Trainer Chris Chew takes on the subject as people are getting ready for their summer look:

To build muscle mass, you have to do heavy weight low rep compound exercises, exactly the opposite of light weight high rep routine. To lose body fat, you have to do intensive cardiovascular exercises and eating correctly. There is no such thing as spot reduction short of invasive medical procedures such as liposuction.

That means no matter how many crunches and side bends you do, the fat isn’t going to come off your belly and neither will your love handles melt away. So if you want to reveal your well toned and defined musculature, you have firstly to build bigger muscles and then subsequently cut your body fat.