Separating facts from marketing fiction helps you focus on how to exercise so that you burn fat effectively.
Here are some facts that can help you get real results.
Within the exercise and health science and health, your tangible success in fat-burning exercises shows in changes in body composition which is much more than fat loss.
The two major ways to look at body composition can be misleading or helpful. So, let’s clear that up first.
What Is Body Composition?
There are two ways to answer that.
The (2c) model that oversimplifies the process and the four components or 4C model that is both more accurate and more helpful.
The two components or 2C model divides the body into fat mass and fat-free mass. Body water, the mass of skeletal muscles as well as internal organs and minerals, etc. are lumped together in the fat-free mass component.
Abnormal growth in an organ seems the same as gaining muscle mass in your arms because both organs and muscles are considered fat-free mass.
In a 2C model, losing body water or losing muscle mass essentially has the same impact since both water and muscle mass is fat-free mass.
I prefer the four components model that looks at body water, protein, mineral, and fat as different categories.
With a 4-component model, you can measure if the body weight you lost came from muscle mass, water, or fat.
And when you are building muscles, you can measure you are gaining stress-related water retention or muscle tissue.
By an accurate measurement, you can focus on what works and do more of it and know what doesn’t work, and stay away from what wastes your time.
Now let’s look at how the body burns fat.
Fat Burning Process
The body burns carbs, protein, and fat as fuel for your activities from sleeping, to thinking or doing high-intensity interval training.
Your body uses carbs, protein, and fat simultaneously. Your activities do not change this process. However, your activities could change the ratio.
When the body burns fat more than carbohydrates or protein, using oxygen, you are engaged in a fat-burning activity.
Some activities can emphasize burning fat as fuel than others.
Below is the list of ten activities that have the most impact on how you burn fat and build muscle.
- Type of food
- The timing of meals during a 24-hour cycle
- Exercise time during a 24-hour cycle
- Exercise type
- Exercise intensity
- Exercise duration
- Rest duration between sets
- Rest duration between sessions
- Stress management
- Sleep patterns
Mathematical Formula for Fat Loss
For fat loss, the ultimate mathematical calculation is this.
Your caloric absorption (not consumption) must be less than your caloric expenditure. No diet, detox or nutrition program, no weight-loss supplement, or fat burning exercise can change this simple mathematical calculation.
Marketing gimmicks may promise shortcuts, but in the end, this formula stands.
Before we move on to the next subject, let me clarify what the difference is between caloric absorption and caloric consumption.
I stay on the healthy side of the equation using an apple vs. homemade apple juice without any additives and preservatives.
When you measure the calories in one apple or one cup of apple juice, you measure the calories available. When you eat one apple or drink a cup of apple juice, you are consuming those calories.
However, your body does not break down an apple completely, some of it passes through your body. What passes through your body is not absorbed. What is absorbed is less than what you consumed.
On the other hand, when you break down the cell structure of an apple through juicing and throw away the pulp, your body will absorb most of the calories in that cup of apple juice.
In an apple juice, your caloric absorption is higher and much closer to your caloric consumption.
In its simplest form, fat burning is a chemical reaction that uses fat as fuel.
The mathematics of the fat loss formula has proven time and again that to lose fat your activities should burn more calories than you consume.
The 4c body composition measurement helps you focus on fat loss instead of water or muscle mass loss.
The mathematics of the fat loss formula has proven time and again that to lose fat your activities should burn more calories than you consume.
Carbohydrates – Primary Source of Fuel
The major challenge in fat loss is the type of fuel your body prefers to burn.
Your body, from your muscles to your brain, prefers to burn carbohydrates as the primary source of fuel. There is no reason for the body to reach for fat as long as it has a ready source of carbs available.
Think about it this way.
Would you get off the couch and go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee if a hot cup of coffee was sitting right on the coffee table on the couch?
Of course not.
For a hot cup of your favorite coffee, a few may even dress up and drive a few miles.
Your body is the same way. It could be called efficient or lazy. When fuel, in the form of sugar is within easy reach, it will not spend the energy to reach for hard-to-reach fat stored around the belly.
It uses sugar-type fuels that are readily available to it.
In our coffee example, you will reach for the coffee next to the couch; then you will go to the kitchen, then to the pantry, and finally, if you really want it bad you would leave the house.
Your body will first reach for the carbs stored in the muscles, then the bloodstream, and then the liver. Only after the carbs in the liver drop below a certain degree, your body will reach for fat storage. Even before that, your body may reach for the protein in your muscles.
There is a reason the belly fat is called stubborn fat. Your body seems to really dislike burning it as fuel.
Many who suggest performing aerobics exercises on an empty stomach early in the morning rely on the body having burned all the carbs overnight. Less available carbs should make it easier to access stored fat through exercise in the morning.
High-Intensity Exercises and Carbs
During a short burst of high-intensity exercises at or close to maximum possible effort your body burns carbohydrates as fuel and not fat.
These high-intensity bursts followed by specific rest intervals help the body burn more calories both from carbs and fat for several hours.
Fat Burning Low-intensity Exercises
By contrast, low-intensity long-duration exercise sessions use mostly fat as fuel, and the results seem to stop as soon as you stop the exercise.
Caloric Expenditure and High-intensity Exercises
High-intensity short bust workouts, by definition, are intense according to the laws of physics. They are often emotionally intense.
During high-intensity exercises, your load is at or close to your maximum capacity. So is the speed of your movements. Heavier loads and faster speeds use the work and power formulas of physics. Increased work and power burn more calories per minute of an exercise.
In a high-intensity workout like a kettlebell snatch, you’ll burn several times more carbs than you’ll burn ever burn on a steady jog. Forget about walking; it does not even come into play.
However, consuming carbohydrates before or immediately after a high-intensity workout provides the body with its favorite fuel which slows down the process of reaching for the spare tire around the waist or the love handles.
Muscle Mass and Low-intensity Long Duration Workouts
Long-duration workouts can only be performed at low intensity. You may be able to jog 5 miles easily. Try carrying a fifty-pound sandbag in your arm for a mile, and you will notice the difference. Push a car for a few yards, and you may develop a newfound sense of spirituality through prayer.
Long-duration workouts rely on using Type I endurance muscle fibers that do not grow in size. Increased muscle mass relies on higher intensity which recruits Type II muscle fibers. Type II muscle fibers respond over time and exercise progression by becoming larger.
An increase in muscle size increases resting metabolic rate which measures how many calories your body burns while you just stand around, sit on the couch, or sleep.
Honestly, would you even bother with reading an exercise and weight loss article if you could look great without any effort?
Final Thought
Your best fat-burning exercise may not be the same as one for your brother, your sister, or your best friend.
Awareness of your fitness goal, tracking of your activities, and reviewing the results help you customize your workouts for your best results.