2 posts tagged “fat burning”

Have you ever been told that it takes 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise in order to burn body fat?  This is both true and false.

Your fat cells continually release fatty acids that are being burned within your muscles no matter what you're doing, even sleeping. The amount that is being released and burned is very very small, or more like a trickle.  When you start to exercise your muscles need more than a trickle of energy for the task at hand.  Your muscles send a message to the fat cells to release more fatty acids. 

Compared to the other 2 macronutrients, carbohydrates and protein, fat has more "energy" per gram.  It's a great source of "fuel" for the body.

But our bodies are smart.  Our bodies prefer homeostasis.   Homeostasis in a general sense is the body's attempt to maintain a constant internal environment. Maintaining a stable internal environment requires constant monitoring and adjustments as conditions change.

Because the human body prefers a homeostatic state, it is going to resist releasing the fatty acids to the muscles until you've been working out for twenty or thirty minutes.  Then suddenly your fat cells release a gush of fatty acids. The fatty acid level in your bloodstream increases to meet the demand.

If you workout regularly and are fit then your body will start to burn fat almost immediately at the start of your workout. The less fit you are the longer it will take (20 - 30 minutes of continuous exercise) before your body hits a higher level of fat burning.  Basically a fit person's body is more efficient at burning fat than an unfit persons.   

We have train our bodies to be fat burning machines by working out regularly.  So go get some exercise!   

Today I will be doing a split workout or what in sports circles is called a "two-a-day" workout.  I don't do split workouts very often because I usually can't fit two workouts into my days.  I'm NOT an early morning workout person, nor am I inclined to workout after 8pm.  So, 95% of the time I do one workout a day.  Today, I have the time to do 2 workouts.

When I feel like I need an extra fat and calorie burning boost (or back when I was training for half marathons), I do a split workout.

The advantage of a split workout is that you will burn more total calories over the course (and after) the workouts than if you just do a total workout once a day.  For men, the advantage is increased muscle gains (muscle hypertrophy)over a shorter period of time.  If you are a body builder, or are lifting for gaining size on a regular basis then you can take more days off for total rest.  For women, we will burn more fat overall and we girls need that. 

There are a million different ways you could do a split workout.  I won't go into the intricacies of some of the diffferent ways.  I prefer to do my cardio for one workout and my strength training for my second workout. 

If you decide to start doing splits, keep your workouts to about 30 - 40 minutes each (this includes warmup, cool down and stretching).   Also, make sure you have 5 - 6 hours of rest between workouts.

A good way to incorporate split workouts into your regular routine is to do two-a-days once a week, do your regular routine the next day and take the third day off, resuming your regular workout schedule for the rest of the week on the 4th day. 

Give it a try!