The Busy Fitness Pro

Posts Tagged ‘Fat Burning’

While is is well-known that exercise is a necessity for effective weight loss, there is quite a bit of conflicting information as to what kind of exercise and how much of it will produce optimal fat burning. Experts often disagree as to what the “correct” exercise is for maximum weight loss. This disagreement is often due to a misinterpretation of research that only gives a part of the whole story. In addition, different individuals will actually benefit from different exercise programs, so universal exercise recommendations really cannot be made.

Let’s begin with what the current research on exercise physiology tells us. It is well-established that it takes approximately 30 minutes of any kind of exercise for the body to burn off its glycogen (stored sugar) reserves and begin burning fat. So, most experts recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise, and generally 60 minutes or more may be recommended to get a good amount of fat burning. Now, if you are going to be exercising for 30 to 60 minutes, or maybe more, what type of exercise would you be able to do for that length of time? It probably would have to be low to medium intensity. In other words, you’re probably not going to be able to run full speed or do any other type of high-intensity exercise for 30 to 60 minutes without a rest, unless you happen to be an elite athlete, and even then you’d be struggling. So, by default, the common recommendation for exercise to lose weight has been 30 to 60 minutes of low to medium intensity aerobic exercise. Aerobic translates to “in the presence of oxygen”, which in common language means that aerobic exercise is any type of activity that you can do without gasping for breath.

In recent years, some experts have changed their recommendations to using a more intense anaerobic (”without oxygen”) exercise program for weight loss. This would include things like intense weight lifting, and something called “interval training”. Interval training involves brief bursts of high intensity activity with periods of rest or low intensity activity in between. For instance, your could sprint at full speed for 30 to 60 seconds and once you were winded, you could walk at an easy pace for a couple of minutes until you could catch your breath, then repeat the cycle several more times.. Since this type of exercise is much more physically demanding, it is done over a much shorter overall workout period – perhaps 20 to 40 minutes (with half or more of that time being rest or low intensity activity), as compared to the 30 to 60 minutes of continuous activity as recommended for aerobic exercise. The question is, how do the two types of exercise compare in terms of their ability to promote fat burning?

The aerobic exercise promoters point to the research that was mentioned earlier that has shown that any exercise, no matter how intense requires at least 30 minutes to use up the body’s stored glycogen (the body will normally burn glycogen before it will burn fat) before fat burning can begin. So, they say, short periods of even highly intense exercise won’t burn much fat and is therefore not a good choice for promoting weight loss. But they are only seeing part of the story.

It is true that you must exercise for at least 30 minutes to begin to achieve fat burning – but that’s at the time you are exercising. Brief bursts of intense anaerobic exercise does something that even quite a lot of low to medium intensity aerobic exercise does not. Intense anaerobic exercise stimulates the production of growth hormone, which is a strong stimulator of fat burning. The thing is, the release of growth hormone triggered by intense anaerobic exercise comes 24 to 48 hours AFTER the exercise, and then it produces considerably more fat burning than is possible with all but extremely long periods of low to medium intensity aerobic exercise.

Because of this effect, most people will lose weight much more easily by doing shorter periods of more intense exercise. 20 to 40 minutes of heavy weightlifting, interval training (which could be done on foot, on a bicycle, swimming, kickboxing, etc.Any kind of activity in which there are periodic bursts of intense exertion interspersed with rest periods, or periods of low intensity activity is typically preferable in the long run for weight control than even long hours of lower intensity aerobic exercise.

Now, you’ll notice that I said “most people”. There is an exception to the rule. People under considerable stress, either emotional or physical, or both, in their daily lives are prone to overworked adrenal glands. The adrenal glands do a lot of things in the body, but with regards to weight loss, they produce two hormones. One hormone is cortisol, which promotes fat deposition in the lower abdomen. This is typically a saggy, pendulous fat held below the waistline. The other hormone the adrenals produce is adrenaline (also called epinephrine), which actually promotes fat burning. Since the adrenals produce cortisol which causes fat deposition and adrenaline which promotes fat burning, you might assume that these two hormones cancel each other out. Unfortunately, cortisol production can be carried out by a much longer time by the adrenal glands than can the production of adrenaline, so long-term, the effects of high cortisol production (deposition of fat in the lower belly), will overcome whatever fat burning might occur from the short-term adrenaline production.

