spot reducing for abs

[kevlar]

Hey everyone,

Question for everyone out there. I've been doing a lot of reading and they all say that spot reducing does not work for your abs. But then they also say that building muscles burns fat faster. So doesn't that mean if I build my abdominal muscles (doing lots of crunches) the muscles in my midsection will help me burn the fat off my midsection? The articles I've read also says that fat burning occurs all around the body, so does that mean if I build muscles in my arm, that's gonna help burn fat all over my body?

Thanks for listening!

 

[abear]

its muscle over the whole body, not just in one area

 

[xander]

I read somewhere that you'd have to do about 200 crunches a day to burn the same amount of fat as going jogging a couple times a week, so its not really worth it.

yesa, do crunches to build up the ab muscle, but dont think that will remove the fat from your abs.

Muscle is a fat burning machine, but it works all over the body, not just the area around that muscle. The thight muscle are much more massive than the abs, so by doing heavy squats, you will burn off MUCH more fat from your abs than by oing crunches.

 

[tbal]

abear and xander are definitely correct about that - muscle over the whole body burns fat most effectively; but, its also the issue of having muscle size that burns bodyfat. However, using a lot of resistance is necessary for building muscle size, and this is one of the many reasons for why you certainly cannot reduce bodyfat to any significant extent (anywhere on the body) just by doing crunches.