Which Exercises are Best for Fat Loss?
There is a myth, a rumour, a false assumption that in order to lose weight, there is an exercise or group of exercises that are better than others. Now this question has always existed since the dawn of commercial fitness facilities and the obsession with weight loss. But now more than ever people seem blinkered into finding the holy grail of exercises. Lets Take a quick look at the basics…
How do we lose fat?
Calorie Deficit = burn more calories than we consume = weight loss
There is no more complexity to this argument except for very uncommon medical conditions
Lets be clear, some exercises burn more calories per minute than others. If you go for a run for an hour chances are you may burn anything upto 800 calories depending on your fitness level (this is a VERY generous estimate). Compare that to a weights session of the same duration giving you a calorie count of 200-300, then you have your answer?! Simple? Running is better for weight loss… right?
Again, there is a trend towards High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for weight loss? If you’ve ever been in an exercise class of any kind then you’ve probably done some kind of HIIT. This idea being to work AS HARD AS POSSIBLE for a short period of time 10, 20, 30 mins and take your body to its maximum capacity HR. in terms of efficiency this could be argued to be training for fat loss. You’re burning more calories in less time, right?
Here’s the TRUTH…
If you are relying on training to lose weight, and I mean relying solely on calories burned in a workout for your for your calorie deficit, then you need to re-educate yourself in how one loses weight.
Your calorie deficit should be underwritten by your nutrition. What you choose to shovel into your face is 90% of weight loss. The type of exercise you undertake should be your choice. This is the thing you love to do, if you dislike the exercise your force yourself to do, then you are setting yourself up to fail from day one.
One major flaw to exercise for fat loss; at the start of this article I said that if you were fit, you might be able to burn 800 calories in an hour on a run. That’s if you have the endurance to maintain an impressive pace. Now, you were biologically destined to burn 100-150 calories sitting on your ass anyway. So your hour run has given you 650 calories.
Now if you eat a maintenance amount of calories for 10 days and you smash out 3 hard runs (1950cals) then all it takes is a ‘cheat meal’ and a few drinks at the weekend and you’re back to zero. 10 days of busting your ass and spending 2 days to recover for the sake of an evening of overdoing the consumption.
Its far too easy to screw up your hard work when you don’t put any effort into your nutrition, and the likelihood that your nutrition is being ignored if you are relying on exercise for your deficit is insanely high.
The Answer…
Control your calorie input. The most successful clients i’ve ever trained are those who embrace their nutritional control. Those who allow lifestyle adjustments. Its easy find an hour to sweat, but its mentally jarring and stressful to make changes to your eating habits. But if you allow these changes to take place then you will succeed. A calorie deficit is a difficult thing to maintain, which is why we look for easier solutions, but this is simply pushing the problem further down the road.
Eat Less - Move more - enjoy the process
