What Happens To Fat When You Lose Weight?
Q: Remember Snatched? Of course you don’t! It was a critically panned comedy starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn that came out in 2017 about a mother and daughter who get kidnapped while on an exotic vacation in South America. Anyway, I want my waist exactly like the title of that movie! So yeah, are side bends effective?
A: You’re right, I don’t remember that movie but I certainly remember when Hollywood was trying to make Amy Schumer a thing before they realized that people didn’t like her because she wasn’t funny, which is kinda sorta the basic job requirement of a comedienne.1Her having a punchable face and personality to match it didn’t exactly do her any favors either!
As for the topic at hand, I take it that you saw someone at your gym holding a dumbbell, kettlebell, or weight plate in one or both hands while bending a centimeter or two to the side of their body. After seeing this, you probably decided to follow suit on some “monkey see, monkey do” shit. That was more than likely how you got introduced to side bends and began wondering about doing them for a slimmer waist, if you haven’t started doing them already.
At first glance, it makes sense that side bends would be a good exercise for the waistline because, after all, lifting weights burns calories so bending your waist to the side under resistance has to lose fat from there. Unfortunately, that’s not how fat loss works. Like, not even close!
To lose fat, you have to burn more calories than your body takes in. It’s only when there’s a calorie deficit that you’ll lose fat. So in the absence of a calorie deficit, side bends will do absolutely nothing for fat loss. In the presence of a calorie deficit, side bends will do absolutely nothing for fat loss in the desired area because the body loses fat from all over the body, with some areas losing it faster than others.
Fat loss is a global, not local, event, which means that it’s not possible to spot reduce, or perform an exercise for a particular region and expect to lose fat there. As such, doing side bends won’t do anything to make your waist smaller, no matter how much weight you use. In fact, doing that might have the opposite effect.
As an exercise, side bends target the obliques, a pair of muscles that run up and down the side of the torso. And because the obliques are a muscle, they behave like every other muscle does in response to a heavy load, which is to grow. That process is called hypertrophy and performing weighted side bends with too much resistance might prompt it and make the waistline thicker and blockier over time.
When in pursuit of a narrower waistline, the possibility of side bends making the midsection bigger is one reason not to do them, especially with too much weight. Another is that they’re not that great of an oblique exercise in the first place. One reason why is that bending, or lateral spinal flexion, with weight places stress on the lower back that can lead to back pain and spinal disc herniation or degeneration. Also, rather than the obliques dominating the movement, the hips often take over and lessen whatever effectiveness there is from the very minimal range of motion.
All together, side bends aren’t the best exercise for an hourglass figure. There are better options to work the obliques to define your waistline and accentuate your curves when the layer of fat that’s covering your midsection is removed by way of diet and total body exercise.2e.g. side planks, russian twists, heel touches, lying bent-knee oblique twists, oblique crunches, Pallof press, overhead windmills, split-stance pendulum swings, single-arm farmers carry, suitcase carry, etc. But if you insist on doing them, then avoid using weight and perform a higher number of reps. And if using a load, perform the exercise with weight in one hand so you don’t counteract the resistance. Additionally, bend away from the direction of the side with the weight instead of towards it.
Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?
Glossary: caloric deficit, calories, diet, dumbbell, exercise, fat, fitness, gym, hypertrophy, muscle, nutrition, reps
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