Myth: I need to burn 300 calories each workout to lose fat.
Truth: Possibly one of the worst inventions for fat loss was the calorie-counting
monitor on treadmills, elliptical machines, and stairmasters. Because of these,
millions of men and women now obsess about the number of calories burned per session.
You've probably even been one of those people, watching it creep up ever so slowly
during a slow-cardio session. All the while knowing that you can wipe out a 30-minute,
300-calorie treadmill session with one fell swoop of the Krispy Kreme hand.
Too many people are brainwashed into thinking that if they don't burn 300-500 calories
per session, then they won't lose fat. After all, that is what you've been told
time and time again in those fluffy fitness/fashion magazines. The problems with
this approach to fat loss are numerous. First off, it's difficult to say if the
calorie counters are even accurate. A story on CBS news showed that cardio machines
overestimate calorie burning by up to 20%.
Next, depending on slow cardio for advanced fat loss is relatively useless and at
the very least, inefficient. It takes a long time for you to burn a lot of calories
and one study showed that men who only used cardio training for weight loss ended
up with a reduced resting metabolism. You are basically undoing the calorie burning
by depending only on cardio. On the other hand, guys in the same study that used
strength training didn't suffer a reduced metabolic rate.
So what is the solution to burning fat in a faster, more efficient method? The answer
is to burn fewer calories in less exercise time, but with a more intense form of
exercise.
And the trick to getting better results in this backwards approach? Your body will
burn more calories after exercise (when you use intervals) than it does after you
do slow cardio and your metabolism will stay high. Some experts refer to this as
the afterburn effect. How do you do intervals? Well, you could sprint for 30 seconds
and rest for 90 seconds and repeat that for 6 sets - using the bike preferably or
treadmill if you are experienced with it.
Within that short time frame the intervals will cause your muscles to go crazy with
activity (I call it a metabolic disturbance). This crazy metabolism boost causes
lots of calorie burning after exercise to get your body back to normal. The result
is you would end up burning more fat and more calories in the post-exercise period
as your body tries to get things under control.
Now there is one time where you'd want to count calories, but that is when you are
counting up and determining how many calories you eat per day. Again, you can wipe
out an entire workout's work in less than a minute simply by eating garbage. Without
some structure and discipline to your nutrition, there is nothing that even my programs
can do to help you lose fat.
So exercise nutrition control and interval training. These are the two anti-calorie
counting methods that will help you lose fat and get lean.