5 new strategies for fat loss
Here's what you need to know...
- HIIT mobilizes fat so that it enters the bloodstream. Cardio training at a consistent intensity ensures that this fat is burned instead of returning to where it came from. So use both during a training session.
- To lose fat and maintain or build muscle, you should consume carbohydrates around your training session, but reduce carbohydrate intake at other times.
- Controlling calories is really controlling energy. For this reason, you should consume carbohydrates and fat in an inversely proportional way.
- When we diet, we often choose lighter exercises that don't leave us so out of breath. However, if you want to burn more calories, you should choose exercises that work more muscles.
- Using caffeine before each exercise session will aid lipolysis and you will also burn more calories as you will be more energized.
1 - HIIT followed by cardio training at a constant intensity
HIIT, high intensity interval training, mobilizes a lot of stored fat from the fat stores. It is super effective in this regard, but unfortunately mobilizing fat in the form of free fatty acids into the bloodstream does not mean that this fat will be burned.
That's right, you can mobilize and release a lot of fat through interval training, but afterwards a lot of it can go back to where it was released from!
Consistent intensity cardio is not nearly as effective as HIIT when it comes to mobilizing fat, but it is really effective when it comes to burning the triglycerides that are in the bloodstream as a result of high-intensity intervals. Performing cardio at a consistent intensity after high-intensity interval training is a reassurance that the fat that has been mobilized will be burned.
To put this strategy into practice, you should perform at least 20 minutes of steady-state cardio after your intervals. The duration of the intervals can be anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes.
Here are some examples:
- If you have 30 minutes for your cardio workout, try doing 10 minutes of HIIT followed by 20 minutes of cardio at a steady intensity.
- If you have an hour for your cardio workout, try 20 minutes of HIIT followed by 20 minutes of cardio at a steady intensity.
As for the cardio workout you use, you can let your imagination run wild. For example, try 20 minutes of intervals on the stepper followed by 40 minutes of walking on the treadmill at a gentle incline. If you do your cardio outdoors, then you could try sprints followed by walking or jogging.
2 - Consume carbohydrates only around your workout
When it comes to building a lean and muscular body, it's important to find the right balance between consuming and restricting carbohydrates.
As a general rule, consuming fewer carbs will help you build some fat, partly due to lower average insulin levels. However, if you take it too far, you will end up sacrificing potential gains in muscle, which is also partly based on a reduction in insulin secretion.
When planning your carbohydrate intake, you will of course be looking at the total amount of carbohydrates you consume each day, but you should pay just as much attention to when you consume those carbohydrates.
Timing your carbohydrate consumption around your training window is undoubtedly the best strategy. Consuming carbohydrates before your training session will, in simple terms, provide you with energy for your workout. More specifically, consuming carbohydrates before your workout will ensure that your blood sugar levels are adequate.
To fine-tune your pre-workout carbohydrate intake, make sure you time it correctly to prevent a rapid drop in blood sugar levels. For most people, carbohydrate intake about an hour before exercise works well. Many exercisers can also benefit from consuming carbohydrates with a higher GI 10 to 15 minutes before exercise.
Another viable option is to consume carbohydrates during exercise. Much has been written about consuming fast-digesting carbohydrates (and protein) during exercise - and with good reason. This is an effective anabolic/anti-catabolic strategy.
Regardless of your pre- and intra-workout carbohydrate strategy, you should definitely consume carbohydrates post-workout to aid your recovery. And by drastically reducing (or eliminating) the carbohydrates you consume at other times, you will maximize fat loss.
3 - Consume opposite proportional amounts of carbohydrate and fat
If you consume larger amounts of carbohydrates during a meal, you should keep your fat intake relatively low. And if you consume more fat during a meal, then you should consume less carbohydrates. Of course, you can alternatively consume a moderate amount of both during a meal.
Simply put, both carbohydrates and fat provide energy, but you should not consume too much energy during a meal.
Of course, protein can also provide energy, but protein is mainly used to build things (muscle, hair, skin, etc.). It is typically not used in significant amounts as a source of energy unless carbohydrates and fat are in short supply (fasting or extremely prolonged training).
