Fat-Burning Exercise

In the last article, we talked about getting fit. It was for those of you who are exercise beginners. This article is designed for those of you who are ready to add fat-burning exercise into your equation.

Remember that your muscles use fat and sugar to burn for energy. If you are sedentary and eat a lot, your fuel needs will be far less than what you take in. The extra will be stored as fat on your body. This part of the story is very clear to all of us who have been or are overweight. For many people, losing weight simply requires them to eat less. Their bodies continue to burn at the same rate but they are eating less than they burn. When the muscles ask for fuel that is not available from current food, the system releases extra triglycerides from the fat stores and it is burned. These are the regular people for whom a reduced calorie diet works.

Couch Potato Status

However, there is a whole group of sugar sensitive people for whom this does not work. Their muscles do not burn properly. The fat-burning mechanism isn't activated because they are not exercising. The longer the couch potato status, the less efficient the fat burning.

Insufficient fat burning, coupled with insulin resistance is a double whammy. Not only do the muscles burn inefficiently; they also have a hard time getting the fuel they need. They are “damped down” by the insulin resistance. Insulin-resistant couch potatoes are unlikely to adequately lose weight even if they cut calories and exercise moderately.

A third category of sugar sensitives have cut way down on their food intake and are exercising vigorously. They have lost weight originally, but have plateaued and the scale will not budge. They too are inordinately frustrated. All this work and what appears to be no results.

The Answer

The answer for all these folks is essentially the same: the weight loss equation must be tailored to your own specific biochemistry. Eat less, exercise more is a recommendation for a very small number of sugar sensitive people. The best option is a new equation which says:

1. Eat the right amount of the right foods at the right time for your body.
2. Exercise at the right level of intensity to get the results you want.

Check Your Fat Intake

You have worked diligently to master the food part. A minor adjustment at this point should include attention to the amount of fats you are eating. The scientific literature tells us there is a significant reduction in insulin resistance if your fat to total calorie ratio goes down from 40% to 30%. Check the proportion of fats in your current diet. You can do this easily by getting an on-line program that will do this for you. I particularly like the analysis program put out by Lifeforms on the net.

Enter a few days from your food journal, see where you stand; if you are having more than 40% of your calories from fats, and simply adjust that downwards. It's a small change for a powerful effect.

Back to Exercise

Let's turn back to your exercise program. You have started with your getting “fit” plan. No action is wasted. All the “fit” work prepares you for weight loss. I'll start with the plan for the fat, couch potatoes. Your muscles don't know how to burn sugar. The more you exercise, the faster you go, and the harder it is to burn fat. The more you are out of breath, the less you are burning fat. Your fitness program is changing how long you can work before you get out of breath.

We want you to exercise as hard as you can without getting out of breath (and lose fat burning oxygen coming in). The idea is to maximize the efficiency of your muscles in burning fat. Remember that fat burning action continues after the actual exercise. We want to alter your long-term metabolism and wake up the fat-burning efficiency.

The best aerobic (oxygen) exercise has 3 major parts:

1. You go the ideal amount of time.
2. You breathe deeply but are not out of breath.
3. You use big muscles (they burn more), like your thighs and butt.

Here is a list of “ideal” times for different exercise routines. It's from Covert Bailey's book called Smart Exercise. It's a wonderful little book and can be a useful companion to your program.

“Ideal” times means you can do these exercises for the amount of time listed and not feel as if you are going to die. When I started my own exercise program, I started walking. I walked 15 minutes for about a week or so and then expanded the time. My walk routine was hardly joyous but it was consistent. After 3 weeks, I was walking a mile in that time. Surprisingly, in another 2 weeks I could walk the same mile in about 11 minutes. I was getting fitter without realizing it.

Going to the Gym

About this time, I decided to get a membership in my local gym. I chose the place that is family oriented. People of different ages and shapes, not just the young, vigorous, shapely ones strutting around with gorgeous bodies. I decided to work on the cross-country ski machine. At the time, I didn't know it was the most intense option (I hadn't read Bailey's book yet), I just knew I loved to cross country ski as a young woman. I even had illusions that New Mexico might have some snow to ski on.

Starting

So I started. After 5 minutes, my legs were screaming and wobbly, I couldn't breathe and I thought I would pass out. I was shocked. I knew I was out of practice (that means out of fitness), but that degree of it stunned me. But I went again the next day “just get to 5 minutes, Kathleen. That's all you have to do.” A week later, just a week, 5 minutes was easy to I started to increase the time a minute a day. By the end of the month, I was doing 30 minutes a day, without pain, and without being out of breath.

Around the second week, I realized that a good part of “hanging in there” was finding a way of coping with my boredom. The gym has TVs. If you bring your own earphones, you can play whatever channel is most interesting. I soon learned about daytime TV. But ironically, finding an interesting topic on the afternoon talk shows made the 30 minutes fly by. No one had ever talked to me about the boredom factor. But I promise that you need to include it in your successful plan.

