BURN Fitness 101: Losing Sight of the “Fat-Loss Forest”… Is Your Workout Short-Sighted?
If you’ve read ANYTHING Lisa and I have published in the past few years, you know how passionate we are about weight training and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) as the PRIMARY training we all need to do for fat loss. Even though scientific evidence backs up these methods, people STILL refuse to believe them. People STILL insist on slogging away on the treadmill, or in the street… JOGGING.
The dinosaur notion that lifting weights makes you bigger, and jogging makes you smaller, couldn’t be farther from the truth, yet it’s still practiced every day, in every gym in America, based off of pure misinformation, and antiquated thinking.
In this article, I want to address the science behind WHY most people get it wrong in the gym.
DISCLAIMER: First… we will make the assumption that you’ve got your calorie intake and macro-nutrients dialed in. YOU CANNOT OUT TRAIN A CRAPPY DIET, so get the nutrition straight first. If you have questions on that… just call us. We’ll help you get your diet right.
Basically, exercise can be divided into three categories when it comes to influencing fat-loss, based on its metabolic impact. Metabolic impact is how a specific exercise session contributes to the rate that you burn calories. Both the calories that you burn DURING your workout, AND the calories you burn in the minutes, hours, days and weeks FOLLOWING your workout… based on one workout session. To get the total picture, you need to look at how many total calories TODAY’S workout will burn, not just while you’re doing it, but for the next YEAR!
When you look at the short-term impact, mid-term impact, and long-term impact of each category of exercise, only then will you understand why weight training and HIIT are so much more effective.
First let’s define short, medium, and long term:
- Short-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn while exercising, be that session 15 minutes, or an hour.
- Medium-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn from the time you stop exercising, going out 2-3 days post-workout.
- Long-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn from 2-3 days post-workout going forward for 3, 6, even 9 months.
Next, I’ll define the different exercise types we are talking about:
- LSD (Long Slow Duration) Cardio. LSD is a slow to moderate paced exercise at an intensity that you can maintain for more than 15-20 minutes without pause to rest. Typical examples are walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, aerobics classes, etc… These workouts last typically 30-60 minutes.
- HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT is a very high intensity “sprint” of very short duration (between 15-45 seconds typically) alternated with walking, or a much slower version of the sprint exercise. HIIT can be done in almost any mode, like sprint/walk on a treadmill, exercise bike, rower, elliptical, etc. It can be done outside on a track, by sprinting the straightaways, and walking the curves. It can be done in a pool, by swimming full-out for one length, then turning and swimming slowly back the other direction. The sprint/rest interval is typically between 15/45 seconds - 30/30 seconds, where 15 (or 30) seconds is the sprint, and 45 (or 30) seconds is the rest/walk.
- Circuit Strength Training. Strength training protocols vary a lot, from powerlifting style workouts, to circuit-strength workouts. For this discussion, we’ll use circuit strength training, where the exerciser chooses 3-4 exercises and does mini-circuits of the selected exercises for multiple circuits, with minimal rest between sets. You are effectively resting one target muscle while training another, so less than 30 seconds between sets.
Okay… Now let’s look at the short, medium, and long-term impact of each type of exercise.
LSD Training Metabolic Impacts:
- MEDIUM to HIGH short-term metabolic impact. While you are doing LSD, your heartrate SHOULD be pretty steady, and typically a few beats per minute below your anaerobic threshold. For most people between 130-145 BPM for an extended period of time, 30-45 minutes. Unfortunately, most people walking will never get close to these numbers, averaging 90-110 BPM. This pushes the intensity and effectiveness down, but allows a longer workout, closer to 60+ minutes.
- ALMOST ZERO medium-term metabolic impact. Quite simply, within a few minutes of LSD training the heart rate drops back to your resting rate. The impact on your metabolism one hour later is nothing, and remains nothing for 2 days. Effectively LSD only works while you’re doing it.
- ZERO Long-term metabolic impact. LSD has no impact at all a month after the workout session. In fact, the long-term adaptations to your body from LSD actually make your body WANT to store fat (as fat is the primary fuel for LSD) to “prepare” for your workouts. The long-term hormonal impacts of LSD are a jump in catabolic hormones (the hormones that EAT muscle), and a drop in anabolic hormones (the hormones that build muscle). Adaptations from LSD include improved “efficiency” from the heart and lungs, which is good for your health… but BAD for your fat-loss goals.
