Today I am going to share with you some of the questions I have sent to me either through my blog or through email. I have included these questions along with their answers from myself because these are the questions that I am most commonly asked in all walks of life as a professional trainer and fat loss expert.
Whether at a party, out shopping, in gym or at an event as soon as people discover what I do these are just some of the questions I am frequently asked regarding fat loss and weight loss and I’m sure they will always be the questions on the lips of many in search of the truth about weight loss and fat loss. While I always try to keep things as simple as possible for the people I offer my answers to they are based on raw truth and honesty, fact not fiction, science and results not just theory.
1. What is Fat?
Body fat, or adipose tissue as it is scientifically known, is nothing more than stored energy. A certain amount is essential to health and proper bodily functioning and it serves a definite purpose. Health problems can arise when body fat falls too low, especially in females. However excessive amounts of body fat is not good for health nor desirable or attractive to most.
Food contains energy, which we measure in the form of calories, and when we consume more energy or calories than our body requires or needs the excess must be stored somewhere for later use. The result is increased levels of body fat, or stored energy.
2. What Foods Are Fattening?
All foods are fattening and no foods are fattening. The term fattening is often overused and misunderstood because regardless of whether a food contains protein, carbohydrate or fat it is the total amount of calories consumed that determines whether it will become stored energy in the form of body fat. Only when an excessive amount of energy, or calories, is consumed regardless of the nutrients it contains, will body fat be stored and increased.
With that said there are certain nutrients that encourage more fat storage and an increased amount of energy to be metabolised and turned into adipose tissue due to the affect it has on the body’s hormonal balance. For example foods containing simple sugar spike blood sugar levels which encourage and stimulate the production of insulin which works to stabilise blood sugar levels by driving energy into the cells of the body as quickly as possible. At this point if these sugars are not used or burnt immediately by the cells of the body then the excess will become stored body fat. This is why sugar is in fact more fattening than fat, depending on the total amount of calories consumed.
3. What the Best Exercise for Burning the Most Fat?
This question can be answered two ways. Firstly lower intensity exercise such as walking does use more fat as fuel while lower intensity exercise such as sprinting or lifting weights uses more sugar as fuel. So on paper longer periods of lower intensity exercise is the best for fat loss. However!
This is just not the case and is only true in theory. Lower intensity exercise can very well be effective for fat loss but it is by no means the most effective. The reason being when lower intensity exercise is performed there is such a small amount of calorie expenditure being demanded from the body that a person would have to spend hours performing the activity while combining it with a very committed extremely calorie controlled strict and balanced diet for it to be effective and to see visible results.
If you perform a shorter burst of higher intensity exercise while the body will use primarily sugar as fuel the demand for calorie burning will be greater and so after not very long the body will have used its sugar reserves and convert to fat for energy, but that isn’t even where the power lies. The true power of higher intensity exercise lies in the EPOC. This means Excessive Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Not only will the person burn more overall calories while performing the activity but they will raise their metabolism much higher and for a much longer extended period of time, so that once the heart rate as dropped back down and the body goes back to burning fat as fuel, as it does at lower intensity activity, the persons body will continue to be burning a far greater amount of calories for hours and hours, due to their elevated metabolism and raised EPOC. Considering this we can see that interval training and sprints would be more effective than walking or jogging.
And yet that still wouldn’t be the absolute best way to burn body fat. The absolute best way to burn body fat (combined with a well balanced diet) would be to lift weight and to build muscle. This comes to a shock to most people but I can assure you it is true. The reason for this is that muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, meaning it burns more calories than any other tissue. Muscles require additional calories simply to maintain. Muscle tissue contributes to your resting metabolic rate which is the number of calories you burn while at rest. So the more muscle tissue you have the more calories and energy your body will need even when you are resting and not exercising. This is where the true power lies. By building muscle you can burn additional calories and fat 24 hours a day and not just while you work out!
4. Why Can’t I Lose Fat?
This always a simple answer and always comes down to one of three reasons. Firstly you could be using an ineffective exercise strategy such as mentioned above. Secondly your are disobeying the fundamental laws and eating too many calories or eating too many of the wrong food such as high sugar and high GI foods. Or finally you are not being consistent!
You will only lose fat if you have the self discipline to be consistent. Failure or success is not an overnight experience in anything but a result of the consistent actions you have taken or failed to take. Working out once or twice doesn’t produce results, nor does eating a well balanced meal once or twice make you healthy and change you body shape. At the same time missing one or two workouts and eating the wrong foods once or twice will not make you out of shape and over weight/fat. The condition of your physical body both inside and out is the direct result of your consistent habits!
5. How Many Calories Are There in a Gram of Fat?
One gram of fat contains 9 calories. Both protein and carbohydrate contain just 4 calories per gram. This is why fat is considered fattening and can contribute to a greater amount of body fat storage but again is a result of the total calorie content of the nutrient, the food and the amount consumed rather than the fat itself.
As mentioned above the characteristics and the impact of simple sugars on the body encourage fat storage more than fat itself. However it ultimately always comes down to golden rule number one which is the calorie balance, the amount consumed versus the amount burnt or used.
I hope this article of Frequently Asked Questions has been of use to you and if you would like to learn more about how to make the most of these fundamental fat burning principles and learn how you can quickly put them into action to have an immediate affect on your body and your results then go to http://www.BodyByAdam.co.uk.
Here’s to your Health, Happiness and ongoing Success
Your Trainer & Friend
Adam
Sign up Free for a Mini E-Course on How to Boost Metabolism at http://www.BodyByAdam.co.uk.
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