One of my dedicated, hard core Strategic Boot Campers wrote me this morning asking about the “Fat Burning Zone” setting on his treadmill. Ever heard this bit of sage advice? “If you want to lose a few pounds you need to do long, slow, steady-state aerobic exercise.”

Have you ever seen the contestants in a marathon? Yes, some of them are very thin, but if slow, steady-state aerobics was the KEY to fat loss, everyone competing would have very low body fat, and it’s just not so. Some folks training for these races even gain weight.

So, what’s the deal?

Why do people say steady-state aerobic training burns the most fat?

Let’s explore their reasoning:

1. ” It burns calories”. But all activities use calories, even lying in bed. No brownie points for here.

2. “The Fat Burning Zone”. It exists, but not how you think. Here’s the deal. When you exercise at a lower intensity, the body will use about 50% of the energy from fat. While at higher intensity, it may utilize only about 35% of the energy from fat. HOWEVER…at the higher intensities, you will burn WAY more calories in total, making the higher level of intensity a bigger bang for your buck. Work smarter.
The bottom line for weight loss is always expending more calories than you consume.

3) ” Aerobics raises your metabolism”. -False. Metabolism is a reflection of how much muscle you have. Aerobics do not build muscle or maintain it, therefore it will not raise your metabolism.

Did you know that for every pound of muscle you have, your body requires 50 calories every day to maintain it? And that’s just lying on the couch. Add more calories on per day per pound of muscle for every move you make.

Burn those Calories

The bottom line for fat loss is burning calories. You have to burn off more calories than you consume. There’s no way around it, not through carbohydrate manipulation, cutting out whole categories of food or rotating macronutrients.

Aerobic training is not the key to fat loss.

The Key to a lean, fat burning body is Anaerobic Training! I

t burns more calories while you are working out AND for up to 2 days after wards-even while you sleep! (My kind of calorie burning). What a bargain!

Here’s why it works: EPOC-excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. A really simple explanation of this process is that your body has to work extra hard following this type of workout to get it back into it’s normal state.

Here’s what’s happening while you’re showering, eating and sleeping after your workout according to an article from Answer Fitness

” * Replenish energy stores (such as ATP and muscle glycogen)
* Re-oxygenate the blood
* Restore body temperature levels to a pre-exercise state
* Restore pre-exercise breathing and heart-rate levels

All of these processes require the consumption of additional oxygen, as well as energy, after exercise.

In other words, restoring the body to its pre-exercise state is work. And work means additional expenditure of energy beyond the energy consumed to perform that work.”

So here’s another great question:

Is the effect accumulative? If I train the next day and my metabolism is still revved up, will I get even greater results? I don’t know….yet. Science isn’t quite there yet. I’d sure like to think so.

So, there IS a better way to do your cardio to rapidly improve fat loss: Do interval training.

You will drop fat quickly and the recovery intervals and work periods can be forever changed to prevent adaptations. There’s no limit to improvement.

Here’s the bottom line:

Switch from long, slow, steady-state aerobic training to intense, short bursts of anaerobic training to maximize fat loss.

Start slow. Try a 1minute:3minute ratio or 1 minute of work to 3 minutes of recovery. During your one minute of work, push the intensity to your limit! You should be sucking wind and unable to carry on a conversation! During your recovery, do not stop, keep moving, but at a much slower rate to facilitate your body coming back much closer to “normal”. Repeat this 1:3 cycle 5 times for a total of 20 minutes. Get out of the gym and enjoy your day knowing you’ve stoked your fat burning furnace into high gear!

Don’t forget weight training to continue to build muscle and increase that metabolism. Remember, muscle IS your metabolism. You need at least 2 full body workouts a week to maintain.

Hope that helps.

To your rapid fat loss and improved health!

Enjoying the Journey,

Whitney Cabrera RN, BSN