Exercise and Weight Loss – Getting the Balance Right

When it comes to exercise, it’s often difficult to know where to start. There are many different approaches from ‘do it yourself’ gym memberships, group exercise, personal trainers. The Biggest Loser television program provides an extreme view of exercise and weight loss. Don’t forget contestants are recommended to consume only 1200 calories per day compared to their pre-program intake of 5,000 plus calories per day reminding us that calorie control is the first step in any weight loss journey. Calorie control comes from the quality and quantity of food we consume.

The Goal

There is no right or wrong answer but you need to find a routine that is going to complement your goals. Are you trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or just improve your fitness? Also it needs to be practical for your lifestyle and still allows time for adequate rest. With weight loss, the primary goal of exercise is calorie expenditure from burning fat as the preferred fuel for our muscles. But if your exercise intensity is too high, then your body switches to burning stored sugars for fuel and tiredness and hunger can set in. Going too hard, too early can also lead to soreness and injury and a feeling of it’s not going to work. So working out with a personal trainer can be great for working up a sweat but not so great for weight loss.

Frequency and Consistency

With any form of exercise frequency and consistency are the key. Establishing some form of physical activity that is a regular part of your routine, 4-6 days per week, is ideal. Choosing the right exercise is simple, walking, gym classes, swimming, riding and even the Wii fit are all good options, as long as you are getting your heart rate up for an extended period, preferably 30 mins or more. Increasing your heart rate to the right intensity means you will burn fat as the preferred fuel source, the longer you do it the more you burn.

Enjoyment

When the alarm goes at 5:30am getting out of bed for something we enjoy makes it a lot easier. So think about an activity you will still enjoy on the days when you are lacking motivation or tired? We recommend walking as the best option because walking means putting on some decent shoes and heading out the door for half an hour. It also is the most efficient way to mainly burn fat during exercise. Other exercises like cycling or swimming are also great for elevating your heart rate and what is even better is varying your routine between all three to really add some spice to your routine. Activities you can do with other people give you that motivation not to miss a session.

Burning Fat = Losing Weight

During exercise fats and carbohydrates are metabolized for energy. As exercise intensity increases the fuel mix needed changes from predominantly fat to stored sugars. Our body stores sugars in the liver and muscles but only enough for several hours of intense exercise so when these stores are used they will need to be replenished through diet. That is what marathon runners do during a race. Burning fat stores is what we want to achieve when losing or maintaining weight is our goal. This occurs at lower exercise intensities. Each kg of fat stored has enough stored energy to power us for 25 hours of walking or150 kilometres at a brisk walking speed.

How Hard
Intensity (or heart rate achieved) of exercise is a critical aspect when it comes to weight loss and weight management. Intensity can be broken into ranges from light through to vigorous which is determined by the energy demands placed on the body. As exercise intensity increases so do the body’s responses, including higher respiratory rates, increased blood flow to the large muscle groups and the greater need for nutrients and fuel.

Heart Rate for Burning Fat as the Preferred Fuel Source
Heart rate and age are often used to estimate a target heart rate range for fat burning
Minimum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 65%

Maximum target heart rate = (220 – age) x 75%

For example, a 40 year old person’s minimum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.65 = 180 x 0.65 = 117 beats per minute

Their maximum target heart rate is calculated as:

(220 – 40) x 0.75 = 180 x 0.75 = 135 beats per minute

So in this example keeping our heart rate between 117 and 135 beats per minute will keep us burning fat as our primary fuel source.

Tips

Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) are an accurate way of recording your exercise intensity. Another rule of thumb is to make sure you can still hold a conversation while exercising. If your breathing rate is so high that you can’t talk, then you are probably burning sugars and not fat.

Routine
Completing your exercise sessions at the same time each day can be very helpful and enable you to stick to routine more effectively as well as eliminating any exercise-related motivational issues you may have. Initially, you may find that your exercise intensity is the component you find the most difficult to keep up, however this will ease over time as your body adapts to the routine and becomes fitter.