[paul.fr]

You often hear people saying they are on a diet to lose a few pounds from one specific area of the body, but does the body know this? how does it only remove fat from where the person wants to lose it?

[Madidus_Scientia]

I don't think the body "knows", the perhaps over-simplified way I understood it was that you have a certain amount of fat cells, and each fat cell gains more or less weight, but there will still remain the same amount of fat cells. So you usually seem to start to gain weight on your gut if you're a bloke because that's where the majority of your fat cells are, for women its spread around their hips as well. You don't notice the buildup so much on other areas until you get even more fatter because there's less fat cells there, even though the fat cells have increased by the same size.

[SquarishTriangle]

I think that's like a camel saying "All this walking is giving me a flatter hump!"

The places people are likely to concentrate on wanting to trim down are the very places that are storing the most excess fat (although I've never heard anyone complain about their fat liver), and are the most readily accessed stores when energy levels are low.

They're probably reducing some amount of fat from other parts of the body (as a result on increased exercise, dietary consciousness etc.), but the focus is on a particular part of the body. Possibly the increase in muscle tone also contributes to the 'slim' look.

[Madidus_Scientia]

Indeed, the muscle buildup would perhaps displace some fat

[wannabe]

the body "don't know", just does. according to it's innate physiology, under control of it's genetic programs constructed from the pieces it was endowed with at conception and modified (evolved) along it's developmental tract. if you begin to spot reduce you'll not spot any reduction. i've always found it hilarious to watch, especially females, laying on their side raising one leg a zillion times and while not able to count accurately, raise the other leg only a billion times when doing the other side. never saw any lob-sidedness develop.   

[Karen W.]

I don't believe the body knows either.. but I do know with reduction you loose fat, but certain exercises can certainly be aimed to target certain areas... so depending on like was said about the muscles, if you work on certain exercises they are designed to target certain body areas helping to remove unwanted fat from those areas.. You will always have a certain amount of fat I believe but you can manipulate how it is carried by exercise regime targeted to those problem areas.. At least that is my opinion!