Sometimes it not as simple as eating less and exercising more

Sometimes you can’t win for losing. One study found that those who eat less often are more likely to be overweight. Researchers found that:

“on average, the normal weight subjects ate three meals and a little over two snacks each day, whereas the overweight group averaged three meals and just over one snack a day”.

Overweight people who have lost significant amounts of weight tend to gain it back and gain it back quickly. These people experience a slowing metabolism and hormonal changes that increase their appetites. Perhaps if you can just persist and keep the weight off over the longer term, say a year, you’d be more likely to keep it off.

According to another study that unfortunately that does not appear to be the case. The discouraging result after a year of maintaining weight loss:

A year later, the researchers found that the participants’ metabolism and hormone levels had not returned to the levels before the study started.

Another quote:

The results show, once again, Dr. Leibel said, that losing weight “is not a neutral event,” and that it is no accident that more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back. “You are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist,” he said. “You are, in a sense, more metabolically normal when you are at a higher body weight."

Instead of enduring the restrictions of a diet only to gain it back, start an eating plan you know you can stick to. Add a little bit of HIT strength training that burtns calories at a very high rate and live an active healthy life style. This is something that is doable for most people.

HIT is the type of fitness training we do at Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Fitness Training.

What is E.P.O.C?

The Wikipedia definition of EPOC : “Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is a measurably increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity.”

Anaerobic exercise increases EPOC more than aerobic exercise does. Resistance exercise (strength training) is primarily anaerobic. Circuit resistance training produces the largest EPOC response.

According to Murphy, E. and Swartzkopf, R. 1992 (Effects of standard set and circuit weight training on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Journal of Applied Sport Science Research, 6(2), 88-91), circuit resistance training produces a larger EPOC response compared to the standard resistance training. At Austin Personal Training and at New Orleans Fitness Training circuit resistance training is one of protocols we use. 

Our aim is to safely increase exercise intensity over a period of weeks. We work muscles to a deep fatigue and then quickly moving to the next exercise. Each individual will go to an intensity level that will be appropriate for them, one the person feels she or he can reasonably handle. We will gradually increase the amount of weight lifted and at the same time, lessen the time between exercises. No time is wasted. 

You will be surprised how hard you will be breathing after such a workout. Such a personal training session will not take long, about 20 to 25 minutes. You will increase strength, flexibility, tone, muscle, cardiovascular ability, and produce a larger EPOC response – you will burn more calories during and after the workout. This is an efficient workout, as it affects so many factors of good health in such a short amount of time. If you don’t have time to exercise or if you hate exercise but know you have to do it this is the type of exercise that produces the most bang with minimal time in the gym.

Does added muscle burn significant calories

Does adding a pound of muscle burn the often-quoted number of 50 calories a day? The 50-calorie-a-day number can’t be true if one makes the assumption that the muscle tissue you all ready had before adding that pound of muscle will produce the same calorie burn - i.e. all lean muscle tissue consumes 50 calories a day. A 155 pound man with 62 pounds of skeletal muscle would have to consume 3100 calories each day just to support his muscles.

A more reasonable assumption is that strength training will results in an increase in resting metabolism for existing muscle plus and an additional increase in metabolism for new muscle. From the article examining two studies Why The Confusion on Muscle and Metabolism? Wayne Wescott concludes:

Strength training does have a significant elevating effect on resting metabolic rate, and is therefore a highly beneficial exercise for increasing daily calorie utilization and enhancing fat loss. It would appear that the metabolic increase occurs in all of the strength trained muscle tissue, and that the additional energy utilization may be about 1.5 calories per pound of muscle per day.

The stats from the studies examined:

A standard three-month strength training program may produce the following effects in previously sedentary adults and seniors:

1. Increase overall resting metabolism by
about 7 percent.
2. Increase lean (muscle) weight by about 3 pounds.
3. Increase daily resting metabolic rate in all of the trained muscle by about
1.5 calories per pound (from 5.7 calories per pound to 7.2 calories per pound).

Interestingly both studies were conducted using brief, intense 30 minute workouts of the type we use at our facilities- Austin Personal Trainers andNew Orleans Personal Training. With strength training you burn calories four ways:

1. Added muscle burns additional calories.

2. Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) - recovery and rebuilding muscle as a result of the workout

3. The workout itself.

4. Existing muscle regularly trained will experience an increase in tone and an increase in resting metabolism.

Strength training is something one might want to consider if one is embarking on a weight loss program. Not only will stronger people burn more calories at rest, people who are stronger can engage in more activities and do them for longer periods with less chance of injury creating a beneficial cycle of fat burning. For those will little free time you might want to consider high intensity strength training. For time spent nothing burns more calories than high intensity strength training - nothing. One study examining the effect of high intensity strength training on metabolism showed a nine-fold improvement in fat burning.

Lowering metabolic syndrome risk factors, which type of exercise is most effective?

A study designed to test the efficacy of exercise in lowering metabolic risk factors consisted of three groups.  One group used a less-intense regimen called “moderate continuous-training” (CME). Another group did not exercise, and the third group used a high-intensity aerobic-interval training for four months.
From this article High-intensity exercise better at improving metabolic syndrome risk factors the results:

“• Short bursts of high-intensity exercise, rather than longer spells of moderate-intensity, exercise may improve the health of people with metabolic syndrome.

