Can I Spot Reduce Fat? How to Achieve the MOST COMMON Aesthetic Goals (w/ Examples)

If you're wondering why your results are as random as your workouts, let's chat.

Today we'll review examples of specific exercises to create:

- the illusion of a smaller waist
- a rounder butt
- a bigger butt / more developed glutes
- More lift under your butt
- Back of the arms "batwings"
- Getting the "two lines on her stomach *points aggressively* !"
- Diet strategies to compliment each of the above

This is to ANSWER COMMON QUESTIONS. You do not have to want these things, nor should you give a sht if other people do or don't. Take it or leave it my friends.

Bands Mentioned:
Glute Bands (on sale at time of posting, under $10)
Resistance Bands ($15.99 at time of posting)

Partial Transcript: Oh, and also like add body weight to your search. If you don't have any equipment, it will just come up with things that you don't need equipment for. And they're usually also like, Targeted for at-home exercising. So they usually the popular ones won't take up a ton of space either, which is really helpful. Let's talk about the food side. Revealing muscle versus just having less fat is something that I see all the time. And it sucks. It's just when it happens so bad. So. Revealing muscle means you lost weight. You were in a calorie deficit, but you maintained your protein intake and you were resistance training. In some capacity, you reveal a muscle base, which is what everyone wants when they say they want to tone. So. The other side of this. You are dieting in a calorie deficit everything's magical and wonderful and you're losing weight and you're finally, yay. We're really close. What the fuck? Where are my abs? That feeling sucks so badly that I want to explain to you why it happens so that it never happens to you. When you are leaning out or losing fat. There has to be something underneath that fat to reveal. If you want a shape difference. That's not so fun. If you have never worked out before and you just lose a bunch of weight, your not going to look toned and have that muscle definition, because you've never built it before you kind of cut down. That doesn't mean you have to do like a bulking phase, by the way. That's not what that means. 

What it does mean is that you don't necessarily want to just lose as much fat as possible and exercise as much as possible to just get a result. Like you can very strategically aim for something and progress your way there. And that sounds, I think, basic in the. Topics that I go through on this show, but it really, I think is misunderstood. Like you have to have the correct inputs to create certain outputs,
but on the flip side of that, just starting in perfectly is still better than not starting. Cause you're also going to figure out what you like and that's still valuable. You're still moving forward. 

If you are looking to build muscle a K thank your butt bigger. Things like that. Typically mean you may have to be in a surplus. And that's not fun for people to hear. You may have to eat a little bit more, not a ton more, a 

