Very simply it is an arithmetic problem. Calories in minus calories out equals calories lost or gained. In order to lose 1# a week, you need to unbalance your metabolism by 500 cal per day. In other words, you need to burn 500 more calories than you take in.
Easier said than done.
So you need to manage both sides of the equation. Eat less and exercise more. How much less and how much more is an interesting question. In our clinic we use Smart Metabolism technology to measure your metabolism, and then we calculate both what you should consider your baseline metabolism, and we calculate your peak fat metabolism heart rate during exercise. Combining this data, we can calculate what you need to do to create that 500 calorie differential.
But lets say you don't really know how to do this, or do not have access to this technology where you are, here is some advice:
- You need to generally eat less than you probably are. Serving sizes here are out of proportion. One way to eat fewer calories is to get a lot of calories from fruits and vegetables rather than empty calories like those found in rice and potatoes. I am a HUGE fan of The Paleo Diet which professes to eat more lean animal protein, and only fruit and vegetables as well as a few nuts. This is a diet program that is not like going on a diet at all. It is more of a change in eating habits to eating only really nourishing food until you are really full.
On the exercise side, there are a couple of considerations:
- Sub maximal exercise, sometimes called aerobic exercise, burns fat. But you need to exercise for a long time since the output is sub maximal in order to burn fat in a meaningful way.
- Interval training from your sub maximal zone to higher heart rates approaching your max heart rate and then recovering to your submaximal heart rate accelerates the process of fat metabolism
- Short bout high intensity exercise (like sprinting) builds your fast twitch muscles (type II) which themselves are preferential in fat metabolism.
What that means is that when you have type II muscle on board, you find it easier to break down stored fat to use as energy. Remember, fat is the primary fuel.
A fit Olympic class athlete THINKS about exercising and starts to metabolize fat (ie turn triglycerides into fatty acids. Fatty acids are fast moving fats that race around the body looking for a muscle to burn them, while triglycerides are usually parked or stored fat. If a fatty acid does not get burned while racing around the body after being released, it can easily be stored again - head fat today, butt fat tomorrow.)
An active person needs to exercise for 5-15 minutes to start to burn fat efficiently. An unfit person will exercise until their sugar stores run out and then sit down again, never burning fat.
We have found in our clinical research that it takes 30 minutes of daily exercise at peak fat metabolism heart rates to stimulate normal fat metabolism mechanics. We have also found that interval training accelerates the fat metabolism on a minute by minute basis (ie more fat calories burned each minute). And we have found that the introduction of short bout high intensity exercise significantly increases calorie out put. In fact in a study we conducted with one person, she burned an extra 1000 cal per day by increasing her output by 6 one minute intervals per day.
Understanding a little more about glycogen use and replenishment will clear up the picture further.
Glycogen is resident in the muscles. We use stored glycogen to operate a muscle. we use fatty acids to help in the process of replenishing glycogen during and after exercise. During sub maximal exercise we use glycogen up and replenish it during exercise and while we use glycogen during max output exercise, we do not replenish it until after exercise in the case of high intensity exercise.
In replenishing glycogen store, we are not exactly sure of the mechanism, but heart muscle replenishes first, and once it is fully restored, then the skeletal muscle replenishes its stores and then once the skeletal muscle is fully recovered, then the liver finally gets its stores replenished. After exercise, a fit person replenishes at the rate of 10% per hour, and an unfit person at the rate of 5% an hour. For this reason, if you are just starting out, then make sure to take a rest day in order to replenish fully. You can also influence your rate of glycogen replenishment because in the first 30-60 minutes after exercise, you can replenish more quickly if you take in sugar (the only time it is OK to do that!)
So to lose weight you need to exercise more an eat less. How much more and how much less can be worked out, and we will be glad to help you figure this out exactly in our clinic. But if you are going to go it alone, then make sure to eat regular healthy meals that have a high protein content (lean animal meats) and low glycemic index carbs (lots of fruit and vegetables), and to exercise both submaximally for 30 minutes a day and also perform interval training while exercising submaximally. And then on top of that add several shourt bouts of high intensity exercise to ensure continued increased metabolism during your recovery after exercise.
And finally, what is "metabolism"? Metabolism is the sum total of energy of all the chemical reactions in your body. to increase your metabolsim, you need to increase the number of chemical reactions in your body. Since we are not very efficient animals, sweating, a response to exercise induced heat, represents an increase in metabolism. In the end, exercise is the best medicine.
Hope this helps!
Neil
Posts
