In a previous article, The Right Way to Lose Fat: What to Eat, we looked at the nutritional component of sensible fat loss. A lot was presented, such as Low-carb / high-protein, high-carb / low-fat, micronutrient, and glycemic, but all indications indicated that a calorie deficit is occurring in order to optimally burn body fat. This article highlights how exercise should be done to maximize fat burning potential. Please note the following statement (imagine, I'm shouting to you through a megaphone at maximum volume):
80% of the fight against body fat is diet
Exercise itself doesn't burn much calories in relative terms. Not to diminish its value, but if you rely solely on exercise and disregard your eating habits (READ: you eat like crap), you won't get very far. As I always say, "A good 40-minute workout can be ruined by five minutes of bad food." Amen.
Let's take a look at the estimated calorie consumption of multiple exercises / activities. There are tons of calculators all over the internet that "burned calories from training" (there … I only gave you access to three of them). Are you accurate? I dont know. Remember, these are only estimates, but they will at least bring you closer. Using my body weight (190 pounds) as an example, here are the estimates from three different calculators:
Running / working at 5 miles per hour for 30 minutes:
Calories Burned = 344, 364 and 345.
Running / working at 10 miles per hour for 30 minutes:
Calories Burned = 713, 775 and 689.
Two points can be seen from the above:
- Estimates vary
- More effort burns more calories
I would like to emphasize this second point again with my megaphone:
More effort burns more calories
Other exercises / activities and estimated calories burned in 30 minutes (150 pound person):
- Dancing (casual) = 197
- Dance (down!) = 274
- Walking at three miles per hour = 150
- Walking at 4.5 mph = 233
- Inline skating (casual) = 270
- Inline skating (fast) = 319
- Martial arts = 401
- Frisbee = 206
Some of the most discouraging moments I see often are well-intentioned but misguided people who turn a bee line on the treadmill to “do their cardio”. It usually works like this:
- Earphones in.
- iPod attached to the arm.
- Maury Povich switched on the tube.
- Treadmill set at three miles an hour.
- The sneaking begins.
- 45 minutes pass and a whopping 270 calories are burned.
- Phew, what a session!
Now it's time to go back to the crib, breathe in a 3-ounce sachet of nacho cheese tortilla chips, and put about 450 calories back in the tank.
If the importance of poor food and a relatively low value for exercise is currently undetectable, let's look at some more depressing factoids. Visit one of my favorite websites, calorieking.com. Enter your favorite cheat food and portion size (these nacho cheese tortilla chips sound pretty tasty right now). The website provides examples of how to burn the number of calories in the food selection entered.
To wipe out the 450 calorie tortilla chips, the following would be required:
- 125 minutes on foot.
- 51 minutes of jogging.
- Swim for 37 minutes.
- 69 minutes of cycling.
Is it worth eating poorly when you know that it takes some great effort to counteract this with exercise? I know the sentence was beaten to death, but it is certainly true: "You can't overdo poor nutrition."
All right, time to get to the point. If you want to maximize the exercise component to reduce body fat, do the following: Choose exercise modes that are physically demanding. Yes, they feel uncomfortable, but use more energy. Instead of a 45-minute treadmill walk with little effort, do 20-minute intervals with high effort. Try circuit training, do a half-hour boot camp, run hills, whatever – WORK HARDER.
Are you going to get out of the "fat burning zone" by working harder? Yes, but you will exhaust your glycogen stores with more effort. You could even add a low-carb diet. Glycogen deficiency forces your body to tap stored fat and use it as energy, both during exercise and after exercise during recovery.
With regard to the notorious fat-burning zone, it was previously assumed that one had to drive “slowly” to burn only fat. Getting faster would go to glycogen. True, but understand these facts:
- We have an almost unlimited energy supply in the form of stored fat. Marathon runners get tired from glycogen deficiency, not fat.
- If you want to get to the purest fat burning zone, take a nap. Sleeping is purely aerobic (unless you have violent nightmares – these require immediate energy).
- As mentioned earlier, after training, you will burn more fat during the recovery process if you do a high-effort workout, with all other factors being the same.
Last but not least, STRENGTH TRAIN. Yes girls, that means you too. Having more muscles means having less fat. The process of building strength and building muscle is intense. Intensive workouts consume glycogen. And as you know, depleted glycogen can cause fat to be used as energy.
I will end with this information:
- Delicious = a 12-ounce cola and 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza.
- Ugh = a 90 minute run to burn them down.
Now that you know how to train for fat loss, you will also learn how to eat for fat loss.