Transcript

0:00

Hello, beautiful people. And welcome back to the show I would like to preface this entire episode with this is not how you have to want to look. I am answering the questions I am most often asked because. I'm not under the impression that just because I say, well, you shouldn't care and you should like really love yourself that you're not going to be Googling this shit anyway and probably get a much more dangerous answer than I'm providing. So. Get over it. Today, we answer the question. Is it possible to spot, reduce fat? AK? Is it possible to say I am going to do a bunch of setups and therefore I will lose more fat on my stomach. I will see more muscle on my stomach. A lot of different ways of putting it, how people typically define toning, I guess, is a really good way to put it. So. The answer is no. But wait, there's more. Yeah, the answer is no, but there's some nuance to it and the answer isn't just no. And you don't get to pick how your body looks at all. That's not what it is. The answer is no, you can not choose where you lose fat. Unfortunately, this will have a lot to do with your hormonal profile. So more of an intergenic or more of like a male hormonal profile. You will more than likely store fat around your stomach. For the most part, you likely won't store a lot in your lower body. Sometimes I'm like under the chin. Then for women, a more feminine hormonal profile, you are going to tend to see it around your hips, on your arms, around your face. First, that tends to be more of like the pear shape. Tends to be how women store fat most often on top of that, your genetics actually do play a huge role in this. And usually genetics are not the answer, blah, blah, blah, my rants. But in this case, this really is a massive component of it. Your genetics are gonna kind of choose where the fat comes from, how that looks, where you lose first, where you lose last. A lot of people who have dieted a lot in the past, and you've either been up and down and wait or whatever it is, you can kind of tell where you lose first, like a big complaint for women when they start working out and they lose ways. Like you lose your boobs first. Like that sucks. It's not your choice. It's not up to you. But what we can do with certain things is train and eat in a certain way that produce. Produces. I think the results that a lot of people are trying to get by quote, unquote spot reducing, but in a way that actually works like proven. And isn't going to kind of just leave you frustrated when you do a bunch of setups to get abs and you lose your boobs instead. What the fuck? So let's get into the first one bigger, but this is one I see a lot of times This is a huge ask from a ton of my clients. The bigger but thing when people say they want a bigger, but what they normally do is a bunch of squats and they start dieting. There's a few things wrong with this. So. I can almost guarantee you, you are not isolating your glutes when you squat. Furthermore way more people than think they kind of squat like shit squat, like shit. And, and fortunately that might be you because a lot of people, they can even squat a lot of weight. It doesn't mean you're using the correct muscles. When I was a weightlifter and that was sort of my thing or whatever, like the personality I decided on that was a wild time for me to learn foundations because I learned it through fire. So I got quote unquote strong by using my back when I squatted a lot. And like my back got really strong along with my legs. And I was doing these things that, unfortunately though I got strong enough to qualify for certain things. When I got to those events. I was realizing, okay. I'm not actually where I think I am because I'm no longer improving this way. I have to go back squat a lot less, but do it the right way and build back up. It didn't take nearly as long as if I was just starting from scratch and getting stronger in a squat in general, but I did have to squat a lot less and build my form so that I was using the muscles I needed to use when I was actually weightlifting and doing snatch and clean and jerk it wasn't transferring because I wasn't using the right muscles in this case. Squats are more than likely not going to be your ticket to a big, but. The first thing we need to recognize is that when you say you want a big, but most people are talking about two different muscles, your glute medius and your glute Maximus. Right? So when we talk about these two things, I want you to think of Kim Kardashians. Yes. The butt queen, if you will. So glute Medes, if you look at Kim Kardashian from the front, you see, she has this massive hourglass shape to her, the sides of her butt project outward. Let's pretend that Kim. Doesn't probably have a fake butt, right? Let's just. Go on this journey with me really quick. Okay. So let's pretend it's 100% real. That side is your glute Medes. So you're when you are talking about making your butt bigger, a lot of people want this very round, but. But they'll focus on things that only train their glute Maximus. So your max, if you look at Kim Kardashian from the side profile, that's what makes her, but project super far outward. Again, we're on this journey, just play along. So that's what makes it have so much distance projecting outward from her body backwards. That would be the muscle you're building. So number one, we want to train both of these things. I have an entire list of exercises you can do, but you literally, YouTube at home, glute me glute max exercises. I'm sure a bunch of things would come up. You can do this for free. I really recommend if you can go get a glue band off Amazon, they're like, I think. I'm 90% sure. They're like under $20. They're not expensive. I'll link a few like cheaper options below. You really don't need an expensive one. It will help you on this journey infinitely if you have no other equipment. If you can use weights, that's ideal. Not everyone has access. I totally get that I'm going to kind of give you the rundown cheat sheet though. So you can kind of know what you're looking for and what types of exercises to choose to help you get these things. So. Anything with that side, but glute