07 - Fat-Burning Exercise: Which Activity Has the Highest Weight Loss Efficiency?
Hello, welcome back to "Scientific Weight Loss Course". I'm Jessica.
adjustment in weight loss - diet. In this lesson, we'll discuss the
second aspect of lifestyle adjustment - exercise.
When it comes to weight loss, exercise is undoubtedly a perplexing
topic. Everyone knows exercise is good for the body, but does exercise
actually help with weight loss? Which type of exercise has the best
weight loss effect? It seems unclear.
In this lesson, we'll clarify the relationship between exercise and
weight loss once and for all.
Why Doesn't Hard Exercise Work?
To clarify this issue, let me first tell you the story of my friend
Xiaoman.
When summer came, Xiaoman was determined to lose weight. She
specifically hired a fitness trainer, doing various weight lifting
exercises with high intensity each session. After one week, her weight
dropped by 3kg. Xiaoman went to the gym even more frequently, almost
daily, doing all kinds of exercises. But after a month, her weight had
only decreased by 1kg. Xiaoman asked me with self-defeating eyes: why
didn't hard work show results? Was she naturally destined to be fat?
After hearing her complaints, I asked one question: Did you control
your diet? Xiaoman proudly said: Not really. With such high daily
exercise volume, eating a bit more shouldn't matter, right?
At this point, I understood. Why did Xiaoman fail at weight loss?
Because she made two mistakes: first, besides exercise, she didn't
manage other aspects of lifestyle, mainly diet; second, she chose the
wrong type of exercise.
Can Exercise Really Help with Weight Loss?
Let's first discuss the first mistake - only exercising without
controlling diet.
In the past, we always believed that weight loss required "moving your
legs" - exercise could lead to weight loss. However, medical weight
loss research has found that without combining dietary adjustments,
exercise's impact on weight loss varies greatly, from having a slight
effect to being completely useless.
Didn't expect that? Why doesn't hard exercise work?
There are two main reasons: First, most people overestimate exercise's
energy consumption. Although exercise is tiring, it consumes very
little energy. Playing basketball for half an hour burns about 220
calories, less than one cup of milk tea; cycling for half an hour only
burns about 145 calories, equivalent to one bottle of Sprite. Second,
after exercise, many people reward themselves with a big meal.
Accidentally, energy intake exceeds the limit, so of course weight loss
doesn't happen.
In summary, pure exercise has limited impact on weight. Without
changing other lifestyle factors, trying to lose weight through
exercise alone is basically impossible. Now you know why Xiaoman, who
worked hard at weight lifting, failed at weight loss, right?
Since pure exercise has limited impact on weight, does this mean
exercise is useless for weight loss and our sweat is wasted? Not
really. Almost all studies have found that as long as comprehensive
lifestyle management is combined, exercise's weight loss effect
immediately becomes dramatically different.
Under comprehensive lifestyle intervention, people who persist in
exercising over 200 minutes per week can lose an average of 13.1kg in 6
months; those exercising 150-200 minutes average 8.5kg weight loss;
while those under 150 minutes only lost 3.5kg in 6 months. See, the
more you exercise, the more you lose.
Why does this produce such drastically different effects?
Simply explained in one sentence - exercise is the driving force for
forming new lifestyles. During exercise, the brain secretes a reward
substance called "dopamine" that creates euphoria. Over time, exercise
becomes addictive and becomes our habit. Meanwhile, after completing
exercise each time, our confidence in being able to change behavior and
habits continuously strengthens. This further promotes us to change
original life habits and internalize changes into new lifestyles.
So, can exercise help with weight loss? The answer is definitely yes,
but it must be paired with lifestyle management. To use an analogy,
although diet is the soul of weight loss, exercise is the soul's
companion. Without a companion, the loneliness of the soul walking this
long weight loss journey is imaginable.
What Kind of Exercise Burns Fat Most Effectively?
Next, let's discuss Xiaoman's second mistake - choosing the wrong
exercise. For an exercise to efficiently burn fat, it must
simultaneously meet three requirements -
First, aerobic.
Burning fat is a process that requires oxygen participation. Moreover,
the higher the proportion of oxygen participation, the more complete
the fat burning. So for weight loss, choose exercises with high oxygen
participation, so-called "aerobic exercise".
For example, brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, mountain
climbing have more aerobic components and are very effective for weight
loss; while weight lifting, squats, glute bridges and other strength
training, as well as most ball sports, have less aerobic components and
generally less effective for weight loss.
Second, appropriate exercise intensity.