 • Once previously sedentary people with metabolic syndrome can comfortably exercise at a moderate intensity, they could consider more vigorous exercise, if they can do it without adverse symptoms, according to American Heart Association spokesperson.”

This study involved high-intensity aerobic-interval training. For more bang for you time one can obtain the positive heart benefits, have a positive effect on your metabolism, and also increase strength at the same time with high intensity interval strength training. High intensity interval strength training can increase metabolism four ways.

The type of strength training we do at New Orleans Fitness Trainers and atAustin Fitness Trainers is high intensity interval training (HIIT). It is a full body workout where a series of strength training exercises are performed with little rest between the exercises.  Strength training has more to offer than stronger muscles and bones; it is a heart healthy and beneficial to your metabolism as well.

Burn calories four ways with strength training

Strength training helps you burn calories four ways:

1. Calories burned after the exercise stops. Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) occurs after the workout. After running your body replenishes sugar stores. Strength training produces a larger post-exercise calorie demand as the body replaces sugar and rebuilds muscle as a result of the micro-trauma that has been imposed on the muscles.

2. Added muscle burns additional calories. Muscle is metabolically expensive to maintain and will require calories 24/7.

3. The workout itself. All forms of exercise burn calories, but not really as much as people think. Those who exercise with lesser intensity will burn less calories that those who exercise with more intensity.

4. Existing muscle. Existing muscle regularly strength trained will experience an increase in tone and an increase in resting metabolism. You burn more calories 24/7. Running does not produce a similar result. For more on existing muscle burning more calories see this post.

Not only will stronger people burn more calories at rest, people who are stronger can engage in more activities and do them for longer periods with less chance of injury creating a beneficial cycle of fat burning. Strength training is something to consider if one is looking to lose weight.

For those will little free time you might want to consider high intensity training (HIT) for strength. One study examining the effect of high intensity strength training on metabolism showed a nine-fold improvement in fat burning. High intensity training is the type of personal training we do atAustin Fitness Training and at New Orleans Personal Training. HIT is only performed once or twice a week for about 30 minutes. This will free you up to do other calories-burning recreational activities. It is a win, win, win ... proposition.

Changing up your workouts

When the body is exposed to more of astimulus that it is equipped to handle the body will makes a positive adaptation as a form of self-protection. That change will occur if the body has the capacity to change plus the needed time and resources to recover. The changes will continue to occur if the body is faced with new challenges. We take our clients through a variety of different exercises, changing sequences, differing amount of sets for each muscle group, different techniques, exercises of different durations so that they are constantly presented with a new challenge to keep the positive adaptations ongoing.

Just some of factors to consider in designing a high intensity strength training routine that is productive, safe, and efficient:

· Frequency of workouts
· Selection of specific exercises
· Sequence of exercises
· Pre-exhaustion sets
· Number of repetitions of an exercise for a particular muscle group
· Number of sets of each exercise for each muscle group
· Rate of increase of resistance between sessions
· Amount of rest between each set
· Amount of rest after completing exercises on one muscle group before starting exercise on another muscle group.
· Unilateral versus bilateral movements
· Negative accentuated sets
· Full repetitions
· Partial repetitions
· Range of motion
· Form
· Type of equipment
· Level of fatigue
· Amount of rest between each repetition
· Compound movements versus rotary movements
· How heavy the weights should be
· Variable versus fixed intervals of time between workouts
· Alternating aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise in one workout
· Speed during concentric movement
· Speed during eccentric movement
· How often should the exercise routine be varied
· Time under tension
· Active recovery between workouts
· Length of time of the workouts
· Achieving momentary muscular failure
· Concentric only exercise
· Negative only sets
· Negative only workouts
· Static holds

You can manipulate these variables and come up with large number of workouts that are productive, safe, and efficient. There is not one perfect workout; there will be trade-offs. You might opt for a less range of motion for less risk of injury but this also results in less enhanced flexibility. Variety exposes the body to changing stimulus that it must adapt to, but at some point too much variety makes it difficult to track improvement.

If you manipulate too many of the variables you cannot tell what is working or not working. It is best to keep it simple. As long as it is working there is little need to make wholesale changes in the workouts, but it is good to throw in a workout that is out of the norm and a shock to the system. The body is challenged in a new way. It is a welcome change to the weekly routine.

An experienced personal trainer can help you eliminate the trial and error, research, and possible injury involved in developing a high intensity train program on your own. An experienced personal trainer will adapt the workout to address the specific concerns of the client. A personal trainer with experience in high intensity strength training can develop an effective routine and will know how and when to manipulate the variables and when to change the routine.

High intensity strength training does not require hours each week engaged in monotonous exercise. Significant strength increases occur exercising as little as once or twice a week IF it's the right exercise program with the right trainer. At Austin Fitness Trainers and at Personal Trainers of New Orleansour personal trainers can guide you through a personal training program that will safely produce ongoing results, so you can avoid wasting time with trial and error and avoid possible injury.