What if everything you've been told about losing weight and changing
your body is actually causing you to gain weight in the long run? The
new fat loss research is very clear. To lose weight and create lasting
body transformation, you must change the two most important things that
affect how your body burns fat.
So here are a few of the most
important concepts to keep in mind as you go about working on your
summer body. Yes, you read correctly. Summer will be here sooner than
you think.
Intensity, intensity, intensity
That's right. The main reason why most people who lose weight end up gaining the weight back, it is because they do not create enough changes at the cellular level in the different systems that affect fat burning. This is what I call "physiological adaptations."
To improve the efficiency
of your body's fat-burning systems you have to change the efficiency of
the oxygen delivery system, oxygen extraction from the blood by your
cells, hormone signaling, and of course the efficiency of your liver in
converting stored body fat to fatty acids and supplying it to your
working muscles.
Sounds complicated, doesn't it? Well, it is a
very complicated process. However, the most important thing you can do
to affect this entire process is to train at a very high intensity. That
means high intensity cardio, as well as intense weight training.
Now
I know that some people are going to have a problem digesting this
because they're still stuck in the old way of thinking. Remember the
"fat burning zone" that you still see on most treadmills and cardio
machines? Forget about it. Remember the old theory of "long, slow
distance" for weight loss? Forget about it. Throw away all these old
ideas of how to burn fat or workout to lose weight. The only word you
need to remember is "intensity." The harder you train, the more
"physiological adaptations" you create. This is what improves the
efficiency of your fat-burning systems.
So let's take weight loss
as an example. The prevalent theory of weight loss is "calories in vs.
calories out." You hear it all the time. Cut back on the amount of
calories you take in to create a calorie deficit and eventually you will
lose weight. While this strategy can lead to weight loss, most people
will end up gaining their weight back the minute they eat more calories
than they burn. This puts you on the never-ending cycle of weight loss -
weight gain, which eventually makes it harder to lose weight.
Following
the new approach, however, which is supported by a wealth of published
research, some of which I cited in my book, you can forget about weight
loss all together. According to a number of these studies, the two
things that most significantly affect the body's fat burning are your
body composition and fitness level.
Fat loss vs. weight loss
When
most people diet to lose weight, they will lose a lot of water, some
muscle tissue and a little fat. On the other hand, when you train to
change your body composition and fitness level by doing intense weight
training and high intensity cardio, you will end up improving the
efficiency of your fat burning systems. By this I mean the efficiency of
the body's oxygen delivery system, oxygen extraction from the blood by
your cells, hormone signaling, and of course the efficiency of your
liver in converting stored body fat to fatty acids and supplying it to
your working muscles.
These are the kind of internal changes that
will help you to get and stay lean without worrying about counting
calories because your body will be burning more calories at rest, as
well as during and after your workouts.
Isn't that a better place to be than to constantly worry about counting calories or points everyday?
So
here's the new fat burning equation. This applies whether you're trying
to lose weight or not. Heavy weights plus intense cardio will change
your body composition and fitness level, which in turn will create
significant "physiological adaptations" at the cellular level. This will
create a more efficient fat-burning environment, which will ultimately
lead to body transformation.
When diet to lose weight, you're just temporarily change the weight of the body, not the composition (ratio of fat to muscle). Creating significant changes in their internal systems, however, it puts you in a different league. And research is very clear that trained athletes burn fat more efficiently and burn more of the uninformed.
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