The adrenals are influenced by physical stress as well as mental stress, so for someone who is under a lot of stress in general in his or her life, high-intensity exercise will only add to the total stress and will tend to make the adrenals produce a lot of cortisol, and therefore will tend to promote lower abdomen weight gain. Yes, you read that right – excessive exercise for someone under a lot of stress can actually cause that person to deposit MORE fat around the lower belly! This can result in the frustrating situation in which one exercises more and more and harder and harder to try to get rid of that lower abdomen stomach “pooch”, but never can seem to get rid of it. Because the intense exercise is stimulating more cortisol production, that person is fighting a losing battle. Because of this effect, it is recommended that people under a lot of stress and/or who have most of their weight held in the lower abdomen stick to relatively low intensity aerobic exercise. This kind of activity is usually helpful for controlling stress and reducing the level of cortisol, thereby making it easier to get rid of the deposition of fat around the lower abdomen.

I hope that this article has given you a better concept of how to maximize your exercise routine for the best possible weight loss results.

Technorati Tags: exercise, Fat Burning, Hormones, natural weight loss

The biologically active ingredients that seem to make fatty fish so beneficial are are the long chain omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids, EPA and DHA. At least a half a dozen human studies and more than two dozen animal studies have been completed in the last 10 years which suggest that these omega-3 fatty acids found in fish may help you lose more fat. However, the fat loss benefit is not as much as some people want you to believe…

The results of two new studies on fish oil and fat loss were just released earlier this year. In one study published by the International Journal of Obesity, researchers from Reykjavik Iceland tested the effects of fish or fish oil consumption equivalent to 1.5 grams of combined EPA/DHA on body weight and body composition as part of a calorie restricted diet. (1)

The subjects were 324 young overweight men and women who followed one of four experimental protocols for 8 weeks:

(1) sunflower oil capsules (control)

(2) lean fish

(3) fatty fish (salmon)

(4) fish oil capsules

The researchers reported the following results:

“In young, overweight men, the inclusion of either lean or fatty fish, or fish oil as part of a hypoenergetic diet resulted in 1 kilogram more weight loss after 4 weeks than a similar diet without seafood or supplement of marine origin. The addition of seafood to a nutritionally balanced energy-restricted diet may boost weight loss.”

It should be noted that the study was supported by the Seafood Plus organization and there were some limitations in the design that could have influenced the subject’s compliance.

The second study, conducted at the University of South Australia and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2) investigated the effect of combining fish oil supplements with regular aerobic exercise.

In a 12-week, placebo-controlled study, the subjects were divided into four groups:

(1) sunflower oil

(2) sunflower oil plus exercise

(3) fish oil

(4) fish oil plus exercise.

The fish oil groups were given 6 grams of high DHA fish oil per day, which contained a total of 1.9 grams of long chain omega-3 fatty acids. The exercising groups performed aerobic exercise three days per week for 45 minutes.

As you might expect, the fish oil plus exercise group came out with the best results:

* minus 1.2% body fat (compared to no decrease in the other groups)

* minus 2 kilograms/4.4 lbs (compared to no decrease in the non exercise group).

Unfortunately, there was a limitation in this study as well: The food intake of the subjects was self reported, which is known to be notoriously inaccurate.

There have been several other human studies on fish oil and fat loss in the last ten years or so and the majority of the findings have been positive. The research is compelling and there have been numerous, and very plausible mechanisms of action proposed.

However, more and more often, I am hearing people in the health, fitness and nutrition industries making some pretty bold and I daresay, premature and outrageous claims about what fish oil can do for fat loss; claims which are not supported by the research.

The studies on fish oil and fat loss are encouraging, but the vast majority of research has been on animals (rats, mice and hamsters) and there have been limitations in nearly all the human studies so far, including:

Small sample sizes, short study durations, statistically insignificant results, lack of randomization, no control groups, imprecise body composition testing, measurement errors, self-reporting of food intake, low compliance control and fish industry or supplement industry-sponsored bias.

Even if you take the results of the existing research at face value, the fat loss really isn’t all that impressive – an extra pound here, an extra kilo there.

Many of the research results barely reach statistical significance, and you even have to wonder if these small improvements in fat loss are simply correcting omega-3 deficiency or fixing omega-3 and omega-6 imbalance… therefore, will they continue over a longer time period or is this a one time improvement?

One of the earlier studies showed the same kind of measurable but modest results: The fish oil group that took 1.8 grams of combined EPA/DHA daily lost 2 pounds and the non fish oil group lost only 0.7 pounds after 3 weeks (3).

