Exercise and Fat Loss: what is the best way to burn fat?

Everybody thinks that exercise and fat loss are inextricably interlinked.

However, it is fully possible to shed unwanted body fat without exercise.

 

I need to be careful not to do myself out of a job here !!  I’m here to train you how to exercise, and fat loss is what many of you want – so what am I saying that you can do one without doing the other?

How can you lose fat without exercise?

By putting together an eating strategy that is calorie controlled to match your basal metabolism and activity, along with choosing natural carbohydrates over simple or refined ones, and eating multiple protein inclusive meals throughout the day are elements that encourage fat loss and discourage fat gain.

It is important to recognise the limitations of exercise in achieving a sculpted lean body. That is exercise can be a futile wasted effort without radically revamping the way you eat.

After all.. visit any gym and you’ll see loads of people who are no leaner than a year ago.

WHY………………?

 Poor nutritional habits.

Combining the right nutrition with an exercise plan is CRUCIAL in reducing body fat.

On the flip side, it is fully possible to engage in heavy amounts of exercise on a daily basis yet miserably fail to tone up and lean down due to a poor diet.

Exercise and fat loss do go together, however, sugar and insulin spikes coupled with excess dietary fat can override the caloric expenditure and hormonal changes brought on by hard physical exercise.

 

 

There are two types of exercise: Aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

While both are effective to facilitate a lean body one far outshines the other.

Anaerobic exercise.. weight training .. beats aerobic exercise every time

Aerobic exercise .. running, cycling, stair climbing….. is a calorie burner. For the most part, it taps stored fatty acids locked away in body fat stores as fuel.

Muscle glycogen .. the body’s reserve tank of glucose.. is also used as a fuel source during aerobic exercise but not to the degree fat is used.

Many people fall under the impression that aerobic exercise burns exclusively and only FAT. However, there comes a point at which the body will start to burn away muscle so killing your metabolism.

Adaptation

Here lies another problem with aerobic exercise as the sole form of fat burning. The body adapts to aerobic exercise by becoming energy efficient. The body gets used to the exercise being performed and adapts in two ways:

• It uses less fuel to perform the same work
• The body downshifts its exercising metabolism. So with continuous aerobic work, the body downgrades its release of enzymes and hormones that support the liberation of fatty acids from fat cells

Weight training to boost metabolism

The better way to change body shape, lose fat and keep it off, and the sole way to increase metabolism is to make WEIGHT TRAINING the primary mode of exercise .. couple with a nutrition plan that inhibits fat storage.

Adding muscle mass bumps up the basal metabolic rate… the total amount of fuel the body requires and burns at absolute complete rest

 

There are three more ways to lose fat with added muscle;

1. Expenditure

Building muscle mass requires some physical effort = requires energy

If an individual does not radically change his calorie intake while he builds muscle it is clear that the calories required came from

Fat stores > body fat levels will decrease

Food > fewer net calories available to be stored as body fat

2. Recovery

When a person trains with weights, the stress placed on the muscles causes tiny micro tears within the individual muscle fibres. Energy is needed to mend the muscle fibres. Hence the individual who leaves the gym after a hard weight training session will continue to experience an elevated metabolism until those fibres are completely repaired.

Aerobic exercise does not have this effect

3. Glucose metabolism

Adding muscle to your frame changes the metabolism of sugar which impacts body fat levels

Adding muscle makes muscle cells more INSULIN SENSITIVE which translates to a decreased insulin output by the pancreas

With insulin levels on the lower side the body is more apt to burn fat as fuel and to store glucose from carbohydrate foods as muscle glycogen.. so less likely to be stored as fat.

Moving Forwards

So if you are struggling to achieve the results you think you should be, consider a new training protocol of weight training and no cardio work coupled with a moderate calorie, low sugar, high fibre diet, emphasising plenty of lean protein, complex starchy carbohydrates and green leafy vegetables.