HIIT Training Metabolic Impacts:
- HIGH short-term metabolic impact. The significant intensity of sprinting, even in very short duration and volume burns a HUGE amount of calories. 15 minutes of true HIIT will burn as many calories as a 30-minute jog, or more than an hour of walking. Nothing beats HIIT for calories per minute of invested exercise time! HIIT heartrates (done correctly) will push the exercise heartrate close to or even above a person’s VO2Max for short bursts. The 30-45 second “rest” intervals allow the body to recover enough for the next sprint, but typically, the heartrate only drops into LSD heartrate numbers, nowhere near resting heart rate.
- HIGH medium-term metabolic impact. HIIT will cause your metabolism to stay elevated for HOURS after your session stops. Studies have shown that due to the effects of EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), the body will burn more fat than normal for 18 to even 36 HOURS after a single HIIT workout. HIIT is the king, by far, for medium-term metabolic impact of all exercise.
- LOW to MEDIUM long-term metabolic impact. HIIT session will impact the 18-36 hours following a session, but the effects drop off when you look from 2 days to months out. The hormonal impact of HIIT, though, is MUCH better than LSD. The sprints have been proven to boost anabolic hormone production almost as much as strength training, and with less catabolic impact than the damage done through LSD.
Circuit Strength Training Metabolic Impacts:
- MEDIUM short-term metabolic impact. Due to the circuit nature of CST with little rest between sets (as opposed to power workouts with long 2-5 minutes rest intervals) CST can burn some serious calories while you’re mid-session. I find my clients can push their heartrate well into the 140s and 150s mid-set, with a drop off only into the 90-100 BPM range between sets. The more sets you do using multi-joint and standing exercises the better. Seated and lying isolation exercises drop off the short-term impact. CST produces similar short-term impact to LSD “jogging” paces, but not as much as HIIT.
- MEDIUM to HIGH medium-term metabolic impact. CST is by its nature, an interval style workout. The lifting sets are the equivalent of 15-20 second “sprints”, using the upper body as much as the lower. This produces SOME of the EPOC produced by HIIT, but not as much. BUT… CST causes significantly more cellular damage to the trained muscles than HIIT, where LSD produces almost none. This cellular damage takes 2-3 days to fully heal, and the healing process consumes significant calories and significant amino acids (proteins) to rebuild and repair the trained muscles. This muscle growth/re-growth increases medium-term metabolic impact measurably.
- HIGH long-term metabolic impact. Of all the types of exercise, strength training has far and away the GREATEST impact on long-term metabolism. Circuit training with relatively HEAVY weight! Not the pink and purple “beauty-bells”… the IRON. The muscle growth (re-growth) from consistent strength training causes a LARGE just in metabolism. We have shown that adding/maintaining (or re-growing) 10 pounds of (lost) muscle will burn an EXTRA 500kcal per day with no other change in exercise. This 500kcal per day will burn a pound of body-fat per week, or close to 50 pounds per year! CST has a remarkable ability to boost the anabolic hormones that build muscle and maintain “youth” in men and in women. The balance of anabolic and catabolic hormones can change drastically (favoring anabolic) through long-term strength training. CST’s long-term impacts are MUCH higher than those found from LSD (none) and HIIT (moderate).
Based off of this science, we can see how a person seeking maximum LIFETIME fat-loss should revise their priorities. Most people heading to the gym in search of fat/weight loss, head right for the treadmill or other cardio equipment, and pound away for 30, 45, even 60 minutes, then go do some crunches, and then head on home. Their strength workouts are an afterthought, maybe a few days per week with LIGHT WEIGHTS that cause virtually no change to their body. Think of light-weight/high-rep workouts as LSD for your arms!!! They are “losing sight of the forest for the trees”. They only see the impact of TODAY’s workout on their fat loss, without even LOOKING at the medium-term, and especially long-term impacts.
Fat-loss success is NOT the accumulation of individual 30-60 minute sessions. It is the cumulative effect of MANY workouts, building on each other over weeks, months and years.
Think of exercise like investing… The individual deposits you make add up to very little. The compound interest you earn over the long term is what builds a HUGE portfolio. You need to diversify your workouts, like you diversify your investments. With exercise, lean heavily on the long-term investments… in CST and HIIT. Throw in some LSD for relaxation and a nice conversational walk with a loved-one or friend. Don’t depend on long, slow, low-intensity exercise to get you lean!
Think NOT of what the next 30-45 minutes of exercise will do for my fat-loss this WEEK. Instead, focus on what the next 30-45 minutes of INVESTMENT IN EXERCISE will do for my fat-loss over the next YEAR!
For MANY more articles like this one… click back to the Articles Tab on our website and READ! There are hundreds more where this one is hosted!