Of course, you’ll probably take all the fat loss help that you can get, and since there are already enough good reasons to eat fatty fish for cardiovascular disease prevention and other health benefits, it’s really a no brainer to eat fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel or sardines at least twice a week. (By the way, with the exception of King Mackerel, these are species which have not been reported as having problems with mercury contamination).

Alternately, you can use a fish oil supplement to get the equivalent in omega-3 fatty acids as found in the fish. Non fish eaters or vegetarians can use flaxseed oil, a plant-based source of Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) which converts in the body to EPA and DHA (the efficiency and amount of conversion has been a subject of controversy, however).

Based on the three studies cited above, it looks like 1.5 to 2.0 grams per day of combined DHA/EPA is the right dose when fat loss is the goal (although some suggest you should consider body weight when choosing the dosage, i.e., 1 gram total fish oil for each 20 lbs body weight, so a big guy might go with as much as 3.0 grams)

Most fish oil capsules come in 1,000 mg size at a 30% concentration, so if you took five 1000mg capsules a day, that would give you 1.5 grams of EPA/DHA; about the same as you’d get in 3 ounces (85 g) of salmon.

Note: other studies on fish oil and fat loss tested 3.0 to 4.0 g/day of EPA/DHA, but the American Heart Association has warned against taking more than 3 g EPA/DHA per day without a physicians supervision, as there may be potential contraindications and side effects such as increased bleeding time. Based on the research, more fish oil will NOT burn more fat, so be wary of the “mega dose gurus.”

Another tip: Don’t fall for the “premium price” necessarily means better quality party line. Quality and purity are important, but you can get molecularly-distilled, mercury, PCB, Dioxin, Organochlorine-free, 3rd party tested-to-meet-label-claims fish oil for less than ten bucks per bottle of 400 (one gram) capsules… yet I have seen “fish oil gurus” selling the exact same thing for $50 to $60 claiming that everyone else’s products are “contaminated” and “inferior” in quality. If that’s true, then I’d like to see those products submitted to consumer lab for voluntary 3rd party independent analysis and head to head comparison on purity AND cost effectiveness. If they come out superior and cost effective, I will gladly publicize the results myself.

The bottom line is it looks like fish oil may be a legitimate help to your fat loss efforts, especially when combined with exercise, as there may be an important synergy there. However, the idea that fish oil is some kind of miracle fat burner is just not true.

Like Mulder on the X-files, “I want to believe”… but we need much, much more research before we can say for certain exactly how much body composition improvement you can really expect from eating fatty fish or taking fish oil supplements.

More about fish oil:Learn here

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SO, you want to get skinny on fat burner pills and stop carrying around all that excess weight. You have been overweight for years now, and you have decided I AM GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT! You decide that you need to find the easiest way to lose weight, and BAM, on the tv comes yet another commercial about a new, amazing fat burner pills that will burn up 20 pounds of fat in just a month. What is the problem with all this?

Diet pills are increasingly becoming the new way to lose weight. Most Americans don’t think they have the time or energy to get to the gym and lose weight the all natural way, but fat burner pills can be extremely dangerous. Most fat burners are loaded in one way or another with a chemical called ephedrine. Ephedrine is a very capable fat burner, but it can also do very bad things to your heart, kidneys, and liver. It is basically the accepted form of using cocaine. It has been widely known that ephedrine has even caused death in some of it’s users.

What can we do then? Obesity is the leading killer of people in the United States. It can cause such problems as heart disease, cancer, liver problems, kidney disease as well as many more. Obviously, something must be done to lose weight in a safe, effective way.

In recent months, new all-natural weight loss solutions have been hitting the market. All the dangerous publicity that fat burner pills have been receiving have cause these new methods to shoot up in popularity. The biggest of all these has been the green tea diet. Scientists now say that drinking a couple cups of green tea a day can have huge benefits in weight and fat loss with no side effects. The biggest of all these green tea supplements has been Wu-Yi Tea. This tea is unlike most green tea in that is actually contains fat burning chemicals called polyphenol. This polyphenol will trigger enzymes in the body to start burning fat. These are the same enzymes that are triggered by fat burner pills, but without the dangerous side effects. Free trials of most green tea such as Wu Yi are also available.

