Weight Loss Done Right – Part 2: Burn Calories
Exercise is a great way to burn calories and thus make it a little easier for you to end up with a calorie deficit in the end – which means weight loss.
But bhere are many who overestimate the effect of weight training in regard to burning calories. Partly because is very demanding to burn a significant amount of calories through exercise and partly your appetite and hunger will increase as your energy consumption increases.
After a short time with a certain amount of exercise, people’s hunger adjusts to their calorie needs and they simply eat more.
So exercise entirely by itself tends to increase hunger too and if you follow your hunger then you will not get any major weight loss out of exercise.
It is therefore best if you look at training in other aspects then only weight loss. Some of the benefits of training during your weight loss program include:
-You lose less muscle and more fat
-You greatly improve your health
-Exercise seems to have a positive effect on one’s ability to regulate its energy intake in relation to energy consumption and makes it easier for one to maintain a certain weight, which is important after finishing a weight loss program.
– Doing exercise makes you consume more energy every day so you can/will eat more food and give more nutrients to your body. The clue is to eat the right food, of course!
– Exercise can make you happier! It can improve mood and decrease anxiety, depression and stress.
-Production of endorphins increase with exercise. And that helps to produce positive feelings and reduce the perception of pain.
-Regular exercise increases general energy levels, and reduces feelings of fatigue.
-It improves your brain health and memory
-Regular exercise helps you to relax and improves your sleep quality
Exercise to burn calories (and improve health)
The higher the intensity you train at, the more calories will be burned per unit of time, and the longer you do it, the greater the result (total amount of calories burned) will be.
Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to just for example start ride a bike at maximum intensity as long as you can and when you’re done, you’ve burned as many calories as you could.
Nor is it so easy that you can go out and walk at a comfortable pace for as long as possible because we live in a society where you need time for other things too, and probably it will be lack of time that ends the activity and not fatigue.
The best thing is to try to find a balance between intensity and duration. If there is only time for 20 minutes of training, it is best to do the workout at very high intensity to get as much work done as possible during the available time.
If there is plenty of time, you can burn a lot more calories if you slow down the tempo and instead increase the time. In terms of running, it is largely the distance that determines how many calories consumed. This means that you have burned more calories if you have jogged 8 km in 60 minutes than you have jogged 5 km in 20 minutes.
High intensity training is extreme in one direction and walking is an extreme in the other direction and for most it is some kind of middle way that is best.
Energy source during activity
An intensity of about 70-75% of one’s maximum pulse is the intensity of combustion with fat in relation to carbohydrates and it is therefore very common for this to be called the fat burning zone. Many programs recommend that you should exercise around this intensity to burn as much fat as possible when trying to lose weight.
But in fact, however, which substrate is being used during the activity itself plays an extremely small role as the body will compensate for this during the rest of the day!
If you use a lot of fat during exercise then your body will use more carbohydrates as energy during the rest of the day and vice versa. What is most important at the end of the day is to get a calorie deficit!
Strength Training – more muscles and less fat on the body
If you lose weight and don´t do any strength training, you will lose muscle mass during a weight loss. With strength training and high protein intake, you can maintain most of the muscles you have. In some cases, you can even build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but usually it’s not a realistic goal.
Another reason why you want to do strength training when you lose weight is because it can partially counteract the decrease in basal energy expenditure that happens when you lose weight.
You cannot fully counteract this effect, but strength training is undoubtedly a positive factor that keeps your energy expenditure a bit in balance.
Another big plus: there is a post-combustion when you do strength training that means energy expenditure is increased a few hours after a strength training session.
