"I want to get fit" "I NEED to get fit"
Things mentioned everyday by the everyday Joe or Jane wanting to lose to some "weight." However if you want to lose some "weight" does this mean you want to lose fat and muscle? Does it matter to you where that "weight" comes from or do you not care as long as the scales reflect a loss! Sometimes I think that this is a unhealthy gauge of how well you are doing on your goal, don't get me wrong I do think that scales should be used, just not on their own.
When people do say the above, all of the above I think it is a fairly safe assumption to say that what they really want to do is burn some fat and what they are really saying to themselves is:
"I want to use this excess fat I have gained from being inactive and over eating certain foods as energy, so I can look better and feel fitter."
After all I don't think I know anyone, male or female who wants to lose lean muscle but sometimes this happens because of the approach they take just to see a loss on the scale. This can be for a load of reasons but the main one I see is being extremely low carb, low fat, low calorie diets and exercise. And in some cases those crazy juice diets.....but thats a rant for another day.
So fat burning, what is it and how does the body do it.
The body uses fat and carbohydrate for energy and it is awesome at storing both, it is very effective at holding on to it and generally not a lot stands in the bodies way when it is doing this. Fat burning is simply the process that the body uses to use fat as an energy source. Unfortunately a lot of things can get in the way of the body using fat as an energy source. Poor diet, lack of exercise, too much exercise, stress, eating certain foods at the wrong time, over eating certain foods.
The body can only store a certain amount of carbohydrate for energy, and its kept in the muscles. Fat on the other hand can be stored for fun, in the adipose found beneath the skin, around organs and also in the muscle. Hence why when people are consuming more energy than they can use throughout the day it gets readily stored in a lot of different places.
The body uses the energy from carbs that are stored in the muscles for intense exercise, thats when these energy stores get used. Also these stores will be used when the individual is on a low carb diet.
Steady State Cardio.
The body in turn uses fat as energy at a much more moderate intensity, say a long brisk walk. Of course the fitness of the individual will effect this greatly. Someone who is heavily overweight will find simply walking promotes the effective fat burn. Where someone who has a decent level of fitness looking to lose just a few pounds of fat will find getting to a steady paced run promotes an effective fat burn. As long as the body does not reach a high intensity the carb stores will be spared in the muscles. So some people state that this low to moderate exercise is the best way to burn fat. But for me it isn't great or really effective. For a couple of reasons in my opinion.
1. You are not increasing your fitness, you may burn some fat but you will not increase your capacity to work harder, you will not strengthen your heart significantly or make your lungs stronger and more efficient. Especially if you are looking to pass a fitness test like so many of my colleagues are going through right now.
2. Once you stop the activity, your body will slow down the rate at which it is using fat as an energy store until it eventually goes back to the rate that it was using fat before.
SO EFFECTIVELY YOU ARE ONLY BURNING MORE FAT WHILE YOUR TRAINING.
High Intensity Interval Training and Lifting Heavy Things. NOW WE'RE TALKING !!
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Weight training rely much more on carbs stored in the muscle for energy. Because the intensity is higher. However they still use fat as energy also. HIIT involves periods of high intensity exercise followed by short periods of rest and then repeat. For example 1 minute hitting the heavy bag in a boxing gym followed by 30 seconds rest...repeat for a number of rounds or lifting a barbell with a certain weight as many times as you can in 1 minute then rest 30 seconds followed by another exercise and so on. So pretty much circuit training to most people. The type of circuit and set of exercise will differ greatly from gym to gym and depending on who your trainer is or what magazine or website you're reading. But the sentiment remains the same. Go hard, rest little, go hard, rest little, go hard, rest little....and so on. Now this type of training for me is far more effective for the following reasons:
1. You will increase your fitness (Strength, endurance, agility etc) because you will be making your heart, lungs and muscles work harder than they are used to. They will have to adapt to meet the demands you place on them. Hence your fitness increases.
2. You will increase the rate at which your body burns fat throughout the day and night. Where as with the steady walk or jog you have been on before may be great for burning fat during, HIIT or even weight lifting will set you up for burning a higher rate of fat all day not just during.
So if you are trying to pass that fitness test at work you need to be doing interval training in my opinion, going for steady jog just won't cut it. Unless you are jogging then sprinting, jogging then sprinting, jogging then sprinting and so on, you get the idea.
This is where the scales may fail you and wreck your mind set if your are interval training and lifting some weight and maybe doing some low intensity steady stuff too (going for a walk with the dog or family) because you are likely to build some lean muscle. Building lean muscle does not mean getting massive or jacked or hench or whatever they say. In reality there won't be a massive size difference with a little gain of lean muscle. It is very hard to gain muscle like the pro's ! That goes for you too girls. The scales will not give you a true reflection of how you are doing. You need to do a couple of other things also.
Take pictures, before and after type of thing. Do this every 4 to 6 weeks.
Take measurements. Measure your biceps, your waist and your thighs for example. By all means measure where you want but bear in my mind, no amount of training will increase some things :)
Have small tests for yourself. A short run, a bleep test, anything you can measure. Timing yourself is probably the easiest and do them every couple of weeks. Check your improvement.
You need to look at all these things, just looking at the scales alone is not enough and is a recipe for disaster in the mind.
And finally you can't out train a bad diet. NUTRITION plays a massive part.
I normally finish a blog with a recommendation, so I will do so as per usual. A couple to be exact.
Noticed how fit fighters are??! Thats because they spend a tremendous amount of time training in intervals. Check out my mates gym Worthy Fit. Boxing gym offering the lot, HIIT circuits, boxing training, you can even involve the kids ! Awesome atmosphere and a real warm friendly welcome for anyone. Chris will make you feel part of the gym's family from your first visit but I warn you he never shuts his motor mouth and has his favourite cd's on repeat :)
Find Chris At;
Worthy Fit
Unit 9, Stirling Industrial Estate, HorwichBolton
| Phone | 07596 725064 |
| Website | http://www.worthyfitness.co.uk |
Twitter: @WorthyFit
Facebook: Worthy Fitness Centre
Also talking about HIIT and hardcore training to turn the ordinary into the extrordinary you need to check out Punisher Training. Awesome content, intense workouts and again awesome attitude to working together to smash those goals whatever they maybe.
Laterz..
Also talking about HIIT and hardcore training to turn the ordinary into the extrordinary you need to check out Punisher Training. Awesome content, intense workouts and again awesome attitude to working together to smash those goals whatever they maybe.
Find the Punisher at;
Punishertraining.co.uk
Twitter: @PunisherTrain
Facebook: Punisher Training UK
Next time I will talk more about weight training, in particular Layne Norton's P.H.A.T system that I have been using for the past few months.....and then we'll move on to what I will be doing for the next few months. It involves. A mountain, running, sprinting, climbing, abseiling, jumping , swimming. 20 miles...pain :)
Laterz..
The BJJ Boxer
Twitter: @TheBJJBoxer
Facebook: The BJJ Boxer
