“To burn more fat, burn more calories”
There are three principle components to a weight management program. Every diet plan on the market today should incorporate at least these three components into a weight loss strategy. If they don’t, then the consumer is missing out. The program won’t be as effective and it may not be worth your money. What we are presenting here is not a diet. I don’t even like to use that term. I prefer to talk about lifestyle changes and making modifications in an eating plan. There are a lot of food choices out there, even for one that needs to lose weight. However, there are many people that still think they need to starve themselves to lose weight. This is unfortunate and untrue. You may just need to change portions, make wiser choices, prepare foods properly and add exercise into your daily routine. Talk with your physician or a nutritionist about how to go about losing weight. They should be able to craft the best game plan for weight loss based on your fitness level, body type and health history. I try to keep things simple when talking with my clients about weight loss. So, here are the facts for you, they are plain and simple. If you need to lose weight you must do these three things:
1) Develop an exercise plan that incorporates cardiovascular and resistance training to increase caloric expenditure and maintain muscle mass
2) Take a lifestyle/dietary approach that emphasizes balanced nutrition and decreased caloric intake
3) Create a behavior modification strategy to support implementation of the exercise and lifestyle components.
The most difficult part of losing weight is making changes in your lifestyle and/or breaking bad habits. You need to have a burning desire to lose weight. You must find something that will motivate you to make the necessary lifestyle changes and attain your goals. The goal may be to improve a health condition, prepare for a sports season or just to look and feel better. My advice to you is this; set realistic goals and focus on them intensely, never lose sight of them. Reward yourself when you have reached your goals. Take small steps and make changes gradually, inch by inch it’s a cinch. If you have the financial resources, seek out the help of a nutritionist or personal fitness trainer that can help you every step of the way. Your main goal should be to lose weight while preserving muscle mass. We all know the advantages of maintaining the proper weight and living a healthy lifestyle, so let’s focus on the facts and get any questions you have answered. You can do it and we want to help. This question and answer format will provide information on the most commonly asked questions about fat and weight loss.
Q: How do I know if I really need to lose weight or gain weight?
A: This is a question for your physician or team doctor. Your physician or team doctor can determine your Body Mass Index (BMI) or calculate your body fat percentage. Your doctors also know you well and they understand your health conditions and personality type. Work out a game plan for weight loss or gain with your physician or he/she may refer you to a Nutritionist or a qualified personal trainer. Your physician or team doctor can also determine if you have an un-realistic or distorted view of your body image, or whether or not you have an exercise/eating disorder.
Q: Is there any such thing as spot reducing?
A: No, you cannot do crunches to lose fat in the abdominal area. When you do the appropriate amount of cardiovascular work with weight training, you will burn fat inside the fat cells for fuel. This happens all over the body and not just in one area.
Q: If I quit working out, will my muscle turn to fat?
A: No. There is no such thing as muscle tissue turning into fat tissue. That is impossible. If you quit working out your muscles will weaken and atrophy (shrink in size) due to the inactivity.
Q: What is the best exercise fat-burning zone?
A: You can lose weight with lower intensity cardiovascular training (50% to 70% of VO2max), or longer duration (60 minutes) workouts. However, as long as workouts are the same length, (60 minutes), the total energy expenditure will be greater, and a person will almost always burn at least as many fat calories (if not more), at a higher training intensity than at a lower training intensity. A good strategy for most people is to integrate and balance the low to moderate intensity, long-duration workouts with high intensity workouts for optimal fat calorie burning. Note: If you are a new exerciser or extremely overweight, you may need to start out with a lower intensity cardiovascular workout with less time and gradually increase the time and intensity over many weeks. You can only do what you are capable of doing depending on your fitness level, body type and other health conditions.
Q: When I lose weight, where does the weight loss come from?
A: Weight loss may come from three body sources: water, adipose tissue (fat) and muscle tissue. Under most circumstances, body water will remain relatively normal as long as regular hydration is maintained.
Q: How do I calculate my target heart zone?
A: For a quick and easy way, take 220-age, then multiply that number by .55, this will give you the low end of your training zone. If you multiply that same number by .75, this will give you the high end of your training zone. For example if you are 30 years old, you would take 220-30=190 x .55= 104, multiply by .75=142, therefore your target heart zone would be between 104 and 142 beats per minute. If you are in better shape and want to push yourself harder when doing cardiovascular work, multiply your numbers by .65 for the low end and .85 for the higher end. For the same 30 year old, multiply 190x.65=123, 190x.85=161, your target heart zone now would be 123-161 beats per minute.
