FAT – where and why do I store it?
Fat is stored in adipose tissue/adipocytes. These can be found under the skin (subcutaneous fat) providing insulation from heat and cold, packed around internal organs (visceral fat) – providing protective padding, between muscles, within bone marrow and in breast tissue.
Imp note: you can not target fat at a specific location in training.
I see people breaking their body doing abs or sides almost everyday thinking it is actually attacking the fat deposit that they see in the mirror.
NOPE. It doesn’t go like this. It follows a sequence and we cant alter or make our own sequence.
Anybody who is overweight would show fat deposits at various body parts and definitely around abdomen. This is an area of max adipocytes. Treat it as your storage room of the house where you have cupboards and almira’s loaded with your stuff.
In my experience, the fat burn follows the same process as it got deposited. 1st is abdomen/sides, second site could be neck/face/hips/thighs depending on individual. Women have high fat stores at the thigh or hip more than men. Some men would bloat up their face/neck etc.
Basics – when we eat food, a part of it gets processed while digesting or for immediate burn. The rest gets stored as fat in adipocytes. When we are not eating, our body uses these fat stores just like a car using their fuel tank. We stay on fat burn when we are not eating/sleep.
(Caveat – if we are metabolically unhealthy then our body makes glucose via gluconeogenesis and keep burning glucose instead of fat. There are many more things related to this however this article is more related to fat storage and burn.)
Problem – suppose we deposit ‘x’ amount fat/day. But we only burn ‘1/2X’ in the day. Just like how you pile up clothes in your almira if you keep buying new without throwing old ones; we start piling up fat in our body. This brings Insulin Resistance or any other metabolic issue that results in compromising fat burning (mitochondrial health), high sugar, BP, etc. etc. etc.
Burn – As can you see you in my pics, I manage to reduce fat from everywhere else (watch neck/shoulder) including rectus abdominus muscle (abs) while I am still left with fat deposits on my sides. IF I keep burning with this rate then I should be able to burn most from ‘abs’ muscle & lastly, from the sides – right over my obliques & transverse abdominus muscles. No need to target it!
Learning – Do not try to burn fat from a specific location and overdo exercises for one body part. Just like any muscle, our sides or abs have muscles that gets overworked and needs to be rested.
You will burn fat if you are burning calories and it will come down to abs finally as shown via pics.
Note: Building abs is not ultimate fitness. I am fit from every angle even with the existing fat. On an average we can carry 20% fat and stay at our fittest. This would mean no ‘abs’ but it is fitness that counts. Showcasing your abs would mean cutting down fat to 4 to 7%. That’s it. If you want it, go for it. Else, just ensure that you are NOT getting overweight and you are training every body part.
Damn monsoon season! It has slowed me down as am relishing ‘ghevar’ & ‘fried’ these days. Getting there…..
(Ghevar – is a delicacy (sweat) and apparently it is traditionally very famous in my home town.)
Umesh Chhikara 