Medes right side. But if you're looking at Kim Kardashian from the front, what projects out to the sides and gives her that hourglass. Abductions. AKA, if your knees are together pushing against something to drive them outward, anything with that is going to help your glute means that movement pattern resisting your legs outward. This is the machine at the gym that you don't really want to make eye contact as people walk by. Like you're just opening your legs at them. That machine that's what that's doing abduction. Right? So for your. Side profile of Kim Kardashians, right? The thing that makes her, but project backwards in out. That is going to be anything where you bring your hips forward and squeeze your butt. This is hip extension. Hip extension looks like. Glute bridges. If you're at home. Anything with a barbell on your hips, where in that glute bridge position and you're driving upward, you can do it single leg. You can do it a lot of ways. I am a big fan of split squats, lunges, Bulgarian, split squats, all of those things for glute building. Anything where you have to drive your hips forward and like almost squeeze your butt to extend that is going to help you with the glute max. This is why everyone just does squats. Dead lifts, squats. All of these things, you are extending your hips, but what we actually need to understand in a glute bridge, for example, You will actually isolate your glutes. If you can still push your lowest rib into the ground, as your butt is squeezed as high up as you can tell me, you don't feel a difference, right? That thing of just adjusting how your back is a little bit or pulling your shoulders back. The movements like squats and deadlifts, things like that. There's way too much opportunity for that to happen. So we end up using these other muscles and what happens. It takes the load off of our glutes, which is what we're trying to work. That's why you want to look more towards isolation, style exercises. For that, but lift the butt lift is going to come from. Hamstrings hamstrings, hold your butt up because they insert right underneath it. So that is literally the entire reason. Have you ever seen someone in real life with a BBL? It looks insane and you can't like their butts massive. And you're like, that's crazy, but you can't quite put your finger on why it looks so fucking insane. It's because they have no hamstrings. Most people are not going to build there, but to have a massive, but without building their legs in some capacity. And this is a consequence of this. It's not a bad consequence by any means, but I think a lot of people are trying to just grow there, but, and isolation is more necessary. That being said, that is why it looks so insane is because there's no fucking muscle around this mass of an ass. It literally doesn't make physiological sense for it to be that big and have like super, super skinny likes. That's why it looks so weird to us. So your hamstrings lifting your butt up, your glute Medes on the outside, giving you that roundness and then extending your hips forward and that hip extension and building that glute max in the back that is going to give you that perfect round lifted, but let's move on to smaller waist. Another one, people do sit up to be ups. All of these things, these Instagram exercises that only they become more insane by the day. I don't know why everyone needs to also bicep curl. Every time they lunch. It is so confusing to me, focus on what the fuck you're doing. You're going to get a lot more out of it. It makes no sense Most people want a smaller waist and they know that they have to lose fat. They're like, okay, like I should dye it. But like, if I do a lot of setups like that, we'll also take that off my stomach. And that's the misconception. So. For a smaller waist, the things you want to build to create this illusion, we are going to assume that yes, you are also leaning out and losing fat, or you really don't have too much extra fat on your body. When you build your glute meats that we talked about before. And your lats, your waste becomes smaller in comparison. And visually that gives you more of an hourglass. How does this work? So your lats are this big, giant triangle muscle underneath your armpits on the back of your body. So when you do a pull up, right, and you're doing that wide grip, when you go as wide as you can, that is why that becomes more difficult because that's isolating gesture, lats. You're not using as much of like your full back Andrew biceps and all of that. So. Building your lats plus your glute Medes leaves your waist smaller in comparison. That is kind of the closest you're going to get to actually reshaping that part. But we are going to talk about that, like those lines on your stomach, that everyone seems to talk about or want, or seems to be the goal picture or whatever it is. We are going to talk about that too, but for this just smaller waste purpose, that is it. So. When you think about your lats, this is not something that I think a lot of people properly target. So I want to go into it just a little bit. If you have access to any sort of resistance bands, anything great. You can pull down on that. But if you don't. All I want you to do is go up to a surface that is roughly shoulder height. I want you to put your hands flat on the surface with your arms out and extended in your elbows, locked out. So your arms are straight and you're just standing in front of the surface. Palms are flat on it. Now I want you to roll your shoulders back and down. Good. I want you to squeeze your shoulder blades together as you roll back now. Good. Now from there, I want you to think about if I was resisting on this surface and sh pushing my shoulders down as I did that. And locking my shoulder blades into place. Do you feel that muscle right underneath your armpits kind of activate those are your lats. So anytime we squeezed down and kind of just pulling inwards on our shoulder blades, that muscle activating when it grows, those are your wing muscles. Those are the crazy muscles you see on bodybuilders coming out from underneath. Like when they pose with their arm up. And you're like, what the hell? That's, that's a