The phrase, 'New Year, New Me' literally brings in a tsunami of people wanting to get fit. Apart from the fact that 90% of them dropout only after a week, there's this absolute demand of 'toning' and 'belly fat reduction'. Now, its 2018 and it's hard to fathom that people still believe that they can target and reduce specific fat deposits on their body. Spot reduction is a myth that has prevailed in the industry for a long time now. The reason that this myth exists is because people are often looking to reduce fat from a specific body part. Look, let me bury this myth and any spot reduction expectations you have, once and for all. 

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Reducing fat from a particular body part, especially from the tummy, face and back, is called spot reduction. Hence, spot reduction is basically when you try to exercise a particular body part in hopes of burning fat in that area, specifically. People do it to get leaner and reduce fat. For example, someone concentrates only on working out their triceps because their tricep area has more fat. Just focusing on your troublesome areas and not working out your overall body is known as spot reduction and it's a complete waste of time. 

Let me break down how your body burns fat. Fat is stored in your body as fat cells. These fat cells are found in the form of triglycerides in the body. Triglycerides cannot be used by the body for energy right away. The triglyceride has to be broken down into free fatty acids and glycerol, which has the ability to enter the bloodstream. Now, this fatty acid and glycerol can occur anywhere in the body and not necessarily from any specific body part.

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No, it's not possible. Just because you are exercising a particular body part, it doesn't mean that the body will utilize fatty acids from that area. The same principle has also been supported by the studies conducted on spot reduction. A study conducted by the Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, USA, established that when the subject participants targeted their abdominal muscle for spot reduction, no reduction was found in belly fat. There have been various other studies on spot reduction where subjects even trained their arms for a fixed period but they still lost fat from all over the body and not just the arms.

So, what is the best exercise for people who are looking to reduce their tummy fat? Well, you need to concentrate on the proven ways to reduce overall body fat percentage. When your body starts losing weight, you will start losing tummy weight as well. The following are the ways to do it.

- Calorie Restricted Diet: No diet will work until you take a pen and paper and note down the macros that you are taking in your diet. Once you know what you are eating throughout the day, eliminate all the empty calorie foods and other high carb food sources to reduce the total number of calories to create a deficit.

- Weight Training and HIIT:  Though cardio may help you with the initial phase of water loss from the body, it is weight training that will actually help you in the long run. Perform a few sessions of HIIT to boost your fat loss.

Anuj Tyagi is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Sports Nutritionist and Therapeutic Exercise Specialist From American Council on Exercise (ACE) . He is the Founder of the website where he provides online Training. Though a Chartered Accountant by education, he has been closely associated with Fitness Industry since 2006. His motto is to transform people Naturally and he believes that the secret formula for Fitness is Consistency and commitment towards your Training and Nutrition. You can connect with him through Facebook and Youtube.