It's just occurred to me that the stickies here don't really cover training for fat loss, so here I am typing away to aware you.
Not to sound like a glossy magazine designed to sell nutritional supplements, but if you're like the majority of people, you pre-conceived notions on how to train for fat loss (and the most important means of training for fat loss) are probably in direct conflict with exercise physiology. There are a lot of ideas and beliefs about fat loss, and especially training for it, that are anywhere between not-entirely-accurate and downright wrong. The single biggest thing people get wrong here is the importance of cardio.
It's a well known fact that to lose fat you need to do lots of cardio. The longer it lasts, the better. You need to get into the fat burning zone and stay there. You shouldn't lift weights as they'll just make you bulky -- if you must lift weights, make sure they're light weights that you do for high reps. That's good for toning.
Did you find yourself nodding along to the above paragraph? I don't blame you if you did, but every sentence of the above paragraph is a lie.
In reality, the single most important thing you can do (exercise-wise) to promote fat loss is to try and become as strong as you can be, given the nutritional environment you'll be in (weight loss reality: you have to consume fewer calories than you use in order to lose weight). This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but when we dig a little deeper, you'll understand why this is true.
As I mentioned above, you need to consume fewer calories than you use in order to lose weight. Whether you offset that balance by increasing physical activity, or by reducing calorie intake, or both, isn't hugely important so long as a calorie deficit is generated. Once that deficit is generated, you will lose weight for as long as that deficit remains (as a side note, changes in calorie consumption and physical activity can shift where your body sets its resting metabolic rate, energy efficiency, etc., so what might have caused a calorie deficit one week could be maintenance the next. At that point, a deficit is no longer in effect). You have to. It's unavoidable.
You, you create your calorie deficit, and now you must lose weight. You can do that with or without exercise, so for weight loss purposes, exercise isn't even important. But, not all weight that can be lost is fat. Now think back to my claim before that strength training is the most important kind of training for fat loss. Any lightbulbs lighting up yet?
See, here's the thing, when people want to lose weight (presumably fat, not just any assortment of weight), most people will turn to cardio because they've been taught (quite accurately) that it can burn a lot of calories, and that within a certain heart-rate range a high percentage of those calories will be from fat. Some people have also clued in to concepts such as interval training, high intensity interval training, and circuit training -- these have been popularised over the last decade due to metabolic effects outside of training. That's all well and good, and there's nothing wrong with using any of these training protocols.
But, if the calorie deficit has been made, it's been made. The most important goal now is not to make it bigger, or to use high percentages of fat for activity, or to increase excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), etc. The most important goal now is to minimise the loss of fat-free mass, ie bones, muscles, connective tissue, and whatever else you might be composed of that isn't fat. And how do you prevent your body from getting rid of these things? By making it a priority that your body keep them. If you make the concerted effort to be as physically strong as you can be in a calorie deficit, then your bones will harden, your connective tissue with toughen up, and your muscle mass (the one form of body mass most at risk of degenerating with weight loss) will remain intact.
If you're still not grasping the significance of this, let me spell (actually, count) it out for you.
Two people decide to lose weight. One of them goes the typical route of diet and cardio. The other goes the atypical route of diet and strength training. They both lose 20lb.
The first person, who dieted and cardioed their way down 20lb, lost a fair amount of muscle mass while they were at it, which didn't seem to be a problem to them, because they "don't want to be bulky, anyway." They lost 10lb of lean mass within their weight loss.
The second person, who dieted and strengthened their way down 20lb, preserved a lot of lean body mass. They only lost 1lb of lean mass within their weight loss.
Do the math. What's 20 minus 10? 10. What's 20 minus 1? 19. That's how many pounds of fat each person has lost. The one who didn't do strength training has only lost 10lb of fat, while the other has lost 19lb. These are hypothetical numbers, but do you see the picture, and the point I'm making?
Wholebody strengthening is the best thing you can do. Squats, lunges, step ups, deadlifts, olympic lifts, presses, dips, pull ups, rows....these are the sorts of exercises that should make up the main focus of your training. Anything else should be peripheral to this. Learn good form first and foremost, then practice progressive overload.
Don't try and turn your strength training into cardio. You can use strength training exercises in cardio -- a circuit of squats, dips and pull ups is perfectly fine to do -- but make sure you do at least 2 sessions per week that are dedicated to the sole purpose of building strength. You can do circuits, high intensity cardio, low intensity cardio, yoga, zumba (but I will disown you for it), play sports, whatever throughout the rest of the week. But 2-3 days per week, lift some heavy weights, and aim to lift some heavier weights next week. Get your nutrition in check, and reap the benefits.
