Weight Loss Research on Glycemic Index

Almost no difference in outcomes for 36 weeks of low-glycemic load diet in obese

No difference on health outcomes of high or low GI diet over 5 weeks

Relationship of GI to markers of health unclear

No differences in outcomes between low and high GI diets over 10 weeks (including satiety)

Review indicating some benefit in weight loss for low glycemic diets

2013 review indicating no anthropometric (fat loss included) differences between high and low glycemic index and load diets (This is the biggest nail in the coffin right here, as it’s a comprehensive review and is recent)

Weight Loss Research On Food Reward

Overall review of the food reward hypothesis

Additional research here

Increased Hunger and Slowed Metabolism

Extreme levels of overeating when high palatability food is presented

Energy restriction (for a whole year) shows only small (yet significant) declines in metabolic rate

Weight Loss Research and Metabolic Changes

MASSIVE weight loss rates (18kg in only 12 weeks) resulted in 67% of the weight loss predicted from NO metabolic adaptations. Thus, the idea that a slowed metabolism could account for a stoppage of weight loss is not in evidence. Furthermore, not all of the difference is explained by metabolic rate slowdown, further weakening its explanatory role in preventing weight loss

Metabolic changes only account for 120 calories–on average–of difference in metabolism during dieting, on average

Study showing 230 calories lower metabolism for a diet of 700 calories lower than maintenance levels (obviously not enough to stall weightloss)

The Yo-Yo Effect: Weight Regain

Weight regain occurs often, strategies to help it unclear

Review of behavioral interventions on weight regain show only small benefits

Weight regain for most diets highly common, solutions unclear

Weight Loss and Blood Sugar

Obese people have HIGHER blood glucose levels and HIGHER blood fat levels, not lower

Low-Carb Diets vs. Low-Fat Diets vs. Calorie Intake

Both low-fat and lowcarb nutrition plans work, no clear winner in this study either

Possible slight edge to low-carb, but results largely equivocal

No meaningful difference in weight loss of low-fat and low-carb

In controlled settings, most popular diets work about the same if they restrict energy to the same extent

The Science of Obesity

Fat went down only a small amount over time, carbs and calories up by a bunch

Percent of energy from fat decreased by only 3% from 1971-2006, but obesity went up 20%

Vegetarians and vegans take in much more carbohydrate, but are less overweigh than omnivores

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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Use whatever label you want, it’s undeniable that everyone has “trouble areas” that oftentimes make weight loss diets and fat loss workouts appear ineffective.

And while myths like “crunches shrink your waist” have been proven inaccurate (or maybe more the result of wishful thinking), it’s hard to deny that fat does seem to melt off certain areas of your body, while stubbornly clinging to other parts.

One of the most difficult aspects of the fitness industry is that the “experts” are divided. One group focuses on what works, and the one that can scientifically prove what’s effective. Ideally, you are able to marry the two. But oftentimes that takes time.

Is It Broscience…Or Results Before Research?

All scientific research needs to be funded. And earning that funding is a long, difficult process. Not to mention, a lot of the cool stuff that you do in the gym would never get funded because most research companies just don’t care about muscle building and fat loss the way the average guy does.

This led to a divide where being pro-research meant accepting an anti-bodybuilding slant on fitness techniques. For example, because it hadn’t been exhaustively concluded that incline pressing worked the clavicular head of your pecs, the very idea was considered foolish; study-dependent coaches maintained that muscles fibers run the entire length from origin to insertion and are activated by single nerves, and, as a result, it was not possible to preferentially recruit specific areas. Of course, that is possible, as every bodybuilder in history has known.

And now, research is clearly showing that some coaches and scientists owe those bodybuilders an apology. In a review paper written years ago, Dr. Jose Antonio began to dispel the misconceptions and demonstrated clearly that you could target areas of specific muscles.

In the time since that paper was published, much more research has emerged, substantiating Antonio’s position, and this is finally working its way into the public eye of the fitness industry, thanks in no small part to a group of fantastic coaches who are doing their best to get the information out there.

