Kevin's Response on How to Target Lower Body Fat Question

A Client’s Question on how to Target Lower Body Fat and My Reply

Kevin,
For most of my life I have always been reasonably active with sports and although I did not pay super close attention to what I ate I believe I ate pretty healthy.

In the last couple of years (I am 37) I have noticed that although my weight has not changed a significant amount, I am definitely getting fatter especially in my lower body.

I have always played soccer and fastball in the summer and ran on the treadmill/spin class in the winter to keep up my fitness levels. None of this has changed.

Do you have specific training/diet programs to target lower body fat? I find it frustrating that if anything I am working harder but I am actually getting less results. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hope to hear from you soon
(female name)

 

Hi xxxxx. Thanks for your inquiry.

The situation you describe is not uncommon and although females seem to be more conscious of it, this is not a female only issue. There are a few things that can  lead to more fat accumulation as we get older and often times it is people who have never had an issue before that notice it more.

It is a reasonable assumption that if you have gotten result “A” from doing action “B” when you were 20 the same should hold true when you are 35.

If only it were true in all cases.

First things first. I don’t know what your diet is like so I can’t comment on that but I will say fat accumulation has more to do with hormones and enzymes and how they affect the way we store (or burn) calories than the total number of calories consumed. If this were not true we could get just as lean eating marshmallows as eating steak. Many diet programs would love you to believe this is true, “calories in calories out” they say, but in the real world it does not pan out.

Hormones not only affect whether we store calories or burn them but also where we store them. There is a reason women tend to add below the waist and men above it and it is based on hormones and enzymes. I will try to give a very brief explanation to what I am talking about.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme that pulls fat out of the bloodstream and into cells. In men LPL activity is higher in the gut, in women it is higher in the hips and legs. Testosterone suppresses LPL activity on the fat cells of the belly so this is why as men age, and testosterone drops, they accumulate belly fat.

Womens LPL activity is high on the fat cells below the waist so they tend to fatten there, after menopause though women tend to accumulate belly fat as well because estrogen stifles LPL activity on the gut as well. Less estrogen, more belly fat.

Insulin, a hormone, is the primary regulator of fat metabolism and is also a primary regulator of LPL activity. Insulin essentially decides how we burn or store calories in the muscle and fat cells and LPL essentially decides where we store and liberate fat from.

I am sure all of this really makes no difference to you but I briefly wanted to illustrate why you are experiencing what you are and why focusing solely on a calorie control and calorie expenditure approach will likely not work, not for long anyway. It has been shown that some genetically predisposed people can accumulate bodyfat even when in a malnourished state because hormones will shuttle whatever energy it can to fat storage instead of burning.

All of this is to illustrate a couple of key points.

First, the reason what you have always done isn’t working anymore is more about how your hormones respond to the calories you are consuming. Eating less does not necessarily change how your body deals with these calories.

Second, and I will end with this, you can affect how your body responds to food more by what foods you choose and when then just by constantly trying to create a deficit which eventually you will not be able to maintain.

Targeting lower bodyfat through specific exercise programs works no better than targeting belly fat by doing sit ups so please don’t get sucked into a fitness program that claims it can. I hope this information was helpful to you and if you would like to discuss further about how to implement some of these strategies I would be more than happy to meet with you. Have a great day.

Kevin

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Kevin's Response on How to Target Lower Body Fat Question