Everyone understands that regular exercise can help you lose weight and burn fat. But I want to remind you that it is not just about the calories you are burning. It is also about the wonderful changes your body makes when you exercise on a regular basis. Many of these changes lead to your potential to burn more fat at work, sleep and play.
When you exercise regularly, your body becomes better at delivering and extracting oxygen, which helps your cells burn fat more efficiently. You have better circulation, which allows fatty acids to move through the blood and into the muscle, which means the fat is more readily available to be used as fuel for the body.
Regular exercise also will help you manage your weight. I challenge you to see the value of exercise, start moving with a program and remain active for the rest of your life. The more activity you engage in, the more calories you will burn, and the easier it is to create the calorie deficit needed to lose unwanted weight.
I guarantee that you can achieve your health and fitness goals if you remain consistent and commit your mind and heart to it. Try scheduling some exercise time every day, even if you have just a few minutes. Split up your workouts if you have to. Change your routines often, if necessary, to prevent yourself from being bored. Try parking farther away from the building at work to add more walking time. Make exercise your focus and schedule the rest of your day around it, instead of trying to squeeze it in when you can. It has been my experience that if you don’t make it a priority, you will not do it.
Another key component for burning fat is adding more muscle to your body by lifting weights, especially if you are also cutting calories. Lifting weights preserves muscle mass. Many times we diet to lose fat, but find ourselves losing hard-earned muscle instead. Muscle is metabolically active, so when you lose it, you also lose the calorie burn those muscles would have provided. Resistance training and maintaining muscle help keep your metabolism high, so you burn more calories.
There is no way around the fact that, when it comes to burning more fat, we simply have to work at it. No one can do the job for us. But the good news is that it doesn’t take much activity to push the body into that fat-burning mode.
There is much speculation on whether a low-intensity workout burns more fat than higher-intensity activities. Furthermore, it is known that fat makes its greatest contributions as an energy source during low- to moderate-intensity exercise. During low to moderate exercise, fat breakdown supplies about half of our energy needs. This would suggest that individuals who want to burn more fat to lose weight should exercise at a lower intensity. There is a slight misconception because even though high-intensity exercise uses a smaller percentage of fat for fuel, this smaller percentage (along with carbohydrates) is being burned at a much higher rate. This simply means that calorie-burning benefits may be obtained from both methods, and there is a time and place for everything when you’re making decisions for your program.
The main thing to remember is that when the goal of our program is to lose weight, exercise must be incorporated as a way of life and should create a calorie deficit. To lose one pound, an individual must expend 3,500 calories, whether those calories come from fat or carbohydrates. Individuals new to exercise or who have a low level of fitness should exercise at a lower intensity. As your level of fitness increases, progressing into higher intensity exercises is natural.
It is recommended that individuals accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity activity on most days of the week. This amount of activity should provide enough of a caloric expenditure to promote body fat loss. You can do this!
Until next week, please go out and make it a great fitness day!
If you have fitness questions, contact Reggie Grovey at (405) 613-0237 or lifechange@allegiance.tv.
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Everyone understands that regular exercise can help you lose weight and burn fat. But I want to remind you that it is not just about the calories you are burning. It is also about the wonderful changes your body makes when you exercise on a regular basis. Many of these changes lead to your potential to burn more fat at work, sleep and play.
When you exercise regularly, your body becomes better at delivering and extracting oxygen, which helps your cells burn fat more efficiently. You have better circulation, which allows fatty acids to move through the blood and into the muscle, which means the fat is more readily available to be used as fuel for the body.
Regular exercise also will help you manage your weight. I challenge you to see the value of exercise, start moving with a program and remain active for the rest of your life. The more activity you engage in, the more calories you will burn, and the easier it is to create the calorie deficit needed to lose unwanted weight.
I guarantee that you can achieve your health and fitness goals if you remain consistent and commit your mind and heart to it. Try scheduling some exercise time every day, even if you have just a few minutes. Split up your workouts if you have to. Change your routines often, if necessary, to prevent yourself from being bored. Try parking farther away from the building at work to add more walking time. Make exercise your focus and schedule the rest of your day around it, instead of trying to squeeze it in when you can. It has been my experience that if you don’t make it a priority, you will not do it.
Another key component for burning fat is adding more muscle to your body by lifting weights, especially if you are also cutting calories. Lifting weights preserves muscle mass. Many times we diet to lose fat, but find ourselves losing hard-earned muscle instead. Muscle is metabolically active, so when you lose it, you also lose the calorie burn those muscles would have provided. Resistance training and maintaining muscle help keep your metabolism high, so you burn more calories.
There is no way around the fact that, when it comes to burning more fat, we simply have to work at it. No one can do the job for us. But the good news is that it doesn’t take much activity to push the body into that fat-burning mode.
There is much speculation on whether a low-intensity workout burns more fat than higher-intensity activities. Furthermore, it is known that fat makes its greatest contributions as an energy source during low- to moderate-intensity exercise. During low to moderate exercise, fat breakdown supplies about half of our energy needs. This would suggest that individuals who want to burn more fat to lose weight should exercise at a lower intensity. There is a slight misconception because even though high-intensity exercise uses a smaller percentage of fat for fuel, this smaller percentage (along with carbohydrates) is being burned at a much higher rate. This simply means that calorie-burning benefits may be obtained from both methods, and there is a time and place for everything when you’re making decisions for your program.
The main thing to remember is that when the goal of our program is to lose weight, exercise must be incorporated as a way of life and should create a calorie deficit. To lose one pound, an individual must expend 3,500 calories, whether those calories come from fat or carbohydrates. Individuals new to exercise or who have a low level of fitness should exercise at a lower intensity. As your level of fitness increases, progressing into higher intensity exercises is natural.
It is recommended that individuals accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity activity on most days of the week. This amount of activity should provide enough of a caloric expenditure to promote body fat loss. You can do this!
Until next week, please go out and make it a great fitness day!
If you have fitness questions, contact Reggie Grovey at (405) 613-0237 or lifechange@allegiance.tv.