One such coach is Bret Contreras, who regularly produces scientific rationalization that explain the best training methods. In a past presentation, Bret said,

“It is now readily apparent in the literature that all muscle groups…contain functional subdivisions which are preferentially activated during different movements…recent research has showed that altering body position such as foot placement …can target different areas of muscles. Bodybuilders were right all along; it just took research some time to catch up to their wisdom. “

Contreras’s assertion makes clear the fact that part of being a scientist is considering all information with a critical but open mind. Just as importantly, before dismissing ideas as true or false, it’s necessary to first evaluate if certain concepts have been proven inaccurate or simply dismissed for lack of evidence. After all, science and research is the basis of determining what to do for diet and training, but you shouldn’t ignore results or blindly deny the validity of what works just because it hasn’t been tested.

That said, being able to target individual muscle–or even different portions of muscles–is not the same as targeted fat loss. Specifically, doing crunches to shrink your stomach won’t melt belly fat and more than doing neck crunches will remove excess skin on your face.

Why? Sohee Lee, a health coach and founder of Sohee Fit, provides a scientific and practical look at why you lose fat from different body parts, and if there’s anything you can do to help with faster fat loss.

Belly Fat and Big Thighs: The Role of Gender and Genetics

Women, in general, tend to have higher levels of body fat than do men (Nielsen et al., 2004). As well, women tend to store body fat in the lower body in the form of peripheral subcutaneous, whereas men tend to store body fat in the abdominal region in the form of visceral fat (Nielsen et al., 2004). This gives women more of a pear shape and men more of an apple shape.

Additionally, when body fat is lost, women lose more femoral FM (Mauriege et al., 1999) while men lose more abdominal fat (Farnsworth et al., 2003), highlighting a sex discrepancy when it comes to regional fat loss (though this goes against my experience working with hundreds of female clients who typically lose body fat in their upper bodies first and lower bodies last, but I digress). The physiological mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not fully understood at this point.

But here’s something that helps clear up the picture: genetics.

I understand that genetics can be a soft spot for many (Okay, I totally did not intend for that to be a pun, but now I see how accidentally clever that was, so I’m sticking with it. Please don’t click away?). I think it’s worth taking some time to at least touch on the topic, though.

Where’d I get my body from?

I got it from my momma.

Kind of. But also from years and years of dedicated strength training and proper nutrition. It doesn’t sound quite as sexy to say that, though, does it?

Bouchard found that the degree of truncal-abdominal subcutaneous fat is determined by a genetic effect of 30% (1993), and Perusse et al. attribute 42% to 56% for subcutaneous fat and abdominal visceral fat, respectively, to heritability.

And of course, there a number of other factors as well that contribute to regional bodyfat distribution, including hormones, exercise, diet, and more.

All of this to say that yes, genetics do play a role in where an individual stores fat on his or her body, and it also appears to largely determine where we lose body fat first and last from (and conversely, where we gain body fat). But it should by no means be used as a scapegoat. [After all, there’s plenty of real life evidence that you can overcome bad genetics.]

“My body looks like this because of my genetics, and there’s nothing I can do about it!” is a poor excuse (and an incorrect one, at that). There’s still a lot that can be done via behavioral intervention to change your physique.

The Illusion of Spot Reduction

Spot enhancement, or physique enhancement, is when you change the shape of your body by building muscle in specific areas. Weightlifters should be very familiar with this concept.

Because unlike body fat, muscle is site-specific (Wakahara et al., 2013).

For example, if you want to give off the illusion of having a smaller waist, then build wider lats by performing more lat-specific movements. If you want rounder, firmer, and/or more muscular glutes, then it would be in your best interest to perform exercises that target the glutes, such as hip thrusts, lunges, Bulgarian split squats, seated abductions, and glute kickbacks.

(Please note that I’m not saying that you should stick exclusively to bodypart splits or strictly to isolation movements. I actually tend to prefer full body or upper/lower splits for most people, though there is certainly a time and a place for other kinds of training programs as well.)

The cool thing about building more muscle all over is that having more muscle mass can actually give off the appearance of looking leaner overall. This applies to women as well, so ladies, don’t be afraid to build muscle. As long as you keep your nutrition in check (and we’ll cover that below), you will not look bulky.

Finally, it’s important not to overlook the three main mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy: mechanical stress, metabolic stress, and muscle damage.

You can thank Dr. Brad Schoenfeld for this discovery a number of years back. We won’t flesh that out too much here, but can read his first original paper on muscle hypertrophy here and you can also find an interview with him on Bret Contreras’s site here.

To learn more about stubborn body fat, read this post for an entire breakdown from Sohee Lee.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Spot Reduction and Stubborn Fat Loss appeared first on Born Fitness.