the secret to fat loss

The secret to fat loss

The secret to fat loss

Everyone wants to lose fat right? From elite athletes all the way down to the new boy in the gym.

The question is, what is the best way to train for it?

We are going to give you a golden secret and some insight into energy systems and why importantly this is the key to training smart and losing fat. 

Read on for enlightenment…

 

The secret to fat loss

First you are going to need a short lesson on physiology. Don’t worry, we will water it down into bite size chunks! You need this to understand why and how to train.

We’re going to work backwards:

Ever considered what exactly aerobic and anaerobic training is?

Your energy systems provide the answer and are the secret to fat loss.

The Energy Systems

Simply put: food eaten is broken down to provide energy needs for movement, growth and normal bodily functions.

Carbohydrates, fats and to a lesser extent protein are broken down through aerobic energy pathways to produce energy.

Here is an important point:

The type of nutrient breakdown is determined by a number of factors:

  • Availability or amount stored
  • Duration of exercise – distance
  • Intensity of exercise – speed, power

Importantly, the lower the pace and the longer duration the activity, the greater the amount of fat use. The opposite is also true: the more intense the activity over a shorter duration, less or no fat is used.

Why is that? Fat and carbohydrate energy pathway need time to produce energy. They have many steps in the process and they use oxygen. Short term energy stores are available for immediate, fast and short duration. They are very limited and are instantly available. No oxygen is needed for this supply.

The secret to fat loss

Here is a bit more science to improve your understanding:

Slow twitch muscle fibers (those used in long, slow endurance exercise like running or cycling) derive energy from aerobic breakdown of nutrients. Importantly these types of activities use oxygen – we know it as aerobic training.

Some fast twitch muscle fibers have an element of aerobic breakdown and some not. Simply, the faster and more explosively the muscle contracts, the less oxygen is needed and the pathway changes. At this point the pathway becomes anaerobic (without oxygen), anaerobic training is a 100 m sprint or a power clean for instance.

The processes are a series of complicated biochemical reactions but luckily you do not need to learn them to understand how to train smarter.

So there you have it, the secret is…

Train long and slow for fat loss: easy pace running, cycling, swimming or a combination for over 45 mins 4 or 5 times a week – it is science and it works!

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