them (although it's not the best thing to do, IMO), it leads to the idea or thought that it's possible to isolate areas of fat as well ... and it's easy to get everything tangled up. :)
 
fat and muscle are NOT linked. muscular systems and fat systems are independent in the body. so the effect on one will not determine results on the other. genetics will determine where the fat is lost, not the area you exercise. There is some school of thought however that diet also can play an important roll on where fat is lost as well. I for the life of me can't remember his name right now, I know it starts with a P. but it's the thought that certain types of nutrients may impact the type of fat system used to store it as potential energy. Used purely to make a point (ie: this is NOT what the paper says, i'm just using it as a hypothetical example) things like sugars may be more inclined to store viseral fat while fats might be more inclined to store subcutaneous fat. So it's entirely possible that your diet has a greater impact on where fat is lost moreso than any other factor. If someone here can recall this person and his studies feel free to post them. And again, this is NOT a proven aspect of fat loss. It's just a theory that offers a point of view to think about things.
 
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