With the arrival of heat, methods that promise to "lose fat" effortlessly proliferate like mushrooms and use physical exercise or its scarcity as a tool to claim. Paradoxical, but it happens. Offers of all kinds appear that result in the dangerous cocktail of training: speed, little effort and body change. The canopies are filled with posters announcing the supposed results that we "could" achieve if we acquire their products or services. We find phrases like: "Lose fat", "get a six pack [defined abs]", "look body in summer". We are witnessing a bombardment of miracle posts, and social media becomes more than ever a showcase for "before and after" photos. They play with our dissatisfaction, while doing business through generating false expectations and comparing us in harmful ways. If something I repeat at this time is that those who sell bikini operation do not do bikini operation. They cash in while you feel bad. Your body is an ally, not an enemy. Understand how it works, you will stop spending time and money.
That's how we are
We are formed by fat, muscle, bone and water mass. This is our body composition, it can be modified, but not in any way, nor in all people equally. We are different physiologically, in addition, we have different contexts and, therefore, we do not react to exercise in the same way. Someone may measure and weigh the same as you, but they might have more body fat and less muscle. This could lead to different health problems.
The amount and percentage of all these components (water, fat, muscle and bone mass) is variable and would depend on various factors such as age or sex, among others. Fat-free mass may be higher in men and increases progressively with age until age 20, and subsequently decreases in adults. The fat content, on the other hand, increases over the years and is higher in women, especially when the stage of menopause arrives, in which the production of estrogen ceases.
Learn moreWhy doing sit-ups has disappeared from gyms
"Conflict" areas
"Look, I've bought and tried everything. I have crushed myself to exercise and the belly does not go away, "acknowledged one of my clients, Carmen, who at 48 years old, had become, according to her, "an addict to testing all kinds of training systems by zones, in order to eliminate fat from her abdomen. " The waist, legs, buttocks and triceps (back of the arms) are areas where we can store fat. There are multiple methods not supported by science that promise to make those specific points of accumulation disappear through localized exercise. "Explain to me how the body burns fat and why this [pointing to your abdomen] is still here. It's also in my cartridge cases. Do any training," he asked me.
Fat, as research admits, is stored predominantly in adipocytes, in various deposits throughout the body. The adipocyte is the cell found in adipose tissue, but this is not the only cell type present in adipose tissue, nor even the most abundant. There are also stem cells, preadipocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, lymphocytes and endothelial cells. The increase in the size of adipocytes, the number, the type of lymphocytes and macrophages infiltrated is closely related to metabolic syndrome diseases (it is the name of a group of risk factors including excess abdominal fat, cholesterol, insulin resistance and hypertension, among others).
The location of fat can be a predictor of diseases. We have two types, visceral and subcutaneous: especially the increase in visceral – the one that covers the organs – is associated with an increased risk of the diseases mentioned above. For its part, subcutaneous fat is the one that we can pinch, what we normally know as michelin. This must be converted into free fatty acids in order to pass into the blood and then go where it is needed. All free fatty acids are one heartbeat away, regardless of where they come from, where they are needed. Imagine that one is going to carry out a work that requires bricks and everyone should go through the plant before being placed where they want. It would not matter if the place where they are manufactured is near or far from the construction where they are going to be used. The same thing happens with subcutaneous fat. Through lipolysis, the triglycerides existing in the subcutaneous fat release fatty acids that pass into the bloodstream, from there to the heart and from it, where they are required.
Myth: Doing lots of crunches will reduce your fat
"So... won't doing 100 sit-ups help me shed the fat?" asked Carmen worriedly. During exercise, free fatty acids are used as fuel and can come from any part of the body, not the specific area being worked on. "So working the middle zone, without crushing it, challenging it, can make it stronger, but not reduce its localized fat," I replied.
Research has been carried out in which it is shown that exercises by specific body area do not affect the subcutaneous fat of that specific area. Among them, a recently published review admits: "Localized muscle training had no effect on specific adipose tissue deposits, i.e. there was no point reduction, regardless of population characteristics and exercise program."
That said, we need fat to live, it is essential for the proper functioning of our body. It is still the predominant store of energy that we require during most of the time and activities. There is a healthy oscillation margin, above which the risk of suffering from certain diseases and the risk of premature death increases, but also below. In women, a percentage of fat that is too low causes, mainly, the hormonal cascade that ends up leading to amenorrhea or loss of menstruation; While in men there may also be hormonal problems that affect the proper functioning of the entire body, also sports performance and recovery.
Strength training
"My metabolism has slowed," Laura told me with a worried face when we met on the first day. "I don't know what happened, but everything I eat, stays inside and before it didn't happen to me," he admitted. Metabolism, metabolic rate or rate, is the amount of total energy expended by the body. Everything the body does (e.g. breathing, heartbeat...) requires a certain amount of energy. That amount is different for everyone. Laura and another woman can have the same workout, eat identically, and weigh the same, and still lose fat differently. We have different metabolisms.
Authors such as Crosgrove and Rasmussen in their book Design of Training Programs (2021) point out that the highest percentage of total metabolism (60-70%) comes from the resting metabolism rate (RMR), sometimes described as resting energy expenditure, the amount of calories needed to maintain the body and its basic functions in a temperate environment at total rest, that is, without activity. Strength training increases our lean muscle. The more we have, the faster our resting metabolism will work. Muscles are our natural fat burner. This means that weight training will help raise our metabolism – consume more calories – which could imply a reduction in fat and improved body composition, as admitted by research published by the magazineSports Medicine.
From theory to practice:
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