The WRONG way to lose weight...

Perfect conditions for the fat burning flame?

Many people think there isn't a wrong way to lose weight. Their philosophy is if the number on the scale is dropping, the smile on their face is growing. 

But what if you weren't losing fat, but were losing muscle? As we age, muscle helps to reduce injury, improve balance, maintain bone density, increase metabolism, and give your friends something to look at and be jealous of.

Now there have been some pretty strange methods of losing weight (i.e. the Hotdog diet).  But there have also been some methods that had the potential for success, but from a practical standpoint, weren't great for losing fat. One of them was recently written about by a graduate classmate of mine in the Strength & Conditioning Journal.

Brad Schoenfeld wrote a review article titled "Does cardio after an overnight fast maximize fat loss?" In it, Schoenfeld describes the idea behind the technique. Basically the thought is that after an overnight fast, the body will shift from carbohydrate energy source to using fat as the primary energy source during steady state (constant speed and incline) cardio.

Schoenfeld first points out that looking only at the amount of fat burned during exercise is quite short sighted because there are still 23 hours left in the day where our body has an energy demand. In addition, he cites recent studies showing that interval training results in much greater fat loss over the course of days and weeks.

He also cites research showing that a pre-workout meal of protein + carbohydrate actually increases post-exercise energy consumption, and that energy is primarily fat. Another key point that Schoenfeld makes is the fact that in a fasted state, the body will begin to breakdown muscle tissue. The effects of this are slowing of metabolism which actually INCREASES fat storage!! 

Burning nothing but time...and maybe some muscle.

In summary, this article really highlights the arguments for and against early morning cardio on fat loss. Overwhelmingly, the results are that steady state cardio without eating prior to exercise is a BAD idea. Heck, for fat loss, steady state cardio isn't very successful AT ALL!!!

So what does this mean for you? 

Well if you're going to exercise you MUST eat or drink something prior to working out. Otherwise you risk burning muscle for fuel!!But you're not a morning breakfast person? Have some juice mixed with protein powder. This will absorb faster and prevent muscle breakdown as well as increase your fat burning potential AFTER your workout, where it really matters.

Have a great weekend!!

Metabolism Matters Part 4: Is your Exercise Slowing Your Metabolism?

Welcome to the final installment of understanding your body's energy production, Metabolism Matters. In this last section I will discuss how exercise effects your metabolism, strategies to boost your metabolism, and the cumulative effect of calorie burning during and after exercise

Let's jump right in.

Last week I talked about the other two factors of your body's caloric consumption. Remember that the Thermic Effect of Exercise (TEE) accounts for between 10-20% of your body's metabolism. Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) accounts for 10-20% and Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) accounts for 60-70%.

Exercise in itself has the potential to consume a lot of calories. But only counting the calories used DURING exercise is a bit short sighted. And we don't want short sighted, we want long term weight loss success! So the real effect we are after is a long term boost in metabolism, in addition to using a lot of calories during exercise.

As was mentioned, exercise has the potential to use quite a bit of energy (i.e. calories). Running at a 10 min/mile pace uses 680 calories over the course of an hour, whereas walking at half that speed uses 280 calories per hour (isn't it interesting that running twice the speed uses almost 2.5 times the amount of calories??). 1 hour of circuit training uses 540 calories per hour.

Although running does use more calories during the activity, there is a longer term effect that goes often unconsidered.

And that "magic pill" is: muscle.

Muscle has a very high metabolism at rest. Remember when we talked about REE and the goal of any fat loss program should be to increase REE. Well resistance training and adding muscle to your frame is the way to go about that. Your body uses the greatest percentage of fat at rest. Not the greatest absolute quantity, only the greatest percentage.

Adding muscle gives your fat burning fire a little extra boost! The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate, the more fat you burn at rest. Remember this one thing: Fat burns in the flame of muscle.

Regarding interval training for fat loss, the goal is similar: increase REE beyond just the exercise session. Fortunately, interval training does this for us. Not only does it use a lot of energy during the intervals, but it also increases EPOC.

EPOC is Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. When we first begin exercising we develop what is called an oxygen deficit. When you hit a steady state, such as occurs when you hit a jogging/walking pace and hold it for 20 minutes, your body is able to meet the demands being placed on it. However, it still needs to make up that oxygen deficit.

So after you finish exercising, your metabolism stays elevated because your body is paying back the debt it has incurred. Usually after a 20 minute steady state run at 65% max effort, EPOC is elevated between 20-50 minutes. Intervals send this EPOC through the roof and into the next day because you never hit steady state! Instead you are accruing a debt faster than the US government and it's going to take it a while to pay it back!

The result?? An increased metabolism for up to 48 hours following interval training!!

So the take home message of this long post: Add muscle through resistance training to increase your resting metabolic rate AND run intervals to give it an even greater boost over the next few days!