20 Rep Squats and Spot Reduction (Fatloss)

Does anyone believe in localized fat reduction due to high reps. I know the topic of spot reduction usually gets shot down by more scientific minded people but there are others who disagree and there is some research that says it might be possible. Basically has anyone experienced spot reduction fatloss personally?

Anyway, I have noticed that my legs have gotten ridiculously cut up from doing 20 rep squats (rest pause for last ten, weight at 10 rep max). But the rest of my body has not changed a bit. Not a single ounce of fat dropped anywhere else.

Is this merely a coincidence I have not lost fat in any other part of my body and the changes are very noticeable and happened really fast. I am thinking about doing a similar rep scheme for some upper body exercises just to see what happens.

Its probably linked more to how your body distributes fat. I don’t believe in site specific fat loss just like I no longer believe in Santa.

Do you actually see more cuts and striations in your legs or is it just more vascularity? The veins bulging could be from the residual pump of intense workouts.

Spot reduction? Fat is burned in muscle tissue. What makes you think that when a muscle contracts that fat is directly pulled into the muscle from that area, rather than it being a systemic occurrence.

That’s like saying an offensive lineman that does 10,000 crunches a day would have a 6-pack and still be fat all over, doesn’t happen chief.

Had a tiny bit of fat on my legs and that’s completely gone after 3 weeks of teh 20reps. But yes a huge difference in cuts. My legs are much denser too its kind of hard to describe but the muscle that was already there has gotten rock hard like nothing I have felt and I have been squatting for years. I had big legs before now they got some wicked lines even when not flexing. Its just really weird to see such a dramatic change in composition there but not anywhere else on the body.

Seriously considering doing a 20rep rest pause for incline presses or something see if I can do the same to my chest.

TO answer the above post, what I have seen is anything but systemic…

Have you checked your BF% at all. I mean, it’s possible that with the same diet but a much more intense workout you’re just burning more cals and thus the change in composition. Are you noticing a change in composition anywhere else in your body?

Did you take measurements?

Maybe your legs just got bigger, so they look/feel like they have less fat on them.

Orrrrrrr maaaaybe your legs just got bigger?

[quote]MytchBucanan wrote:
Do you actually see more cuts and striations in your legs or is it just more vascularity? The veins bulging could be from the residual pump of intense workouts.[/quote]

That’s what I was thinking.

And like others said, maybe they got bigger.

The order where fat comes off your body is pretty individual, but generally the first place it goes on, or the place where most of it is, is the first place it comes off.

But this is only a general rule.

[quote]That One Guy wrote:
The order where fat comes off your body is pretty individual, but generally the first place it goes on, or the place where most of it is, is the first place it comes off.

But this is only a general rule.[/quote]

Truth in that statment. Are you lean everywhere else already? I store/remove fat in my belly most easily, while my arms are always lean and covered with hardly any. Perhaps you just usually store fat in your legs so when you’re losing fat, you notice it getting more cut.

On a sidenote, if the above is the case for you, you may want to read about where fat is preferentially stored and what it may indicate about your health/hormone levels. I think either CT or Poliquin wrote about this. Of course it is impossible to draw definite conclusions about someone’s hormone levels and health based simply on their fat distribution, but it may be something interesting to look into.

And good luck with the 20-rep squats. Maybe I’ll get some balls to try them again sometime soon.

I was actually thinking about spot reduction the other day. People always say it doesn’t work, but if a muscle needs energy and it’s going to take some fat to get it, wouldn’t it draw from the fat closest to it? For instance if you work chest why would my chest muscles draw fat to use as energy all the way from my legs as opposed to taking the fat directly surrounding it?

[quote]Arnold Palmer wrote:
Had a tiny bit of fat on my legs and that’s completely gone after 3 weeks of teh 20reps. But yes a huge difference in cuts. My legs are much denser too its kind of hard to describe but the muscle that was already there has gotten rock hard like nothing I have felt and I have been squatting for years. I had big legs before now they got some wicked lines even when not flexing. Its just really weird to see such a dramatic change in composition there but not anywhere else on the body.

Seriously considering doing a 20rep rest pause for incline presses or something see if I can do the same to my chest.

TO answer the above post, what I have seen is anything but systemic…[/quote]

You answered your own question and reaffirmed the other posts against localized fat reduction by your response the limited amount of fat in your legs (Your own admission) of course would be the first place a drop in bodyfat would be visibly noticed do to the limited fat accumulation in that area, and lastly the over all increase in work capacity and increased cals utilized and fat metabolized is absolutely systemic metabolic process is not compatmentalized into sub categories of your body. Your body is a system phyiologicaly intertwined that is why although you might be able to put alittle size on your arms if you curl you will experiance better overall gains if you train your entire body.

[quote]JLu wrote:
I was actually thinking about spot reduction the other day. People always say it doesn’t work, but if a muscle needs energy and it’s going to take some fat to get it, wouldn’t it draw from the fat closest to it? For instance if you work chest why would my chest muscles draw fat to use as energy all the way from my legs as opposed to taking the fat directly surrounding it?[/quote]

Because, it doesn’t work that way lol. Your body takes fat, converts it to glucose or glycogen in the LIVER, which is then sent into the bloodstream. Super basic and vague overview because there’s a lot that goes on. It doesn’t just absorb fat like if it was eating it from the surrounding area.

I think you guys are right, didn’t consider any size gain but I thought about it today and yeah legs are definitely getting bigger. Probobly causing them to feel that much more tight and dense, skin is shrink warped on now which could definitely be due to gain in size not just fat loss.

At the same time though I did drop 1.5% of body fat, still its purely from the legs. Which as you guys mentioned can just happen that way and is not an indicator of spot reduction just where my body happened to draw it from.

To the guy who said he might try 20 rep squats. I highly highly recomend them. I just feel different for the next couple days after possibly from a big GH or Test release. I feel like more of a man like my test is way up only way to describe it. And they sound tough on paper almost kind of scary according to some descriptions but trust me its not that bad. The reward of doing them negates the extra effort, I look forward to leg days MORE now.