Why Stubborn Fat Is So Hard to Lose (And What You Can Do About It)
Coach Darian Bates
6,758 views
We all know that losing body fat requires a calorie deficit.
But saying “just eat fewer calories” doesn't actually explain how the fat sitting on your body ends up disappearing.
Before stored body fat can be used for energy, it has to be mobilised from the fat cell, transported through the bloodstream, taken up by other tissues and eventually oxidised.
And once you understand each of those steps, something we've been told for years starts to get a little more interesting:
Is spot reduction actually impossible?
In this video, we're following body fat through that entire process to understand what actually determines whether stored fat gets mobilised and eventually used for energy.
We'll look at how fat gets out of the fat cell, what happens to it once it's in circulation, and how your ability to oxidise that fat can be optimised
We'll also get into why burning more fat during a workout doesn't automatically mean you'll lose more body fat, and why mobilising fat is only useful if that fat eventually gets oxidised.
Then we can come back to stubborn fat and spot reduction.
Because fat from different areas of your body doesn't necessarily behave the same way.
And once you understand the mechanisms involved, the idea that we might be able to influence where fat is mobilised from becomes a hell of a lot more plausible than simply saying “spot reduction is impossible"
00:00 How does fat leave the body?
00:31 Fat mobilisation, transport, uptake and oxidation
02:20 Can you train your body to burn more fat?
04:57 Stubborn fat and whether you can spot reduce it
07:53 What does getting shredded actually take?
Join the DIY Bodybuilding Club: https://coachedbydazz.com/dbc
TikTok: @coachdarianbates
IG: @coachdarianbates
1:1 Coaching: https://coachedbydazz.com/121-standard
#Fatloss #Bodyfat #Spotreduction #Fatoxidation #Stubbornfat
20 Comments
I look forward to more long form content from you Darian!
You look amazing in the thumbnails at the beginning of the video.
Practically: I changed from eating bread at breakfast to eating just a bowl of oatmeal. It kept my blood sugar lower, and the following insulin spike wasn't that big, while still having eaten.
That's imo also why OMAD works well. You're essentially fasting 23 hours, aka lower insulin levels, and fat can be accessed more easily for the processes that are discussed in the video.
Sometimes I do a cure/diet of only eating oatmeal for every meal... this isn't exactly fasting, but it seems to help (at least in my case) equally as well... an a large benefit is that I keep my protein levels up during the day, which is imo better for the muscles. I know for a fact that it reduced my visceral fat very fast.
So if you have a hard time burning fat, try to keep your blood sugar level low... this affects the insulin peak in a positive way. Eating a sugary bowl of cereal might spike the insulin in such a way that it might not even come down for the entire day... if you then also eat a snack in the evening... you essentially block your body from ever releasing the fat from the cells... because you never let the insulin get down enough.
Anyway, enough with the rant...
Interesting video!
One question though, FatMax training intensity zone is where fat oxydisation is the primarily substitute to the energy production, and hence the zone where the body consumes more fat (amazing for endurance training). However, training at higher intensity may requires higher energy outputs and hence a higher caloric expenditure. So for the same given period of time, with the aim of loosing fat, would you rather prescribe fatmax intensity or use higher intensity zone to get more outputs?
Thank you!
Why Stubborn Fat Is So Hard to Lose (And What You Can Do About It)
Coach Darian Bates
6,758 views
We all know that losing body fat requires a calorie deficit.
But saying “just eat fewer calories” doesn't actually explain how the fat sitting on your body ends up disappearing.
Before stored body fat can be used for energy, it has to be mobilised from the fat cell, transported through the bloodstream, taken up by other tissues and eventually oxidised.
And once you understand each of those steps, something we've been told for years starts to get a little more interesting:
Is spot reduction actually impossible?
In this video, we're following body fat through that entire process to understand what actually determines whether stored fat gets mobilised and eventually used for energy.
We'll look at how fat gets out of the fat cell, what happens to it once it's in circulation, and how your ability to oxidise that fat can be optimised
We'll also get into why burning more fat during a workout doesn't automatically mean you'll lose more body fat, and why mobilising fat is only useful if that fat eventually gets oxidised.
Then we can come back to stubborn fat and spot reduction.
Because fat from different areas of your body doesn't necessarily behave the same way.
And once you understand the mechanisms involved, the idea that we might be able to influence where fat is mobilised from becomes a hell of a lot more plausible than simply saying “spot reduction is impossible"
00:00 How does fat leave the body?
00:31 Fat mobilisation, transport, uptake and oxidation
02:20 Can you train your body to burn more fat?
04:57 Stubborn fat and whether you can spot reduce it
07:53 What does getting shredded actually take?
Join the DIY Bodybuilding Club: https://coachedbydazz.com/dbc
TikTok: @coachdarianbates
IG: @coachdarianbates
1:1 Coaching: https://coachedbydazz.com/121-standard
#Fatloss #Bodyfat #Spotreduction #Fatoxidation #Stubbornfat