It is not obvious that most fat burners will have no positive long term effects. Most of these drugs have not even been around long enough to know what will happen to you in later years, even after you are completely done taking the drug. All-natural supplements such as green tea are becoming the new, safer fad and will hopefully stay for years to come.

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Get ready for a few surprises with our tell all about fat burner pills review.

With so much hype, how do you tell fact from fiction?

Simple, you ask real people to share their real results.

What we are going to share with you may upset you, but if you want the truth when it comes to fat burning pills, read on… This is what the giant companies that sell fat burner pills or fat burner supplements hope you never hear:

No single diet pill or fat burner pill has been proven to work. We are aware that many compainies say they have the best fat burner, but they are lying to you. Because they want your money. They know all to well that the bigger the lies, the bigger the profits.

Skeptical about that?

Just look around and see the facts for yourself: 66% of Americans are overweight or obese while spending over 50 billion dollars annually on so called fat burning products. If you can handle the truth, then read our real fat burner reviews.

We review New Body New Life, Burn the Fat- Feed the Muscle, The Truth About Six Pack Abs, and Fat Burning Furnace.

We also offer up our fat burner reviews on The Diet Solution, Strip That Fat, Warp Speed Fat Loss, and Eat Stop Eat. We hope these real fat burner reviews help you. One more detail- life changing fat burning and weight loss can only happen ONE way.

It’s necesary to burn off more calories than you take in as food. If you refuse to do that, don’t waste your money.

However, if you’re ready to stand up and get your new lean and healthy body, our fat burner pills reviews will get you off to the right start.

It’s your life, we urge you to stop getting ripped off. Learn the truth and do something about your weight once and for all.

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So How to Get fast Weight Loss ?

Start by looking at different fat burning diets and the foods that are incorporated into them the idea being to build up a healthy lifestyle change.

Research is pretty easy as these days slimming and weight loss is a mass market interest topic so whether you choose to look on the internet, in diet books and magazines etc you should be able to provide yourself with a list of foods that can accomplish and help towards achieving both a quick and safe weight loss program.

Top Tip

Think about it – instead of snacking on unhealthy snacks – have some fruit, nibble a carrot, introduce fruit into your salads – it certainly can make them more interesting and appealing. Be creative don’t just think of having the 5 a day rule with your main meals.

Many suggest eating little and often – again fruit and vegetables can be incorporated into this.OK so we know to eat healthy but what about the so called ‘fat & calorie burning’ foods.

You can select food that burn fat from your body. These will include a large variety of food groups. Some of these foods that you can use are ones that can be found in almost all kitchens. Others are more expensive or they are considered speciality type foods.

What you need to do is research them, for further education the Internet is littered with information on ‘fat bunting foods’

Understand the Way Fast Weight Loss Plans Work!

Most plans will result in worthwhile weight loss during the first few days and you will lose some weight which will be from retained water.Once this water has been taken from your body you will now need to find effective fat burning foods which when combined with an effective exercise program will stimulate effective on-going weight loss.

Exercise is Vital as well

But you also need to consider the exercise element. After all if we consume more calories than our bodies are burning off through general day to day living we need to do something to burn them off, otherwise the obvious result is further weight gain.

Diets are one thing and there are numerous diets that are supposed to provide you with the slim looking figure, but dieting alone is not the total answer – burning off calories is vital. And staying healthy.

The Gym ?

While it is possible to get some great fat burning workouts from gyms using exercise equipment etc for some people the idea of appearing in your current overweight form in front of regular toned gym members is just too much to bear – so do consider that, particularly before you are persuaded into a costly membership package.

My advice – don’t do it. Go along when they have a special open day, promotional week and give it a try. Its vital ‘try before you commit’ – it can be a very expensive mistake otherwise

Since you are just beginning your fat burning workout you have no need to feel any shame that your body is not as toned as others but believe me that doesn’t help when you’re having a “I’m very fat” day.

Think about it why is obesity a 21st century problem ? Because our lifestyles are different to our parents. They didn’t travel everywhere by car, didn’t have take-away meals or such heavily processed food containing all the additives , sugar and salt that we have today.

So ultimately our lifestyles work against us. Recognise this fact and become determined to make some changes. After all several small changes will, as they build in effectiveness and over time make a significant difference to your overall health . Eat more healtherly, more fruit and vegetables and lean meat. Walk to work and at lunchtimes and do 15 minutes of exercise every day, and cut down on the alcohol – give it a few weeks and you’ll be pleasantly amazed.

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