It doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure out that men and women deposit their
body fat differently. Men tend to store all their fat around their
abdominal region and women store it in their hips and thighs. Remember
that lovely saying? - "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips".
Well for women, it holds a bit of truth. There have been studies done on
elite level female runners who carry very low body fat and yet, when you
look at pictures, you can clearly see many have thigh fat that has been
very stubborn and resistant - in fact, some even have cellulite!
Even though most women struggle with this
pear shaped phenomenon and have tried desperate measures to get rid of
it, in fact, this type of fat distribution is much healthier compared to
male fat distribution. You see the fat in women's hips and thighs is
very resistant to reduction - no guff!
But this particular mechanism and the
lower rate of fat-turnover will mean less strain on the heart and less
chances that the fat will not be used and deposited in the artery walls.
For men, however, their fat distribution is a double-edged sword. Their
abdominal fat has a much higher turnover which means that once they
start exercising and eating better, they will often lose fat more
quickly.
But if they're not exercising, the
constant, regular, high-rate turnover of abdominal fat means the heart
has to work a lot harder to deal with it. It also means that if the
muscles aren't using the fat, then the fat is more likely to be
deposited in the artery walls and increase the risk for heart disease.
Your waist to hip ratio will give you a
rough indication of your body fat distribution. You can determine your
waist to hip ratio by first measuring your waist and your hips. Then
divide your waist by your hips. Ideally, a woman's value should be less
than .8 and a man's value, less than 1.
This is probably a good time to quickly
debuff any pressing beliefs on spot reduction. Ladies, 1000 leg lifts
are not going to help you get rid of the fat on your thighs. And men,
1000 crunches are not going to help you get rid of your pot belly. You
see, what happens is that as soon as you start lifting your legs, your
muscles cry out for energy. So the liver sends some energy, in the form
of sugar or fat, to the muscle to be used. But that fat could have been
arm fat, butt fat or back fat.
When fat is mobilized from a particular
area, it is first sent to the liver to be routed towards its final
destination for usage. So doing leg lifts doesn't mean you are burning
leg fat. If your leg fat is very resistant to mobilization, which it is
in most women, than that fat will be stubborn and will probably be the
last fat to be mobilized and utilized. So you'll probably notice great
changes to your arms and stomach and other areas and start to wonder why
your lower body fat isn't cooperating. Be patient, it's just going to
take longer!
Doing specific body part exercises will
definitely help to tone muscle but unfortunately, you can't spot reduce
the fat. If you want to see a reduction in fat in a particular area,
you're going to have to exercise and eat a healthy diet and of course,
be patient for those stubborn areas! |
