What is the best way to exercise for fat loss?
As a Personal Trainer I get asked this question often, “What is the best way to exercise for fat loss?” It is a great question to be asking when you are looking to lose unhealthy excess fat in your body. It may feel like you have been thinking about fat loss forever but the truth is that this is a relatively new phenomenon. In the 1900s people died mostly from communicable diseases such as pneumonia, influenza and tuberculosis. Since 1990s the leading causes of death is heart disease, stroke, dementia, diabetes and cancer. All lifestyle related diseases. (Some of these lifestyle diseases can also be contributed to longer lifespan.) The WHO organization recognized obesity as an epidemic only since 1997. I understand that you want an answer to this question but you also need to remember that the science of exercising for fat loss is an immerging science. I have no doubt that in the next few years there will be heaps of more information and changes made to exercise prescription for fat loss. I present you with the current findings of research with an open mind. There are still many studies to be exposed in the future that could be of great benefit to us looking to exercise for fat loss.
For beginners any movement is good. Find some form of exercise or program that inspires you and just start moving more. Sometimes when people want to begin exercising they go on the internet, they talk to a few trainers, get a few magazines and find themselves stuck in analysis paralysis. It seems so complicated so they give up before they start. Don’t let this happen to you. It really doesn’t matter what you do in the beginning- just start. All forms of exercise generally work for a few months until the body adapts. You can’t go wrong by starting some form of exercise. Make it something enjoyable, exciting and fun. Some suggestions would be to walk or jog, ride a bike, exercise class or personal training. All you have to do when starting out is to schedule in your exercise as an important appointment in your diary, keep your exercise appointment, and do your exercise, no excuses. Be consistent!
We can’t discuss exercise for fat loss without making a mention about food. Coach Robertson and Mike Boyle, both highly respected trainers with a sense of humour recommends these exercises for fat loss, “table push-aways and put fork downs”. This is almost not a joke. Getting your nutrition down, understand what foods to eat and how much food you need. This usually requires planning and more food preparation time. This is not the sweaty physical challenge of exercise, yet I believe it to be more challenging than any workout. Real strength is leaving the table when you are done. Saying “no” to highly processed foods not fit for human consumption is a mindset. Know the foods that give you real nutrition and stick with it 80%-90% of the time.
Here I will recommend three practical training methods for fat loss.
Resistance Training/ Strength Training
Notice that there is no mention of weight loss anywhere in this article. We are only looking to lose fat. Muscle is a precious commodity for increasing metabolic rate. The more muscle you have on your body when the more energy your body burns even at rest. Often when people diet without resistance training they will lose muscle which is counterproductive. Women will gain lean muscle and do not have the hormonal ability to bulk up like a man so building muscle will make you leaner. You need to become more comfortable with lifting heavy. Women are strong; don’t let anyone tell you different. It is best to take a heavy weight and lift less reps, 8-10 for the average and even less for power lifters and body builders. I just want you to get your mind around the idea that some really fit people out there are lifting much less than you and getting better fat lose results. The idea is to lift as heavy as you can in good form. Start with body weight first and then move up in weight steadily as your body adapts to the weight. Always challenge yourself.
Interval training
There are many different types of athletes. Interval training is for those that want to burn energy/calories even after the workout is over. How nice is that, you do your workout and the body increase metabolic rate and burns more energy for hours after the workout is finished. This is all about intensity. It is difficult but you are looking at about 20 seconds up until 2 minutes of intensity followed by rest. There are many different protocols that use this training method. An example would be to sprint on a track or on a bike for 30 seconds and give yourself 1 min recovery. You can change up the times; just don’t go longer than 2 minutes. The idea here you are getting out of your comfort range and learn to push yourself. Your heart will be beating fast, you’ll feel alive and lose fat.
Recovery
Often you’ll get so excited about losing fat that you may think more is better. This is just not the case. We want you so be able to work with intensity at your workouts. If you are exercising every day without rest you will get to your workouts worn out and tired. We don’t want to break your body, we want to build it. Keep your workouts to 30 minutes. Longer workouts usually mean less intensity, less of an after burn effect. Keep it simple, do exercise that uses large muscle groups, squats, lunges, push ups, pull ups etc. Find the right balance between exercise and rest. Remember your muscles grow/repair when resting so if you never take a rest day your muscles won’t grow. Risk of injury is significantly increased in an over trained body. Don’t be afraid to train less often but harder.
Put these training methods to the test. Do your own research and continued education. Take 100% responsibility for your health and fitness. Your trainer can’t make magic but you can!
