Spot Reduction Creams - Fat Loss Accelerator or Fiction?

One of the oldest gimmicks in the fitness world is spot reduction.

"Use this ab machine and watch your gut disappear!"

"Our Special thigh toning squeeze master 8000 will give you firm shapely legs in less than 5 minutes a day."

"Our special cellulite remover pro cream will banish that cottage cheese look from your thighs in a little as 17 days."

You get the idea. Despite the complete and utter uselessness of spot reduction techniques, on some level, it seems to make sense to people and thus the idea just won't die.

Even scientists are still studying the efficacy of topical fat loss creams. In the past couple years there have been two studies (that I know of) where this was looked at. One of the studies showed a statistically significant improvement in the subjects that used the cream, but the effect was so small you would have to use the cream for months to see even a tiny noticeable difference (if any).

However, when I saw the results of the second study I felt like I had been hit across the face with a thigh master.

Spot Reducing Cream Can Work!

Really.

In this study the subjects that used the cream on their abdomen lost 5 inches on their waist while the control group only lost 2.2 inches off their waist.

Has your gut been telling you the right thing all along?

Is spot reduction possible?

It looks like the answer is yes.

Don't get to excited, leave work, and go by some spot reducing cream at GNC. The stuff they sell there still doesn't work. Unfortunately, none of the creams you can buy work. In the study where the researchers found spot reducing cream to make a real world difference the active ingredient was aminophylline. Most products don't contain aminophylline. In fact I was only able to find one. With only one product on the market containing aminophylline I wondered if that is what they used in the study (or maybe they used a product that I couldn't find). Upon correspondence with the researchers I learned that in order to get the potency of aminophylline needed for the study the researchers had to make their own cream which is not available.

So it seems that while science may be on their way to discovering a topical cream that when combined with diet and exercise will lead to the reduction of fat from specific areas. But at the moment this technology is not available to the general public so we will need to stick to focusing on fat burning nutrition, strength training, and interval training. But remember even when these creams become available the focus still needs to be on fat burning nutrition, strength training, and interval training. A key point in the study was that both groups where losing weight; the cream just accelerated the fat reduction in a specific area.