Buring Body Fat Off

Photo Credit: Corbis Images.

The discussion for last week’s blog post detailed what body fat is. Now that we know what body fat is comprised of and how our body stores the extra fat, we can manipulate our body into using that extra body fat.

The first thing that we need to remember is that body fat is energy. Therefore we need to create an environment that our body needs to use that energy. The most common method of using this energy is to start a cardiovascular training routine.
                                                                                                                                                                                             
Cardiovascular Routine:
• 150 minutes a week
• 65-80% intensity

The 150 minutes per week are the beginning recommendations for many people. If more results are desired, then more time can be added during the week. Another way to increase the results would be to increase the intensity closer to 80% of your predicted maximum heart rate.(Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2008).

Strength Training:
 • 3 workouts a week
• Major muscle groups
 • 3 sets of 8 repetitions

Strength training will build more lean muscle tissue, having more lean muscle tissue will require more energy to maintain. Muscle tissue requires 10kcal/kg per day(Wolfe,2006). To put this simply, the higher percentage of lean tissue a person has the more energy their body needs. This increases their resting metabolic rate, making it easier to maintain a healthy lower body fat percentage.

When an individual adds the two of these methods they are able to lose on average 1.63kg. When the methods are combined individuals gained almost 1kg. The main benefits of combining the two methods are fat metabolism and hypertrophy. Fat metabolism is the breakdown of body fat into energy. Hypertrophy is the creation of new muscle tissue(Kollias). Being able to maintain a healthy weight and size is a continual routine that needs to be kept to maintain their results. If you need any additional information on any of these topics, look over the past weeks blogs.

2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. (2008, January 1). Center for Disease Control and                   Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html

Kollias, H. (n.d.). Cardio vs. weights: Which is Really Better for Fat Loss?. Precision Nutrition. Retrieved ,        from http://www.precisionnutrition.com/rr-cardio-vs-weights

Wolfe, R. The Underappreciated Role of Muscle in Health and Disease. American Journal of Clinical               Nutrition.