Q: Does cardiovascular exercise make you a better “Fat Burner?”
A: The answer is yes. Consistent, progressively challenging cardiovascular exercise will truly turn your body into a much better fat burner. For more on this, look for this title at the end of the Q and A’s, “How we react to cardiovascular exercise for enhanced fat metabolism.”
Q: How many calories are in a pound of fat?
A: One pound (454 grams) of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. However, 1 gram of fat is equivalent to 9 calories. If you multiply 9 calories per gram by 454 grams, you get 4,086 calories. Why the difference? Fat stored in adipocytes (fat cells) contains minerals, water and small amounts of protein, reducing the caloric content of 1 pound of body fat to roughly 3,500 calories.
Q: Does exercise “afterburn” help burn fat?
A: Exercise “afterburn” or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) refers to the number of calories expended above resting values after a workout. Both cardiovascular and resistance training programs may elicit an EPOC of 65-150 (primarily fat) calories post-workout. (The actual number depends on the exercise intensity.) Many fitness professionals suggest that since 1 pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories, EPOC is an insignificant factor in the fat burning process. However, if someone exercises 5 days a week, over the course of a year EPOC would be 26,000 calories, or 7 pounds of fat (5 workouts per week x 52 weeks x 100 EPOC calories per workout = 26,000 calories). Now, that’s meaningful.
Q: Where does resistance training factor in?
A: One of the most important benefits of resistance exercise in a weight loss program is the preservation of muscle mass, even on very low calorie diets. Resistance training is also one of the best protective interventions to maintain the resting metabolic rate during a calorie-restricted weight loss program.
Q: Why is carbohydrate the preferred energy fuel?
A: From a caloric standpoint it seems that fat (at 9 calories per gram) should be a much better source of fuel for exercise than carbohydrate (at 4 calories per gram). However, carbohydrate is the most important fuel source for exercise and the only fuel source used proficiently in both anaerobic and aerobic training. The body prefers carbohydrate to fat during endurance exercise for two major reasons. First, the metabolic pathways for carbohydrate breakdown (glycolysis) are much more efficient than those for fat breakdown (mobilization, lipolysis and beta oxidation). Second, more oxygen is required to burn fat. The energy yield of fat from 1 liter of oxygen is 4.69 calories, as compared with a yield of 5.05 calories from carbohydrate. Thus, carbohydrate is approximately 7% more efficient as a fuel.
Q: What is Alli and does it work?
A: Alli is the first Food and Drug Administration recently approved over-the-counter diet pill.
It is a half strength version of the prescription weight loss drug Xenical (Orlistat). For best results, Alli should be taken before every meal that contains fat. It works by decreasing the amount of fat absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract during the digestive process. If you consume too much fat after taking Alli, you will be more likely to experience the unpleasant side-effects associated with its use. The Alli starter kits recommend that users consume a low fat, reduced calorie diet of meals containing no more than 15 grams of fat. Weight loss experts contend that without the contributory effects of diet and exercise, Alli’s beneficial weight loss effects will be very limited. Simply taking the pill without altering one’s lifestyle will produce little or no noticeable results.
How We React to Cardiovascular Exercise For Enhanced Fat Metabolism
The physiological and metabolic adaptations that occur with cardiovascular exercise which enhance fat metabolism are listed below:
- An improved oxygen delivery and extraction system (via blood flow and capillarization) helps cells burn fat more efficiently.
- The sensitivity of muscle and fat cells to epinephrine is enhanced, leading to improved release of fatty acids (which are the disassembled triglyceride) into the blood and within the muscle where fat is in its triglyceride storage form.
- An augmented circulatory blood flow system aids in the delivery of fatty acids to the muscle.
- The amount of fatty acids allowed to enter the muscle increases, making more fat available for fuel.
- An improvement in the specialized protein transporters that admit the fatty acids into the muscle cells makes the fat more readily available.
- The mitochondria, sometimes referred to as the cells “fat-burning furnaces,” increase meaningfully in number and size.
- The oxidative enzymes that speed up the breakdown of fatty-acid molecules to be used during aerobic exercise increase.
(Source: IDEA Fitness Journal. Sept., 2007. Fat Facts, Quit debating! To burn more fat, work harder or longer, or both. Pgs. 23-25. Author Credit: Len Kravitz, PhD)