Not to sound like a glossy magazine designed to sell nutritional supplements, but if you're like the majority of people, you pre-conceived notions on how to train for fat loss (and the most important means of training for fat loss) are probably in direct conflict with exercise physiology. There are a lot of ideas and beliefs about fat loss, and especially training for it, that are anywhere between not-entirely-accurate and downright wrong. The single biggest thing people get wrong here is the importance of cardio.
It's a well known fact that to lose fat you need to do lots of cardio. The longer it lasts, the better. You need to get into the fat burning zone and stay there. You shouldn't lift weights as they'll just make you bulky -- if you must lift weights, make sure they're light weights that you do for high reps. That's good for toning.
Did you find yourself nodding along to the above paragraph? I don't blame you if you did, but every sentence of the above paragraph is a lie.
In reality, the single most important thing you can do (exercise-wise) to promote fat loss is to try and become as strong as you can be, given the nutritional environment you'll be in (weight loss reality: you have to consume fewer calories than you use in order to lose weight). This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but when we dig a little deeper, you'll understand why this is true.
As I mentioned above, you need to consume fewer calories than you use in order to lose weight. Whether you offset that balance by increasing physical activity, or by reducing calorie intake, or both, isn't hugely important so long as a calorie deficit is generated. Once that deficit is generated, you will lose weight for as long as that deficit remains (as a side note, changes in calorie consumption and physical activity can shift where your body sets its resting metabolic rate, energy efficiency, etc., so what might have caused a calorie deficit one week could be maintenance the next. At that point, a deficit is no longer in effect). You have to. It's unavoidable.
You, you create your calorie deficit, and now you must lose weight. You can do that with or without exercise, so for weight loss purposes, exercise isn't even important. But, not all weight that can be lost is fat. Now think back to my claim before that strength training is the most important kind of training for fat loss. Any lightbulbs lighting up yet?
See, here's the thing, when people want to lose weight (presumably fat, not just any assortment of weight), most people will turn to cardio because they've been taught (quite accurately) that it can burn a lot of calories, and that within a certain heart-rate range a high percentage of those calories will be from fat. Some people have also clued in to concepts such as interval training, high intensity interval training, and circuit training -- these have been popularised over the last decade due to metabolic effects outside of training. That's all well and good, and there's nothing wrong with using any of these training protocols.
But, if the calorie deficit has been made, it's been made. The most important goal now is not to make it bigger, or to use high percentages of fat for activity, or to increase excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), etc. The most important goal now is to minimise the loss of fat-free mass, ie bones, muscles, connective tissue, and whatever else you might be composed of that isn't fat. And how do you prevent your body from getting rid of these things? By making it a priority that your body keep them. If you make the concerted effort to be as physically strong as you can be in a calorie deficit, then your bones will harden, your connective tissue with toughen up, and your muscle mass (the one form of body mass most at risk of degenerating with weight loss) will remain intact.
If you're still not grasping the significance of this, let me spell (actually, count) it out for you.
Two people decide to lose weight. One of them goes the typical route of diet and cardio. The other goes the atypical route of diet and strength training. They both lose 20lb.
The first person, who dieted and cardioed their way down 20lb, lost a fair amount of muscle mass while they were at it, which didn't seem to be a problem to them, because they "don't want to be bulky, anyway." They lost 10lb of lean mass within their weight loss.
The second person, who dieted and strengthened their way down 20lb, preserved a lot of lean body mass. They only lost 1lb of lean mass within their weight loss.
Do the math. What's 20 minus 10? 10. What's 20 minus 1? 19. That's how many pounds of fat each person has lost. The one who didn't do strength training has only lost 10lb of fat, while the other has lost 19lb. These are hypothetical numbers, but do you see the picture, and the point I'm making?
Wholebody strengthening is the best thing you can do. Squats, lunges, step ups, deadlifts, olympic lifts, presses, dips, pull ups, rows....these are the sorts of exercises that should make up the main focus of your training. Anything else should be peripheral to this. Learn good form first and foremost, then practice progressive overload.
Don't try and turn your strength training into cardio. You can use strength training exercises in cardio -- a circuit of squats, dips and pull ups is perfectly fine to do -- but make sure you do at least 2 sessions per week that are dedicated to the sole purpose of building strength. You can do circuits, high intensity cardio, low intensity cardio, yoga, zumba (but I will disown you for it), play sports, whatever throughout the rest of the week. But 2-3 days per week, lift some heavy weights, and aim to lift some heavier weights next week. Get your nutrition in check, and reap the benefits.
