Exercise & Weightloss - Exercise, EPOC, Etc.
There are two ways to go about creating a caloric deficit; one would be by decreasing caloric intake through diet - which is covered more in the nutrition sections - the other by increasing caloric expenditure through increasing daily activity or intentional exercise.
There is a multitude of ways you can go about this, and hundreds of products and people telling you that they have the best method for burning fat.
There is a multitude of ways you can go about this, and hundreds of products and people telling you that they have the best method for burning fat.
Now that you know that weight loss is simply the result of burning more calories than you consume, it comes down to assessing which of these techniques will result in the most calories burned.
The hard truth is; there is no shortcut. If someone is claiming they have an exercise technique that allows you to slim down with minimal effort and time, it is complete b.s. - unless of course you are talking about some type of surgery - which does nothing to improve your overall health.
That is not to say you cannot achieve your goals without spending hours in the gym, but to point out that-
The hard truth is; there is no shortcut. If someone is claiming they have an exercise technique that allows you to slim down with minimal effort and time, it is complete b.s. - unless of course you are talking about some type of surgery - which does nothing to improve your overall health.
That is not to say you cannot achieve your goals without spending hours in the gym, but to point out that-
Time and Intensity Work Inversely.
The more intense the workout, the less time you need (and are generally able) to do it.
However, if you are exercising at a moderate or low intensity, the more time you will have to exercise in order to achieve the same results in less time at a more intense pace.
Low intensity exercises are not what I would recommend if your goal is to drop weight, unless you have some form of physical limitation or health problems. If you are someone with health problems due to weight or other factors, I recommend that you seek the advice of your primary care physician in order to determine what level of intensity and types of exercise will be safe for you.
So, high intensity workouts are the way to go if your goal is to kill fat. Great, good to know right? I suppose at this point it would be beneficial to define high intensity exercises, huh?
For the sake of simplicity, I’ll define high intensity exercise as - exercises in which you put out maximal exertion for a particular activity as long as can be sustained with short rest periods between sets.
Basically, if it pushes your heart rate up towards your max, you rest for periods not more than 60 seconds, and you do it again - that’s high intensity.
The benefits of this type of exercise come as a result of pushing your body to its maximal effort, you encourage and require your body to adapt in order to handle those activities in the future, which is what will improve your performance.
Also, working your body maximally- as you can imagine - requires more energy to sustain and therefore burns many more calories in a short period of time than it would at a lower, steady state intensity of up to an hour or more. This comes from more musculature being used due to the fatigue of the primary movers, or the additional musculature being recruited to assist the primary movers with completing the main task itself due to overload.
Low intensity exercises are not what I would recommend if your goal is to drop weight, unless you have some form of physical limitation or health problems. If you are someone with health problems due to weight or other factors, I recommend that you seek the advice of your primary care physician in order to determine what level of intensity and types of exercise will be safe for you.
So, high intensity workouts are the way to go if your goal is to kill fat. Great, good to know right? I suppose at this point it would be beneficial to define high intensity exercises, huh?
For the sake of simplicity, I’ll define high intensity exercise as - exercises in which you put out maximal exertion for a particular activity as long as can be sustained with short rest periods between sets.
Basically, if it pushes your heart rate up towards your max, you rest for periods not more than 60 seconds, and you do it again - that’s high intensity.
The benefits of this type of exercise come as a result of pushing your body to its maximal effort, you encourage and require your body to adapt in order to handle those activities in the future, which is what will improve your performance.
Also, working your body maximally- as you can imagine - requires more energy to sustain and therefore burns many more calories in a short period of time than it would at a lower, steady state intensity of up to an hour or more. This comes from more musculature being used due to the fatigue of the primary movers, or the additional musculature being recruited to assist the primary movers with completing the main task itself due to overload.
The more muscle you use, the more sources you have pulling from your energy stores.
This also helps to create EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption – the goal for anyone trying to shred fat. When you have created this state, consider your fat burning switch on.
EPOC is a result of pushing your body to the point of depleting all of its oxygen stores. The harder you push yourself, the more of a deficit you will create. After you finish your workout, your body will have to work to replenish its stores, exactly how much you can burn after exercising directly correlates to the duration and intensity of your workout. The more of a deficit you create, the longer it will take for your body to catch up.
EPOC is a result of pushing your body to the point of depleting all of its oxygen stores. The harder you push yourself, the more of a deficit you will create. After you finish your workout, your body will have to work to replenish its stores, exactly how much you can burn after exercising directly correlates to the duration and intensity of your workout. The more of a deficit you create, the longer it will take for your body to catch up.
This can continue the calorie burning process from anywhere to 24 and even 48 hours post-workout.
To put it real simply - if you work out really hard and push your body to it's max, your body will burn extra calories afterwards for up to two days without any additional effort on your part!
That is how you really begin to make progress with your exercise, because even if you are super dedicated and push yourself for as long as you can on a daily basis - we all only have so much free time, and so much energy - limiting the amount of calories we can burn during an exercise session. So to be able to continue the calorie burning process outside of the gym, and even while you sleep makes it much easier to create the caloric deficit and is something you want to take advantage of.