Fat Burning Fantasy 

In the gym the other day I overheard one of the trainers coaching a pair of new clients that to lose body fat they needed to do “cardio” in addition to their weight training.

WORKOUT AMERICA’S SUPERCIRCUITS PROVEN BEST FOR FAT BURNING

My first thought was wow, what an incredible waste of time and energy. Why not just use Workout America’s Supercircuit Program or our Metabolic Complexes for maximum fat loss AND maximum muscle building. Our research has indicated that both these Workout America programs either our Supercircuit or Metabolic Complexes burn more fat, and burn way more calories than a Spinning Class for instance.

In addition, they keep your metabolism elevated for much, much longer than running, biking or traditional aerobics because they are whole body or systemic in nature and train not just the legs but every major muscle of the body in a high intensity manner.

Our trainer in question further advised his clients that while running burned more calories than walking that they should certainly not run but walk because walking burns more fat. He advised a pace of 3 to 3.5 mph.

LOW INTENSITY WALKING IN YOUR “FAT BURNING ZONE” IS TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE PHYSIOLOGICAL FICTION.

It was refuted in the research maybe 20 years ago. The truth is exactly the opposite of this recommendation. The percentage contribution of specific energy nutrients, fats, carbohydrates or protein to exercise is totally irrelevant. The only relevant consideration for fat loss is total calories expended.

Even if we did consider the specific percentage of fats to carbohydrates burned, which we will in fact break down for you, the fat loss in higher intensity exercise like running or Workout America’s Supercircuit, is overwhelmingly higher, producing up to 3 times more fat loss than walking.

WORKOUT AMERICA YOUR PERSONAL TRAINING INFORMATION RESOURCE

The fact that higher intensity aerobic exercise burns more fat is an elementary training principle. It is generally regarded as common knowledge in the educated training community, and graphically illustrates the dire need for an appropriate knowledge base and valid certification for personal trainers. This is exactly what certification through Workout America provides trainers who are motivated to be the best.

We are going to break down the fat to carbohydrate contribution and do some quick math to illustrate this point of bioenergetics for you. But first I would like to wholeheartedly recommend to all you workout enthusiasts that you take advantage of Workout America’s programs and feel confident you are getting not only the most creative and effective workouts in the country, but that they are substantiated by solid contemporary research and solid science.

This way you avoid the myths and misinformation rampant in the industry, and insure your personal fitness success.

If you are personal trainer certified in Workout America’s methodology you will certainly be light years ahead of the crowd.

The Experts Speaks
I called my friend Dr. Anthony Abbott to discuss this myth of your fat burning zone. Dr. Abbott is one of the most respected exercise physiologists in the country, he is the Director of The Fitness Institute International, probably the most comprehensive and desirable primary certification available in the industry today. Dr. Abbott was also on the panel of Ph.D’s who developed the national exam for The National Strength and Conditioning Associations certification and is a certification specialist for The American College of Sports Medicine.

Dr. Abbott emphasized again that the real issue for fat loss was total calories expended.

Dr. Abbott indicates that at a moderate walking pace at around 50% of VO2 Max (50% of your aerobic capacity) the fat to carb contribution is 50/50.

When we pick the pace up to a moderate run at a pace of around 70% of VO2 Max the contribution percentages shift to a slightly more carb dominant ratio, 60% carbs - 40% fats.
Just to be accurate protein contributes a relatively insignificant amount of energy to these needs, normally estimated at around 5%.

HIGHER INTENSITY EXERCISE BURNS MORE FAT AND CALORIES.

Walking at this 3 mph pace for the average size individual burns approximately burns 2-4 calories a minute or around 200 total calories in an hour. This would yield a fat contribution of a whopping 100 calories in an hour. Energy expenditure and fat metabolism is in the toilet in other words.

A moderately hard run ups energy expenditure to about 10 calories a minute or more than 600 calories an hour. Now we’re getting somewhere. At our 60/40 carbs to fat ratio now in the same hour we burn approximately 240 calories of fat or twice the amount of fat as in a walk.

WORKOUT AMERICA’S SUPERCIRCUIT NUMBER ONE FOR FAT BURNING

Many of the men and women we train in our Supercircuit program are seeing calorie expenditures of 12 calories per minute or more than 720 calories in an hour .

That would be an expenditure of more than 300 fat calories in an hour, more than 3 times that of walking, not to mention a much higher total calorie expenditure than running or spinning. And again remember that the real issue for fat burning is total calories expended.

This makes Workout America’s Supercircuit the all time heavyweight champion of fat burners.

The Science of Burning Fat
For those of you who are a bit more technically inclined here is some of the hard data behind the approximations we have liberally thrown at you here.

Here is what many people consider the culprit in fat loss, C6 H12 O6. That’s a carbohydrate molecule which already posses more oxygen than lipids so it takes less oxygen to metabolize than fats. An important consideration as oxygen needs increase with exercise, that’s why energy contribution from carbohydrate increases as exercise intensity or oxygen demand increases.

Fat contains more than twice the energy, 9 calories per gram as opposed to 4 calories a gram for carbs but again requires more O2 to breakdown. The actual carb breakdown looks like this C6 H12 O6 + 6O2 = 6H2O + 6CO2 and 38 molecules of ATP the final energy currency that fuels muscular contraction.

We also approximated energy expenditure in walking and running and to really look at this with a higher degree of accuracy we would extrapolate it out based on bodyweight and MET level. At an identical workload an individual weighing 200lbs would burn twice the calories as an individual weighing 100lbs. since the O2 needs of twice the tissue double.

A MET is a multiple of your resting metabolism. Resting metabolism is one MET or 3.5 ml of O2 per kg of bodyweight per minute. Working at a 10 MET level for instance would be 10 times your resting metabolism or 35 ml of O2 per kg per min. It takes 5 calories to metabolize a liter (1000 ml ) of O2.

Let’s say we have a 150lb individual walking on the treadmill at 3 mph on a 0% incline or no elevation. The American College of Sports Medicine’s table’s for energy equivalents would rate this workload at a 3.3 MET level. So 3.3 mets x 3.5ml = 11.55 ml x 68.18kg = 787.48 x 30min = 23624 or 23.24l of O2 x 5 = 118 total calories expended in 30 min or 59 fat calories.

So for all you walking fat burners get ready to spend a really long, long, time on the treadmill. In the meantime my guy’s are getting the real deal in a Workout America Supercircuit.