The Ultimate Guide to Red Light Therapy: How to Use Red and Near-Infrared Light Therapy for Anti-Aging, Fat Loss, Muscle Gain, Performance Enhancement, and Brain Optimization

by Ari Whitten

Increase Fat Loss (And Burn Off Stubborn Fat) with Red and Near-Infrared Light Therapy

How does red light therapy enhance weight loss, fat burning, and shrink waist circumference? While there is still some debate among researchers over the exact mechanisms involved, the research clearly shows that it does work.352 The most popular theory among researchers is by causing fat cells to release stored fat into the blood stream, where it can then be burned off during energy expenditure or via exercise.

Research has shown that red and near-infrared light therapy has a profound impact on reducing fat mass and fat tissue, and at eliminating cellulite.

In studies, red and near-infrared light therapy have helped shave an entire 3.5 to 5.17 inches off waist and hip circumference by reducing the fat mass layer in just four weeks of use.

Red and near-infrared light therapy works to not only release the fat into the blood, but does so without negatively affecting blood serum lipid profiles.

Some research shows that near-infrared light therapy can dramatically enhance—nearly double—fat loss from exercise, as compared to people doing just the exercise routine without the NIR light therapy.

In addition, the group using the NIR light therapy in tandem with exercise saw nearly double the improvements in insulin resistance!

Exercising a muscle does not cause fat loss in the adjacent fat tissue. You don’t lose fat off your stomach by doing crunches, or lose fat off your thighs by using the thigh machines at the gym. And for several decades, this is exactly what all respectable fitness professionals have been preaching: Spot reduction is a myth!

Simply put, the scientific consensus about spot reduction through muscle contractions is that it does not work.

There are a couple of reasons why this is the case: There’s no direct link between the underlying muscle and the overlying fat. So in order for working a muscle to cause fat next to it to be burned off, that fat would have to connected to the muscle via blood vessels. Yet, ...

area. This means that working a muscle in a particular area, basically has no effect on the rate of fat burning in the fatty tissue adjacent to it. Performing those exercises may strengthen the muscle responsible for those movements, but they h...

Fat contained in fat cells exists in the form of triglycerides, and muscle cells cannot directly use triglycerides for energy. The fat must be broken down in glycerol and free fatty acids first, then enter the bloodstream where they can be carried to the muscle cells for burning. So there really is no reason for the muscle to preferentially use fats from the fat cells adjacent to it—it is using up the fatty acids in the bloodstream and doesn’t c...

The bottom line: Spot reduction via exercising a specific body area doesn’t work. Working a particular muscle does not impact the amount of fat in the fatty area adjacent to the muscle being worked. Whether you lose fat or not comes down to overall energy balance. But you have no control over where your body takes that fat from. Your body will lose fat from some areas quicker than others, and there is nothing you can do about it. This has pretty much been the conse...

why are some areas so easy to put on fat and so difficult to get lean?

Poor blood flow to certain fat tissues.

Muscle cells become de-sensitized to insulin and fat stores become hyper-insulin sensitive.

Fat cells themselves become resistant to releasing fat due to their receptors.

Poor blood flow to an area combined with cells that are resistant to giving up their fats makes fat loss from that area essentially impossible.

Science has now shown that blood flow to a particular area might be the biggest factor of all that hinders fat loss from that area. Blood flow is critical for fat extraction. Poor blood flow equals poor fat loss.

Most people who have tried to lose fat in a “stubborn fat” area have been trying to pursue the goal of either enhancing localized fat burning or increased blood flow to a particular region through muscle contractions in the muscle next to the fat we want to burn off. As research (that I showed you above) has already proven, relying on muscle contractions in a specific area to burn fat from the layer of fat next to that muscle is basically a worthless approach.

It turns out that red/near-infrared light affects both blood circulation to the area it’s shined on, as well as stimulating the release of fatty acids from fat tissue!

Given that red/NIR light stimulates both blood circulation and the release of fatty acids from fat cells, it is reasonable to believe that it may very well be the most effective tool out there for getting rid of stubborn fat.

Here’s how to do my Stubborn Fat Protocol: Start when you wake up in the morning in a fasted state. Get your body (and especially the stubborn fat area) warm. A hot shower or sauna is great. Then put on clothes to stay warm, and maybe even use extra clothing on the stubborn fat areas. Do some light warm up exercise (walking, resistance bands, yoga, calisthenics, etc.). Remove clothing from the stubborn fat area and do 3-7 minutes of red/NIR light exposure on the stubborn fat area at 6” away from the light. Do 5-10 minutes of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). There are many variations of how to do this. But to keep it simple, do fast-paced bodyweight exercises like squats, pushups, burpees, jumps, jumping rope, running, or cycling. There various time intervals for workout and rest periods, but a simple and effective way to get started is to do 20-45 second

bursts of high-intensity effort with 10-30 seconds of rest between each interval. Go for a long walk for 30-60 minutes. (During this period, keep your body warm, especially the stubborn fat area to keep optimal blood circulation in that area. You can even add a neoprene wrap to the area to create extra heat and blood circulation.) Ideally, wait at least 1 hour before eating.

