Learn the Simple Principles of Exercising to help you lose Weight
Exercising does help you lose weight. However, you have to understand the simple principles of what you put in your body by eating, you need to use up by energy expenditure to lose that weight. Energy expenditure includes things like walking to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, as well as all the other things you do during the day – but excercise will help you use up more much calories quickly. So if you’re time poor and can’t be walking here and there all day – then 1/2 hour of exercise will definately help.
• Weight Gain = Energy Intake > Energy Expenditure
• Maintain Weight = Energy Intake = Energy Expenditure
• Weight Loss = Energy Intake < Energy Expenditure
• Energy Intake = Diet and what you eat
• Energy Expenditure = Metabolism (strength training & eating habits) & Activity (cardio training & incidental activity)
• Combination of Strength Training & Cardio Training required, plus good eating habits (regular small meals) and ↑ incidental activity needed to increase energy expenditure
• Naturally lean people and (quite often) women require more strength training as they have less natural muscle
• Naturally stronger/musclier people require more cardio training, but all people require both
• Why Strength Training is important for Body Fat Loss
• Increased Metabolism – Research has shown that if we increase our lean muscle mass by 1.4kg we also increase our resting metabolism by 7% and our daily calorie requirements by 15%.
• A 1994 study showed that strength training produced 1.8kg of fat loss after three months of training, even though the subjects were eating 15% more calories each day.
• After the age of 20 for women and 30 for men, if we do not strength train we lose between 2.2 and 3.2 kilograms of muscle every decade.
• Non Weight Loss Reasons - Osteoporosis prevention, improved posture, improved balance and mobility, improved quality of life, decreased risk of injury etc
• Muscle is smooth, lean, hard and small; Fat is lumpy, flabby, soft and big – the choice is YOURS; which would you prefer??
Strength
• Weights program should change every 4 to 6 weeks to keep achieving results and avoid plateau’s. Will talk more about how to change it later
• Best exercises are compound exercises (multi muscle/joint) for large muscle groups – Legs, chest, back
• The trainers here can show you these exercises. And there are heaps, so it doesn’t ever have to get boring!!!
• About 5 diff exercises, 3 x 15 is all it takes
• Only 2 – 3 times per week. Muscles grow while resting, not training – allow recovery!!
Cardio
• Sources of energy low-mod intensity: 41% stored fat (the rest glycogen – derived from CHO)
• High intensity: Only 24% stored fat
• However, 30 mins of walking burns approximately 240 cals (x 41% = 96 cals of fat) yet, 30 mins of jogging burns approximately 450 cals (x 24% = 108 cals of fat) so more total fat is burnt and more than double the energy is burnt and remember
Weight Loss = Energy expenditure > Energy intake
• So, the total energy burnt over a period of time is far greater when exercising at a higher intensity, important to remember if you’re time poor
• So higher intensity is better. The bad bit is that it is also HARDER!! Which is what trainers are here for.
• Important: Intensity isn’t judged by pace!!!
• Can’t exercise at a high intensity for very long because of lack of fitness??? INTERVALS!! Do you know what they are? Periods of high intensity, mixed with periods of a lower intensity
• In other words, low to moderate intensity is important in allowing you to perform the exercise for a suitable duration
• Important to allow your body to have rest days. Once again light to moderate exercise is used here
• More reasons to exercise at a higher intensity??
• When you exercise at a high intensity, you continue to burn energy (and body fat) for a long period (4-5 hrs) even after you’ve finished!!! This is as the body is replenishing your muscles with energy (glycogen) and this only happens for a short period of time after low intensity exercise
• So after exercise, eat primarily protein (growth and repair) so that the body uses the fat stores you have for this replenishment. Unless you’re feeling faint, lightheaded etc.
• Before exercise eat a little bit of CHO to prevent this happening (particularly if you exercise in the morning)
Have you hit a weight loss plateau??
• Progressive Overload – You have to continually challenge your body so that it doesn’t get used to what you are doing
• What’s the smartest and safest way to change what you’re doing to avoid burning out, yet still making it hard enough to get results??
The F.I.T.T principle
Frequency How often you exercise. Eg 3 days? Do 4
Intensity How hard you work. Eg increase the weight you’re lifting, treadmill (9km up to 10km), include some hills on your walk
Time The duration of the exercise. Eg A 40 min walk to a 50 min walk, 5 more push ups each set.
Type The type of exercise you’re doing. Eg. Change from squats to lunges. Do a Boxing class instead of one of your jogs
• Its important to only change one of these things at a time
• Small increments or overloads are all that’s required. Don’t go from a 30 min jog to a 60 min jog in one go
• The changes these 4 principles allow are limitless. Ask your trainer for tips
Contact us at now if you’d like to learn more about exercising for weight loss.