lot. That's a big lap, but that's a lot. So. When you are doing this building, your upper back is also important. If you want to go to kind of create that illusion, but your lats and isolating them is very important. Google lat pulldown grab and again, an$8 band and you can do these at home. So. Let's talk about arm's bat wings every, oh my gosh. I, if I had a dollar for every person that came up to me and went, how do I get rid of this and pointed to their arm and the underside of it? I would never have to be at work ever. So. Your arms bat wings, that extra skin, loose skin underneath your arm. Unfortunately. If it is not. Fat. It is probably loose skin. And even if it is fat, it's probably going to result in loose skin. If you lose the fat. So what the fuck? Like what do we do like that? Terrible answer. Their surgeries. There's things you can do that, that are more extreme, obviously. That's not really my specialty. I don't have enough letters after my name. So on my side of the world. The best kind of advice. I guess I could give you is building your tricep to fill that skin with lean mass. Is likely your best bet to get as close as you want without some sort of, you know, medical style intervention. So the other part of this is being leaner plus adding muscle to your arms, AKA making sure that your body fat percentage is low ish, that is going to help, but building out your triceps looks like locking out your elbow forcibly against something. So when you do these types of exercises that are tricep base move. Through the much more slowly kind of get into that rep a little bit more and focus on tricep a little bit more. I think a lot of people neglect them and then that's why a lot of people's elbows hurt. By the way, if your elbow is always hurt, you need to bill your triceps regardless of how your arms look or how you want them to look or what society tells you, they should look like. So that being said, once you have filled sort of that extra loose skin that tends to just be there and it's okay. You do not have to want your arms to look this way and that like, I know I preface this episode, but I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I'm just trying to give you an option that is a little bit more effective to what you actually want. If you're going to be spending effort here anyway. onto the back of the paper, let's go. Those lines on your abs, this core set type, like drawn in Abbott, not like a six pack. AB you feel me? That. This is one of the things I see the most misunderstood. So I want to explain this. Your core is not just apps like your six pack. That's not what that is. Your core is made up of several different layers and also includes your back muscles by the way, it's your entire midsection and how all of these muscles wrap around your body to keep you upright. So let's talk about anterior the front of your body. When we look at core muscles, what a lot of people do is they train a lot of weighted core exercises. And I don't think they understand what layers they're training and how that may result aesthetically. Let's get into it. Your corset, abs your transverse abdominis. When you go through anything like Bar things like that. They're going to teach you to draw your rib cage down in N and have that kind of inner core quote unquote activation. That is your transverse abdominis. The reason, this is called the corset muscle by so many people is because it does draw you inward. When you are aiming to get those lines on your stomach, you're typically aiming to have a less mass in that six pack area and more transverse abdominis work. So. Basically if we had to make this like cheat sheet style. This is massively simplified. But if you are doing a core exercise and you look down and your stomach is like domed, that is probably where we want to lean away from. If you look down in your stomach is flat and drawn in. That's when you're using that muscle. It's like the easiest quote-unquote way to tell it's not a hundred percent by any means, but you can also think about drawing your rib cage down into, towards your belly button. That's going to help you activate your transverse abdominis as well. With that you also are likely not. If you're aiming to make your way smaller and get those line type, that line type of look, I feel like I see that everywhere. That is probably not going to come from working the sides of your core with a lot of weighted resistance. So I see a ton of like side bends, like holding a plate with your arms straight and your shoulder kind of depths to one side, all of the like kind of weighted side crunches, weighted side planks, things like that. That is going to strengthen your core, which is phenomenal for you by the fucking way. Not a bad thing. But. If you are not looking to add mass to that part of your body, which if you want the hourglass ish type thing, that's where that mass would be. You likely do not want to add a ton of weight to these core exercises, probably in general is kind of a stretch, but. A lot of the things that people are doing for these weighted core exercises are working the front of their abs, but they're adding muscle mass. Your core should be strong, no matter what. Strength is not the same as hypertrophy. And that's a whole nother episode, which I should definitely do. Fucking Jamie, write that down. When we talk about the transverse abdominis drawing you in. I also want you to think about this is not a matter of. Doing as much waiter, as many reps as possible. This is a matter of making it as strong as possible. You are not looking to add mass. You are going to add enough mass by working your transverse abdominals and your abs in general. that if you do lose weight, you will reveal a solid core. Don't stress about that. And you should also really really know, abs are genetic. Like not everybody has blocked six pack type apps. Like I definitely don't, even when I'm super lean, it's not typical that your abs look perfect, even if you're shredded. So. So like, keep that in mind, your core may not actually reveal to be exactly what so-and-so's core looks like. Even if you're doing everything right. There is a genetic component to literally how your muscles