Do this protocol in the mornings during a fat loss phase (i.e. a period when you are actively on a weight loss regimen and losing fat) and you’ll notice that you are slimming down in those...

Again, please note that red/NIR light therapy doesn’t actually burn off the fat by itself. The mechanism appears to be that it causes the fat cells to release their stored fat into the bloodstream where it can (potentially) be burned for energy. One still must be in a calorie deficit to have actual fat loss. Your overall diet and lifestyle must be conducive to overall net fat loss, otherwise you will just put back the fat right back into the fat cells it was released from. If you’re not actively doing nutrition and lifestyle interventions to lose fat, please don’t think that the light therapy alone will cause fat loss. Think of it more as a tool to amplify the fat loss effects from diet and exercise, rather than a tool that generates fat loss by itself. Nevertheless, this technology can be used to greatly accelerate loss of overall body fat, and even “stubborn fat” from fat areas that normally are resistant to being burned off—for men, this is the lower abdomen and love handles, and for women, the hips and thighs most typically, or belly fat.

There are indeed hundreds of different red and near-infrared light devices for sale online—devices for the face, hair, tendons, and more. Here’s the crucial piece of information you need to know: Virtually ALL of these devices—even the ones that cost hundreds of dollars—are grossly underpowered, too small, and ultimately, ineffective or very time-consuming to use, or both.

you do need to pay attention to my warnings not to overdo treatments. While red/NIR light therapy is very safe, thinking that “more is better” and then overdoing treatments will actually decrease the effectiveness. So make sure you understand and adhere to the general guidelines for dosing.

If you want an effective light therapy session, you must have an effective dose. That requires: A light that is relatively powerful (i.e. has an ideal “power density”) Ideally, a light that can treat a large area of the body at once An understanding of the optimal duration of time using the light to get the right total dose

As mentioned previously, most studies showing benefits of red/NIR light therapy used light outputs of 20-200mW/cm2.

But, beyond this simple calculation, there are a few nuances here that make this considerably more complex:

Distance from the light. It’s also important to be aware that this measure of power density decreases dramatically by moving further from the light source.

Wavelengths of the light. Certain devices emit all the light output/wattage in the effective therapeutic wavelengths, and others emit only part of their total wattage in therapeutic wavelengths. Therefore, they may have 20-60% of their total wattage at non-therapeutic or non-optimal wavelengths.

Claimed wattage vs. actual wattage. The claimed wattage of a light differs from the actual power output of the light.

Generally, lights emit a power density about 25-50% lower than the claimed wattage would suggest. So

be aware that the actual light output of many devices may be a whopping 50% lower than what the companies are claiming!

Size of the device/treatment area. One other nuance that’s important to note here is that even if a device is technically powerful enough to create beneficial effects, it may still be too small.

Overall, the device needs to emit light above a certain power density (light intensity), needs to be at the right wavelengths, be at the proper distance away from your body, and ideally, needs to be physically large enough to emit light over a large portion of your body.

The next part of the equation is how long should you apply the light. The dose (duration of exposure) is calculated by: Dose = Power Density x Time

The dose you want to shoot for is between 3J/cm2—50J/cm2.

For skin issues (e.g. anti-aging benefits) and other more superficial (near to the surface) body issues, there are a few things to note. We want a relatively low overall dose on each area of skin, of roughly 3-15J.

In contrast, for treating deep tissues, you want bigger doses and higher power density (light intensity) for optimal effects. You want doses of 10-60J.

To sum up: With skin/surface treatments, you want to be further away from the light (which lowers the light intensity and covers a broader area of your body) for an overall lower dose. With deeper tissues, you want to be closer to the light (which increases the light intensity) for an overall higher dose.

Reminder: More is not necessarily better!

All you’re doing is decreasing the benefit by doing more than the recommended doses.

it’s important to get the dose right and to be in the range I’m recommending. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by dosing higher than my guidelines suggest.

One other important aspect here is that it’s much easier to do too large of doses on surface issues (like the skin) than it is for deeper tissues. The optimal doses for the skin can be reached within seconds or a few minutes with many devices, and it is very easy for people to use devices for two or three times longer than is ideal—often times, with people thinking that doing more will lead to better results—and they actually negate the benefits in the process.

Fortunately, red and near-infrared light are safer and have less potential for harm (when you overdo it) than either sunlight or physical exercise. Therefore, it’s extremely safe!

Stick with the recommended dose range, start with the lowest end of the range, and don’t be in a rush to do a lot more. The benefits may be most optimal in the lower to mid-range of the recommended dosage.

The last question to answer is “How often should you do the treatment?” The studies all use different dosing schedules, but in general, the range is from two times per week to two times per day.