If you’ve read ANYTHING Lisa and I have published in the past few years, you know how passionate we are about weight training and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) as the PRIMARY training we all need to do for fat loss. Even though scientific evidence backs up these methods, people STILL refuse to believe them. People STILL insist on slogging away on the treadmill, or in the street… JOGGING.
The dinosaur notion that lifting weights makes you bigger, and jogging makes you smaller, couldn’t be farther from the truth, yet it’s still practiced every day, in every gym in America, based off of pure misinformation, and antiquated thinking.
In this article, I want to address the science behind WHY most people get it wrong in the gym.
DISCLAIMER: First… we will make the assumption that you’ve got your calorie intake and macro-nutrients dialed in. YOU CANNOT OUT TRAIN A CRAPPY DIET, so get the nutrition straight first. If you have questions on that… just call us. We’ll help you get your diet right.
Basically, exercise can be divided into three categories when it comes to influencing fat-loss, based on its metabolic impact. Metabolic impact is how a specific exercise session contributes to the rate that you burn calories. Both the calories that you burn DURING your workout, AND the calories you burn in the minutes, hours, days and weeks FOLLOWING your workout… based on one workout session. To get the total picture, you need to look at how many total calories TODAY’S workout will burn, not just while you’re doing it, but for the next YEAR!
When you look at the short-term impact, mid-term impact, and long-term impact of each category of exercise, only then will you understand why weight training and HIIT are so much more effective.
First let’s define short, medium, and long term:
- Short-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn while exercising, be that session 15 minutes, or an hour.
- Medium-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn from the time you stop exercising, going out 2-3 days post-workout.
- Long-term metabolic impact is the calories you burn from 2-3 days post-workout going forward for 3, 6, even 9 months.
Next, I’ll define the different exercise types we are talking about:
- LSD (Long Slow Duration) Cardio. LSD is a slow to moderate paced exercise at an intensity that you can maintain for more than 15-20 minutes without pause to rest. Typical examples are walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, aerobics classes, etc… These workouts last typically 30-60 minutes.
- HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT is a very high intensity “sprint” of very short duration (between 15-45 seconds typically) alternated with walking, or a much slower version of the sprint exercise. HIIT can be done in almost any mode, like sprint/walk on a treadmill, exercise bike, rower, elliptical, etc. It can be done outside on a track, by sprinting the straightaways, and walking the curves. It can be done in a pool, by swimming full-out for one length, then turning and swimming slowly back the other direction. The sprint/rest interval is typically between 15/45 seconds - 30/30 seconds, where 15 (or 30) seconds is the sprint, and 45 (or 30) seconds is the rest/walk.
- Circuit Strength Training. Strength training protocols vary a lot, from powerlifting style workouts, to circuit-strength workouts. For this discussion, we’ll use circuit strength training, where the exerciser chooses 3-4 exercises and does mini-circuits of the selected exercises for multiple circuits, with minimal rest between sets. You are effectively resting one target muscle while training another, so less than 30 seconds between sets.
Okay… Now let’s look at the short, medium, and long-term impact of each type of exercise.
LSD Training Metabolic Impacts:
- MEDIUM to HIGH short-term metabolic impact. While you are doing LSD, your heartrate SHOULD be pretty steady, and typically a few beats per minute below your anaerobic threshold. For most people between 130-145 BPM for an extended period of time, 30-45 minutes. Unfortunately, most people walking will never get close to these numbers, averaging 90-110 BPM. This pushes the intensity and effectiveness down, but allows a longer workout, closer to 60+ minutes.
- ALMOST ZERO medium-term metabolic impact. Quite simply, within a few minutes of LSD training the heart rate drops back to your resting rate. The impact on your metabolism one hour later is nothing, and remains nothing for 2 days. Effectively LSD only works while you’re doing it.
- ZERO Long-term metabolic impact. LSD has no impact at all a month after the workout session. In fact, the long-term adaptations to your body from LSD actually make your body WANT to store fat (as fat is the primary fuel for LSD) to “prepare” for your workouts. The long-term hormonal impacts of LSD are a jump in catabolic hormones (the hormones that EAT muscle), and a drop in anabolic hormones (the hormones that build muscle). Adaptations from LSD include improved “efficiency” from the heart and lungs, which is good for your health… but BAD for your fat-loss goals.
