The Healthy Bride

This is a subject that comes up again and again in our Bridal Bootcamps.  Every bride wants every inch of her body feeling great as she walks up the aisle, and brides who are planning to wear a strapless dress are particularly sensitive to how they see their backs.

Nature, as it turns out, decides when, where, and how much fat we carry on each of our bodies. Gender also plays a large role. Males tend to store their fat in their midsections; while females carry their around their hips and thighs, but some women also get pockets of upper back fat.

Too much food and too little physical exercise are what usually leads to those unsightly pounds, but where those pounds are added is largely a case of genetics.

Back fat is not popular with women, especially brides. Even women who are okay with bits of fat in strategic places intensely dislike the back fat that forms ridges around their bras and would like to get rid it. I have heard this described as “boob fat” and “back fat” and every bride I have met so far wants it to go away before the wedding photos begin.

You may have heard in the popular press (or from ads on TV) that you can concentrate on reducing flab from
any specific part of your body.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is just not true.  Spot reducing is a well supported Myth.  Everyone has areas of the body which favor fat formation more than others and exercising muscles underlying those particular areas of fat will not make the fat go away.

The only way to lose fat from any part of your body is to shed pounds from your entire body – exercise combined with a permanent eating regimen that focuses on eating healthier foods in smaller quantities.

Are there any exercises that can target back fat?  The good news here is yes, but it might not be what you expect.  What you need to focus on to lose that back fat is an aerobic workout that burns calories.  You need to be burning more calories than you are eating.  It’s that simple.

Choose activities that you enjoy, are easily accessible, within your budget, and effective in shedding pounds. Weight-resistance training is good, but be sure to get some aerobic exercise, too. You want to be working hard enough that you are sweating and huffing and puffing.  Think about the level of intensity you are working on a scale from 0-10.  0= laying on the couch watching TV with the remote.  10 = absolute maximum, pass-out stage.  When you are warming up, shoot for a 5-6 level.  Hold this for about 10 minutes.  Next, move into your aerobic zone of your workout (where you really burn the calories) and move into the 6-9 level.  Go with how you feel that day, and be sure to vary your workout. If you have been doing the same workout for awhile or if you have reached a plateau, consider adding interval training.

Interval training is basically exercise which consists of activity at high intensityfor a period of time, followed by low intensity exercise for a period of time. These ’sets’ are repeated. Interval traning can really have an enormous impact on your fitness level, your metabolism and can spice up a workout routine that has gone stale.

If you want to tone and firm up the upper back muscles for better appearance; or for that strapless dress, then resistance training is a great idea.  Working your back also lowers your chance of back injury, improves your posture, and provides stronger support for your entire body. Check out our strapless dress podcast workout!