No. You cannot target areas to lean out. This also holds for exercise: doing sit-ups will not burn the fat off your abs. The fat will also not necessarily come off evenly. Sometimes it does, sometimes the saddlebags stay until the bitter end even when your ribs are clearly visible. Genetics does play a role, but it can be dealt with.
(I'm a trainer and physiologist and helping people to lose fat is something I do.)
It's true that doing sit-ups won't help you target your belly fat, but it does make your abdominal muscles stronger and more able to keep your belly from protruding, so in effect it can make your belly look much flatter even without losing the fat.
Agree: for most people, the beer gut is more pronounced because of the laxity of the front abs (also causing a hyper extended spine which causes back pain), it's not all just fat. So, proper training and strengthening of the abs will help pull those things back in line, but won't do much for burning off fat.
It's so confusing when the OP puts opposite questions in their title and their post.
I just read the title, then saw your comment, and was confused why you said "No" then explained how the answer is "yes". Then I read the post to see OP mixed things up, lol
BS Biology, former ISSA trainer: The simple answer is - fat mobilizes globally, prioritized by access to circulation. The last 3.5% of body fat is brown adipose, which you can't lose, but if you could, you'd die from hypothermia.
Cool, I've got a related question. Do people have varying amounts of brown adipose and can they develop more of it through training? I've heard that exposure to cold for long periods of time causes your body to produce more brown adipose fat.
Good question. It's very likely safe to assume that we have an adaptive variance for these kinds of things, but it would still be a very small range. If you've heard it, it was probably supported by a study that indicates that correlation. For the most part, it's something you'll almost never even see. Iirc, the minimum healthy, functional bmi for men is 5%, 12% for women, as I was taught years ago. Anything below those ranges and things start to get weird, or it would take great effort and water/diet restrictions to maintain. The point being, anyone who says they're 0%, or even like 3%, has no idea what they're talking about. Thanks for having this discussion with me!
I was advised by a doctor to turn the water to cold periodically in the shower to increase the amount of brown fat the body produces. I take it with a grain of salt, but cold tolerance does seem to be a thing and that could be a mechanism for it.
You kind of answered your own question. There are a lot of conditions and feedbacks needed for stasis. As any are pushed to or beyond their limits, a cascade occurs, having catastrophic effects. Body temp regulation is one of the most dire, as we can't survive for long below a certain temp. Regarding that, burn victims can actually die from hypothermia if not treated immediately following 3rd degree burns, due to the amount of fat and skin cells lost to burns. I hope some of this made sense. I'm digging deep to remember, but it's been a while. Cheers
Usually on diets where you go from a carb heavy regimen to less carbs:
first you lose water weight as electrolytes start to balance due to the change in insulin levels
the body removes fat from organs as first priority (sometimes called visceral fat). The body does not want to store fat in organs, but it does so only if it can't put fat anywhere else. Once you start to lose weight it comes from here first.
then we are at generalized weight loss, which is different for everyone.
It is to some extent a last in, first out inventory system. So if you only recently put on weight in the middle then yes likely you will lose that first.
If you only/mostly have excess fat in your belly, yes you will lose more of that, but no, you can't for example keep the fat on your boobs and ass and lose it only in your belly. No.
There are probably more studies that show both positive and inconclusive evidence for exercise and changes in visceral fat because that kinda how science is...