HIIT Training Metabolic Impacts:
- HIGH short-term metabolic impact. The significant intensity of sprinting, even in very short duration and volume burns a HUGE amount of calories. 15 minutes of true HIIT will burn as many calories as a 30-minute jog, or more than an hour of walking. Nothing beats HIIT for calories per minute of invested exercise time! HIIT heartrates (done correctly) will push the exercise heartrate close to or even above a person’s VO2Max for short bursts. The 30-45 second “rest” intervals allow the body to recover enough for the next sprint, but typically, the heartrate only drops into LSD heartrate numbers, nowhere near resting heart rate.
- HIGH medium-term metabolic impact. HIIT will cause your metabolism to stay elevated for HOURS after your session stops. Studies have shown that due to the effects of EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), the body will burn more fat than normal for 18 to even 36 HOURS after a single HIIT workout. HIIT is the king, by far, for medium-term metabolic impact of all exercise.
- LOW to MEDIUM long-term metabolic impact. HIIT session will impact the 18-36 hours following a session, but the effects drop off when you look from 2 days to months out. The hormonal impact of HIIT, though, is MUCH better than LSD. The sprints have been proven to boost anabolic hormone production almost as much as strength training, and with less catabolic impact than the damage done through LSD.
Circuit Strength Training Metabolic Impacts:
- MEDIUM short-term metabolic impact. Due to the circuit nature of CST with little rest between sets (as opposed to power workouts with long 2-5 minutes rest intervals) CST can burn some serious calories while you’re mid-session. I find my clients can push their heartrate well into the 140s and 150s mid-set, with a drop off only into the 90-100 BPM range between sets. The more sets you do using multi-joint and standing exercises the better. Seated and lying isolation exercises drop off the short-term impact. CST produces similar short-term impact to LSD “jogging” paces, but not as much as HIIT.
- MEDIUM to HIGH medium-term metabolic impact. CST is by its nature, an interval style workout. The lifting sets are the equivalent of 15-20 second “sprints”, using the upper body as much as the lower. This produces SOME of the EPOC produced by HIIT, but not as much. BUT… CST causes significantly more cellular damage to the trained muscles than HIIT, where LSD produces almost none. This cellular damage takes 2-3 days to fully heal, and the healing process consumes significant calories and significant amino acids (proteins) to rebuild and repair the trained muscles. This muscle growth/re-growth increases medium-term metabolic impact measurably.
- HIGH long-term metabolic impact. Of all the types of exercise, strength training has far and away the GREATEST impact on long-term metabolism. Circuit training with relatively HEAVY weight! Not the pink and purple “beauty-bells”… the IRON. The muscle growth (re-growth) from consistent strength training causes a LARGE just in metabolism. We have shown that adding/maintaining (or re-growing) 10 pounds of (lost) muscle will burn an EXTRA 500kcal per day with no other change in exercise. This 500kcal per day will burn a pound of body-fat per week, or close to 50 pounds per year! CST has a remarkable ability to boost the anabolic hormones that build muscle and maintain “youth” in men and in women. The balance of anabolic and catabolic hormones can change drastically (favoring anabolic) through long-term strength training. CST’s long-term impacts are MUCH higher than those found from LSD (none) and HIIT (moderate).
Based off of this science, we can see how a person seeking maximum LIFETIME fat-loss should revise their priorities. Most people heading to the gym in search of fat/weight loss, head right for the treadmill or other cardio equipment, and pound away for 30, 45, even 60 minutes, then go do some crunches, and then head on home. Their strength workouts are an afterthought, maybe a few days per week with LIGHT WEIGHTS that cause virtually no change to their body. Think of light-weight/high-rep workouts as LSD for your arms!!! They are “losing sight of the forest for the trees”. They only see the impact of TODAY’s workout on their fat loss, without even LOOKING at the medium-term, and especially long-term impacts.
Fat-loss success is NOT the accumulation of individual 30-60 minute sessions. It is the cumulative effect of MANY workouts, building on each other over weeks, months and years.
Think of exercise like investing… The individual deposits you make add up to very little. The compound interest you earn over the long term is what builds a HUGE portfolio. You need to diversify your workouts, like you diversify your investments. With exercise, lean heavily on the long-term investments… in CST and HIIT. Throw in some LSD for relaxation and a nice conversational walk with a loved-one or friend. Don’t depend on long, slow, low-intensity exercise to get you lean!
Think NOT of what the next 30-45 minutes of exercise will do for my fat-loss this WEEK. Instead, focus on what the next 30-45 minutes of INVESTMENT IN EXERCISE will do for my fat-loss over the next YEAR!
For MANY more articles like this one… click back to the Articles Tab on our website and READ! There are hundreds more where this one is hosted!