are shaped. Keep that in mind. Also, this is not like you have to go to the gym. You can YouTube all of these for a hundred percent free. Like I named all the muscles, Google bodyweight, or at home or bandit or whatever you have access to. Transverse abdominis exercises. Look at them. Watch instruction, videos, understanding the really correct form for these exercises is where the value of this is going to lie because we're targeting so specifically, but you can learn all of these things and do them at home. Like you don't have to spend a bunch of money. you're already doing workouts, just kind of randomly, at least this will push you in the right direction. So. Oh, and also like add body weight to your search. If you don't have any equipment, it will just come up with things that you don't need equipment for. And they're usually also like, Targeted for at-home exercising. So they usually the popular ones won't take up a ton of space either, which is really helpful. Let's talk about the food side. Revealing muscle versus just having less fat is something that I see all the time. And it sucks. It's just when it happens so bad. So. Revealing muscle means you lost weight. You were in a calorie deficit, but you maintained your protein intake and you were resistance training. In some capacity, you reveal a muscle base, which is what everyone wants when they say they want to tone. So. The other side of this. You are dieting in a calorie deficit everything's magical and wonderful and you're losing weight and you're finally, yay. We're really close. What the fuck? Where are my abs? That feeling sucks so badly that I want to explain to you why it happens so that it never happens to you. When you are leaning out or losing fat. There has to be something underneath that fat to reveal. If you want a shape difference. That's not so fun. If you have never worked out before and you just lose a bunch of weight, your not going to look toned and have that muscle definition, because you've never built it before you kind of cut down. That doesn't mean you have to do like a bulking phase, by the way. That's not what that means. What it does mean is that you don't necessarily want to just lose as much fat as possible and exercise as much as possible to just get a result. Like you can very strategically aim for something and progress your way there. And that sounds, I think, basic in the. Topics that I go through on this show, but it really, I think is misunderstood. Like you have to have the correct inputs to create certain outputs, but on the flip side of that, just starting in perfectly is still better than not starting. Cause you're also going to figure out what you like and that's still valuable. You're still moving forward. If you are looking to build muscle a K thank your butt bigger. Things like that. Typically mean you may have to be in a surplus. And that's not fun for people to hear. You may have to eat a little bit more, not a ton more, a hundred, 200, 300 calories a day. Like not tons more but more that will allow your body to put on that mass. So I think the dieting plus trying to make my butt bigger thing, don't try to do it all at the same time, unless you're brand new to training, then it will work because it does work when you're less trained and less experienced. If you are not. Try to keep that in mind. And if your butt's not getting bigger, Are you eating? If your boat's not getting bigger, what are you eating? Are you eating enough? Sometimes it's not so fun to put on some weight, but if you're hitting your protein, your resistance training, it should mostly be muscle. And then you can always do like a little mini lean out. It's going to be fine. But that is sometimes the requirement. if you are trying to build something and you're, it's just not, you're not getting those results. It may be because you're not eating enough. So just keep that in mind. It's I know it's not everyone's favorite thing to think they may need to put on a little bit of weight, but if you do it correctly, you will be fine. It will not be hard to lose. Okay. I will wrap this up with. Most people. Our under muscled. Lots of those people are overweight too. That. I believe. Fully to my core. That 90% plus. Percent of people. Need to be more muscled for their aesthetic goals. Sure. Why the fuck not. Also for their life, for their aging, for all of the things that being more muscular comes with that are so good. You can eat more and stay lean, or you feel better. You have more energy or more like all of these things just happen as a result from being more muscular. Lots of people are under muscled and still overweight. Which is worse. Tri building. A little bit more muscle. You may lose weight from changing your exercise routine. But. Maintaining a normal, healthy body weight. As far as any medical standard goes. That is so much fucking easier when you have more muscle mass. That is why you see Ronnie Coleman videos of him eating 6,500 calories a day. Yes, the dude is ginormous, but at the same time he's ripped. Why is he not just fat? This is why he has so much muscle. He can eat 6,500 calories a day. Michael Phelps, his diet went so viral. You can't eat like that. If you're the same weight and not as muscular as him. You will end up gaining more weight. It's not the same process to maintain fat and maintain muscle. And by just maintaining more muscle on your body, you are going to find that just by existing, you burn more calories and it's amazing. And I highly recommend that you try to build muscle no matter what your aesthetic goals are. I think it's good for you and it's good for your bones and all of that shit. If this was helpful, I would really love if you left a review, it is my favorite thing on the planet, and I really, really appreciate it. And it does help the show grow. And if I've helped simplify health and fitness for you in any way, I would love to hear about it. I do have a completely free, I'm not teasing something I'm going to sell you. A completely free fun thing for the new year. So if you're not subscribed or like follow the show, make sure you follow it because I'm giving away. A lot of shit. Burglary. So. Definitely stay tuned.