As exercise intensity increases, the human body's fat metabolism
efficiency also changes. It first improves accordingly, but when
exercise intensity increases to a certain point, anaerobic metabolism
increases, and fat consumption efficiency greatly decreases. In other
words, it becomes counterproductive. This definitely won't work - we
need to find the point with highest fat-burning efficiency.
To precisely know where your turning point is, you need to do a
cardiopulmonary exercise test at a hospital. If you don't need extreme
precision, that's easy -
If you're relatively healthy and under 55 years old, I can give you a
formula -
> Optimal aerobic exercise heart rate = (220 - age - resting heart
rate) × |40%-60%| + resting heart rate
The result is your optimal heart rate for burning fat. As long as your
heart rate stays in this range during exercise - what we call
moderate-intensity exercise - fat-burning efficiency is highest. Of
course, to calculate heart rate, you need equipment that can detect
heart rate, like a fitness band or heart rate monitor.
If you're over 55 or have diseases like high blood pressure, high blood
sugar, or coronary heart disease, don't try to figure it out yourself -
come find us directly.
Besides being aerobic and having appropriate intensity, the third
condition for burning fat is exercising for a certain duration.
Even with the most efficient moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, 60%
of what's consumed in the first 30 minutes is sugar stored in muscles.
That means to burn fat, moderate-intensity aerobic training needs at
least 30 minutes.
However, there is indeed a time-saving exercise in the weight loss
world - the famous HIIT, also called "High-Intensity Interval
Training". Fitness enthusiasts should know it's a form of exercise
combining high-intensity exercise with low-intensity exercise or even
rest. For example, sprint for 1 minute, then march in place for 3-4
minutes, then sprint for 1 minute, then rest... cycling like this.
HIIT's fat-burning efficiency is indeed high. Many studies show that 25
minutes of HIIT burns the same fat as 41 minutes of moderate-intensity
exercise.
However, HIIT is very high intensity and tiring. Whether it can be done
daily, whether it's suitable for everyone, whether you can persist, and
potential injuries from high-intensity exercise are all still
controversial. Current authoritative scientific weight loss guidelines
recommend the most stable method is not HIIT, but over 150 minutes of
moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week.
So don't fear exercise. If you can handle high-intensity exercise,
choose HIIT and just be careful; if you find it too tiring, go slower -
over 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week is
completely OK; if you still find it too tiring and can't persist,
that's fine too. Let me give you another powerful tip -
Data from the US National Weight Control Registry shows that among
all exercises, brisk walking actually has the highest weight loss
success rate, higher than moderate-intensity jogging, swimming, and
HIIT.
Surprising, right? Actually, it's not hard to understand. Although
these exercises have higher fat-burning efficiency, they all have
thresholds. Persisting day after day for a month or even a lifetime is
quite difficult. But making yourself walk as fast as possible for 30
minutes daily shouldn't be too difficult, right? It easily becomes part
of our lifestyle, so weight loss effects are naturally best.
Fat Loss and Body Shaping
What I just discussed was weight loss and fat burning, but exercise's
greatest effect isn't these - it's body shaping.
As mentioned before, to have a perfect body shape, you need to reshape
your waist-to-hip ratio. Simply put, reduce waist circumference and
increase hip circumference. To change these two body measurements,
adjusting diet alone is difficult - it relies more on exercise.
First, reducing waist circumference. Waist size is determined by the
amount of visceral and subcutaneous fat in the abdomen. The aerobic
exercises we mentioned, like jogging and swimming, can already
effectively reduce visceral fat. But that's not enough - there's still
subcutaneous fat. To reduce subcutaneous fat around the waist, you need
to combine some strength training, doing movements that exercise
abdominal muscles. Like crunches, glute bridges, and barbells - all
have good waist-slimming effects.
To improve waist-to-hip ratio, just slimming the waist isn't enough -
you also need to increase hip circumference. This requires exercising
gluteal muscles like the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius. Compound
movements like squats, planks, and push-ups work well.
With this increase and decrease, the waist-to-hip ratio decreases,
waist curves emerge - not only healthy but also more attractive.
Moreover, these hip-exercising movements make your buttocks more
lifted. A lifted buttocks visually lengthens legs by 5-10cm. Students
wanting long legs can try this trick.
Key Points
1. Exercise isn't omnipotent, but having no exercise is absolutely
impossible. Combining exercise and diet enables rapid weight loss.
2. Five sessions of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, 30
minutes each, can efficiently burn fat.
3. If you can handle it, do HIIT; if you can't, just walk briskly
daily.
4. To create a perfect body, combine aerobic exercise with strength
training.
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