Former Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates once explained diets for competitive bodybuilders as follows:
"Eat a set amount of protein each day and adjust your carbohydrate and fat intake to build muscle or lose fat."
Well said, Dorian. And as mentioned earlier, the best way to adjust carbohydrate and fat intake is to consume them in inverse proportion to each other. You may think of this as a method of calorie control, but it's really energy control.
As an example, a meal could include 15 grams of fat or about 35 grams of carbohydrates. If you combine carbohydrates and fat, then you could eat 7 grams of fat in conjunction with 18 grams of carbohydrates. Each of these options contains about 135 kcal in the form of energy-providing macronutrients. This is no more than a simple illustration. Adjust the values to your individual needs.
Here's another way to look at things: We know that low-carb, higher-fat diets work well in terms of fat loss. We also know that low-fat, higher-carb diets can work. But you'll never have heard of a high-carb, high-fat diet working - at least when it comes to anything other than getting fat!
Similarly, you won't have heard of a low-protein diet being effective, which is why you should make sure you get enough protein. This will help you build and/or maintain muscle, boost your metabolism through the thermic effect of protein and achieve a feeling of satiety.
In summary, if you make sure you get enough protein and keep your carbohydrates and fats in inverse proportion to each other, you will lay the foundation for effective fat loss.
4 - Choose heavier exercises, you wimp
Whether this happens consciously or subconsciously, we all too often opt for exercises that are lighter and leave us less out of breath, but at the same time burn fewer calories. If you're in a state of calorie deprivation (and therefore a little tired), you're all the more likely to take the easy route.
An obvious example of this would be doing leg extensions instead of squats and a less obvious example would be choosing leg presses instead of squats. We'll try to sugarcoat this by saying that squats and leg presses work the same muscles, but if we're honest, we just want this to be the case because leg presses are less strenuous.
Squats are more strenuous because the back and other muscles are involved in stabilizing the weight and the gluteus are involved in extending the hips, but if you want to burn fat then this is exactly what you want.
Deadlifts are another exercise begging to be replaced with a lighter exercise variation. But say what you will - performing hyperextensions just isn't the same, even if you're holding a 20 kilo weight plate in front of your body.
Do pull-ups instead of Scott curls or concentration curls. These will engage the latissimus, posterior shoulders and other muscles, resulting in more calories burned. Here are some other exercises that will force you to burn extra calories compared to their more isolated counterparts:
- Repositioning and pressing
- Walking lunges
- Kettlebell swings
- Hanging leg raises
- Burpees
As far as burpees go, this is not a "sexy" exercise, but it will get you out of breath, generate an oxygen debt and burn a few calories. They can be used particularly well between sets of other, more traditional exercises with weights.
As for supersets, these are an easy way to generate a higher oxygen debt and burn more fat, which is especially true if you perform two multi-joint exercises such as squats and walking lunges as a superset.
The key is to take an honest look at your exercise choices and see where you could use harder and more strenuous exercises - exercises that use more muscle groups, cause movement across more joints and simply get you more out of breath. By doing this, you will burn more calories and ultimately lose more fat.
5 - Use caffeine before your workout
Without going into a deep biochemistry lesson, it's worth noting that caffeine promotes lipolysis(fat burning) and inhibits glycolysis (carbohydrate burning). Type the word "caffeine" into PubMed and you'll get just under 30,000 hits and a consistent trend in the research is an increase in the amount of free fatty acids in the bloodstream, suggesting that fat is being broken down.
Once the fat has been broken down and released, it's up to you to make sure it's burned (this is the same concept we looked at in relation to HIIT and steady state cardio). This is where training comes into play. It's a good idea to always consume some caffeine before your workout as this makes sense from a physiological/biochemical perspective.
Not only will this aid your lipolysis, but it will also indirectly help you burn fat as you will be more energized and therefore ultimately do more work.
In this context, there is also evidence that yohimbine does much the same thing, but through slightly different mechanisms. For this reason, taking caffeine and yohimbine before a workout could be a lipolytic one-two punch.
By Clay Hyght, DC | 01/09/15
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/5-new-strategies-for-fat-loss