Fit 271 The Third Biggest Mistake in Weight Loss

The “burn belly fat” episode!  All three topics address this issue, first #3 of the 5 biggest mistakes in weight loss; then three easy nutrition tweaks for greater burning of belly fat, and the best exercise for getting rid of belly fat! Hint: Its not what you think!

The Third Biggest Mistake in Weight Loss is doing cardio for weight loss!
Sure, cardio is good for cardio health, mood elevation, but its just not the best thing for fat loss.

Doing too much of cardio, especially when trying to lose weight, can cause your body to hold on to fat! It can actually make you better at storing calories and less effective at burning calories.

It does this by changing your body hormone profiles to further slow your metabolism down!  Furthermore, Steady state training does not promote much of a metabolic boost. The best way to burn fat, boost your metabolism and increase you fitness faster is Interval, or anaerobic, training!

Top Six Reasons Why Cardio Isn’t the Answer for Weight Loss:

1. It Doesn’t Burn That Many Calories
Example: a 220-pound man only burns about 150 calories during an hour of leisurely walking and roughly 325 calories during an hour of hiking or swimming.

2. Excessive Cardio Raises Cortisol
“Chronic Cardio” ie-Prolonged endurance exercise- is a stress to the body and stress releases and increases cortisol. Why is this bad? Because increased cortisol causes the body to deposit fat in the abdominal area and breakdown muscle. It also screws up the balance between estrogen and testosterone making fat storage easy but fat loss more difficult.  High cortisol levels can cause food cravings, along with headaches, heart disease, weight gain and a slew of other problems!

3. Chronic Cardio Can Increase Hunger
Research notes that excess low-intensity, or steady-state, cardio stimulates your appetite! Now combine that with the fact that when we’re stressed, we tend to have more intense and frequent hunger pangs and cravings and it’s a recipe for weight loss disaster!

4. Cardio Doesn’t Build muscle
Too much cardio does a lot of bad things to your metabolism! It can hinder muscle growth, decrease muscle tissue and decrease resting metabolic rate. It basically slows your metabolism down which  is crucial because muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue and requires more calories to function.  If you lose muscle, the metabolism lowers making it harder to lose weight then you lower calories and increase cardio and the diet cycle begins again!

5. Too Much Cardio Can Impede Recovery
Once again, the release of and increase of cortisol does damage and can cause fatigue and recovery.

6. Cardio is unsustainable.
You can’t do long cardio sessions forever!

Summary of Why traditional cardio for fat loss Fails:

1. Cardio takes at least double the training time to burn the same amount of calories
2. Cardio doesn’t build lean muscle mass
3. Cardio may cause you to lose muscle in the long run
4. Cardio doesn’t produce much of an after burn
5. Cardio can lead to an elevation in the stress hormone cortisol, which leads to a worse body composition

The better way to lose fat is weight training, or intense anaerobic training such as sprints and high intensity interval training!

Nutrition

Just as specific types of training are more effective for burning belly fat, certain foods and nutrients are better for shrinking your abdominal area. It’s also possible to offset these hormonal changes with lifestyle actions and a smart nutrition plan. Here are a few ways:

#1: Design Every Meal Around High-Quality Protein
This preserves muscle mass during weight loss, reduces appetite and hunger while improving blood sugar control and lowering insulin.

High-quality protein was defined as protein that contained at least 10 grams of essential amino acids.

#2: Replace Refined Carbs & Sugar Fibrous Foods
Foods that naturally contain fiber are a proven strategy for getting rid of belly fat.  Fiber keeps you full longer and has compounds that improve insulin binding for better metabolic function.

#3:  Green Tea & Coffee
Coffee and green tea can improve insulin sensitivity and raise motivation to exercise. Although the dose of green tea that has been shown to reduce belly fat in studies is more than could be reasonably consumed in a green tea beverage, high-quality supplements can assist at reducing abdominal fat. Research suggests that drinking green tea may work along with other dietary factors to help on lower belly fat.

 

Training

Sprint interval training is significantly more effective than long cardio sessions because it leads to changes in how the body uses energy, increasing your after-burn so the body burns calories at an accelerated rate during the 24-hours! Anaerobic exercise requires the body to adapt metabolically.  Your body is forced to burn fat to sustain the level of intensity being asked of it!

Bottomline: To lose MORE belly fat with LESS training time do anaerobic type training!

For more on interval training, listen to these episodes:
Fit 187: Enemy Cardio, Supplements, Invest in You!
Fit157: Interval Variations, Best Breakfast, New Apps! Oct 2012
Fit 134: Improper Form & Top Fitness Mistakes Oct 2011

Check out the 28-Day Makeover at strongandpowerful.teachable.com

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