Continuing

You may be getting a sense that regular, constant aerobic exercise is the way to go. Nothing flashy, no drama, no fancy routines. Just regular, boring ole “do it.” But the most extraordinary thing will happen. One day, unexpectedly, you will FEEL the fat-burning kick in. For a couch potato, it is an awakening experience unlike anything you have felt in years, maybe in many years. You will KNOW the feeling. Everything starts to stream. Maybe the little triglyceride buddies are swimming. Maybe they are singing. But it is as if your body WAKES UP and says YES!!!!!!

I have often said that if a person can get one week steady on the food, s/he will always go back to it. There is a body “memory” of things feeling “right”. I think the same thing is true with exercise. When we diddle with it, or when we never push ourselves to the “fit” state, we never feel that YES! We remember the boredom, or we remember feeling terrible because we pushed too hard, too fast and we didn't get results. No wonder it gets dropped so quickly.

Keep working at the aerobic (remember OXYGEN) program. In fact, maybe we should think of it as our oxygen program. Every day. Thirty minutes. And if you are a mega couch potato (mega potato, not necessarily mega couch), make that thirty minutes twice a day and watch those t-buddies swim into your muscles to be burned.

Specific Muscle Training

The next piece is specific muscle training. You want to have a higher proportion of muscle because muscle is what “burns”. Many of us can be big, but flabby. Converting fat to muscle is the ideal plan. More and better muscle will make the cumulative program far more efficient.

So, weight training works. Go to the gym. Get a trainer. Get a trainer who likes people like you. The ones who do rehab training are often kind and patient will offer enormous support for your program. If the first person you get isn't right, find another one. If the trainer isn't up to speed or is bored with your program, change trainers. Find someone who teaches you how the muscles work, where they are, which muscles to exercise in which sequence. You want to understand exactly what is happening. This is YOUR body and it deserves your attention.

Aim for exercises that allow you to do 10 reps (repetitions) without strain. Chose the weight level that allows you to get to ten reps with a tired but not injured muscle. If you can't lift it more than 6 times, it is too heavy. If you can lift it twenty times, it is too light. Your body doesn't lie. Listen to it.

Too Busy To Go to The Gym

Many people tell me that they are way too busy to get to the gym. Kids, family, work, commitments. I have been there, done that. The only option is to schedule exercise time as if it were the most important activity of your schedule. The kids can wait, billable hours can wait, and your friends can come with you. Go to the gym. You will discover the miracle of time expanding. Exercise and you will have more focused energy that you ever dreamed of.

If you think you can't afford the gym, shop around for another one. Try the YMCA or the YWCA. See if your local community college has a weight room. Work something out with a local hotel. And if it is still out of your range, go to the library and find some books on weight training. Use soup cans as weights for your arm exercises. Get creative. Exercise equipment can easily be found at yard sales or flea markets. Wonder why? People get bored and unmotivated because they don't have the understanding and support you do. Get a stationery bike or a rowing machine. Go on a quest. And keep walking while you are looking. And use the machine while watching TV. Same time, but muscles burning fat instead of couch potato.

You Can Overtrain

Another important issue for weight loss is overtraining. If you exercise vigorously, and do not rest adequately, your muscle has no time to rebuild and become stronger. Exercise breaks down the muscle. If you don't have sufficient rest, the muscles can't help you in the fat burning process. They will be busy trying to recuperate rather than help. The rebuilding time is essential.

You may start a weight loss plan doing the food, find that things work well for a few months and then they plateau. You may have started exercising. When the weight loss slows down, you get really worried and crank up the exercise significantly. More is not necessarily better if you go beyond the right “zone” for your body. The key is to get the right fix for your needs. No easy answers, no one-size-fits-all solutions. This, once again, is a task for you to sort out what is right for you.

The Total Program

After all of this, what will your plan likely look like. You will start with the “get fit” process and work up to walking 30 minutes a day and moving towards an 11-minute mile. This means you will be walking about three miles in your thirty minutes. You just work on this in little chunks. Don't spook yourself about how impossible it seems. Even if you start with five minutes and one block or five minutes and two hallways. Tiny little chunks in the beginning. The daily routine will get set and then you will start to think about your weight loss program.

First phase is introducing more vigorous oxygen exercise. Things that mobilize big muscle and make demands on the muscle system. You will choose a specific kind of weight burning exercise that fits your style. And then go through the same process. Small increments building to the “burn” stage. And you will do this every day.

Second phase adds in weight training. Big muscles, little muscles, funny muscles and sleek muscles. Even under the fat, you will be mobilizing those muscles to remember how to burn fat. They will get stronger and more interested in your fat burning concept as you work them. You may not get buns of steel right away, but you will start the fat burning. Ten reps, each muscle at the ideal weight. Every other day so the muscles can rest.

You are on your way!

And as you do this, motivated by fat burning, something else is going to creep in. You will start to want to move. Maybe have the urge to break into a jog, even run half way around the track, put on your swimsuit and swim. You may go looking at the rollerblades in the fitness store rather than crème cakes in the bakery. Little surprising changes. Promise. You are on your way!

©Kathleen DesMaisons 2005.

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