The Spot Fat Removal Myth

What exercise gets rid of love-handles? What exercise gets rid of man-boobs?

Of all the bad bodybuilding myths, this is the one I hate the most because unscrupulous skamsters use this myth to convince uninformed people to spend millions of dollars on their useless machines. Just turn on the TV late at night and you are sure to hear ridiculous claims like "targets fat in the troublesome love handle region".

So how can you get rid of the unwanted fat on your stomach, hips, thighs, or chest? Cardio and Nutrition! For more information see my section on getting 6-pack abs. The body decides how it will distribute the fat over your body, all you can do to get rid of love-handles or man-boobs is to reduce your total bodyfat by doing more aerobic exercise and by eating less. It is not possible to do spot-removal of fat despite the million dollar industry which tries to sell a gullible public one "love-handle remover" after another!

The myth that you can remove fat in focused areas by doing special exercises is not new. The vibrating belts of the '50s were promoted for fat removal around the mid-section. Its just not possible to focus fat removal on a particular area, surgery is the only way to do spot-removal of fat deposits. There are some drugs (like AZT) that cause the body to redistribute fat and focus it in the mid section but as far as I know, nobody has been able to do this in a desirable fashion.