Exercise is widely assumed to be a key part of weight management. However, there are many people who find that exercise alone has very little impact on their weight, while others seem to be able to exercise and lose weight easily. What’s going on? Well, everyone responds slightly differently to exercise due to age, gender, and genetic heritage. However, despite any weight loss difficulties you may have inherited, there are different forms of exercise that can definitely help you lose weight. Different forms of exercise have different effects on weight loss. Next I look:

1. Medium / easy intensity cardiovascular exercise – aerobic.
2. High intensity hard cardiovascular exercise – anaerobic.
3. Weight training and other resistance exercises.

1 aerobic exercise

What is aerobic exercise? Aerobic exercise is exercise that most people can do for hours if they are properly conditioned. Heart rates are usually 55 to 85% of maximum heart rate. You breathe oxygen through your lungs at a rate that generally allows you to speak. Your heart then pumps oxygen-containing blood to your muscle fibers. As muscle fibers contract for movement, they consume oxygen. The faster and faster you go, the more oxygen you will need and, as a consequence, you will breathe faster. As your effort increases, your muscle fibers burn more sugar and fat to produce the energy needed to contract them. The result? You burn calories faster.

What is fat burning? Fat burning is a form of aerobic exercise that became popular in the 1990s. It is basically a lower intensity aerobic exercise. Heart rates are typically between 55% and 65% of maximum heart rate. Unfortunately, it is not the best way to remove excess fat. In fact, you burn more fat as you increase your effort. Although the fat-burning zone burns a higher proportion of fat compared to sugar than the high-effort zones, the high-effort zones burn more fat and more sugar. The amount of sugar burned increases faster than the amount of fat with increasing exertion, so you could say that you enter a sugar-burning zone as you go with more force. However, along with the sugar you will also be burning more fat. There are many studies that have looked at the effects of aerobic exercise on weight loss. Most show a small positive benefit, but much less effective than modifying dietary intake. These studies have been conducted primarily in sedentary or obese people and involve amounts of exercise typically between 2 and 4 hours per week. The truth is, if you don’t intend to get more than 2-4 hours of aerobic exercise per week, you’re unlikely to lose a lot of weight as a result, unless you significantly modify your diet as well. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Most studies also show that physical and psychological health benefit significantly from this small amount of exercise compared to doing nothing. Generally, larger amounts of more intensive aerobic exercise are more effective in achieving weight loss. The effects of more exercise on people vary. Some are responders and some are unresponsive. Non-responders are believed to be people who reduce their daily activity levels when doing an exercise program to compensate. In other words, if you are going to indulge yourself with extra food or sink in in front of the TV after introducing a new exercise routine, it may not have any effect on your weight. I have many clients who respond, who eat healthier when they exercise a lot, and who treat themselves when they are taking a break from their hard exercise routines. It goes without saying that these clients are prone to developing a small tummy when they take it easy, but they find it easy to lose weight once they start their exercise routines all over again.

2 High intensity: anaerobic exercise

The anaerobic threshold is defined as the point during a gradual exercise test at which lactate in the blood begins to accumulate faster than it can be eliminated. A fit athlete can maintain an effort at the anaerobic threshold for approximately 1 hour as long as blood lactate does not continue to rise. If the exercise intensity continues to increase from this point, as it would on a graded exercise test, then acidification occurs. This is due to the accumulation of hydrogen ions that are formed when lactic acid produced in the muscle is converted to lactate. Acidification soon causes severe muscle fatigue and the intensity of exercise can no longer be maintained.

What is anaerobic exercise?

Your muscle fibers and most of the other cells in your body have two main routes for producing energy. The first is aerobic respiration in which sugar or fat is burned with oxygen in the mitochondria to produce energy. Think of mitochondria as power plants. The second is anaerobic respiration, in which sugar is converted to lactic acid without the need for oxygen to produce energy. This happens in the sarcoplasm of muscle cells. Anaerobic exercise occurs when you run out of oxygen. As you exercise more, your muscle fibers try to get more oxygen to your mitochondria to burn your fuel faster. As you cross your anaerobic threshold (see left panel), your body is not providing enough oxygen for your mitochondria to produce all the energy it needs. Your muscle increasingly relies on anaerobic respiration in the sarcoplasm. So at this point, your mitochondrial power plants are running near full capacity, and you’re breathing pretty hard as a result. Anaerobic respiration is interesting because it consumes sugar 15 times faster than mitochondria. How could this affect weight loss? Well, this form of breathing now burns calories 15 times faster than mitochondrial. The fact is, as you push harder beyond the anaerobic threshold, you use anaerobic respiration more and more, thereby burning calories at an exponentially increasing rate. You reach a point where your breathing is maximum. This is called VO2max. A fit athlete can maintain this respiratory rate for up to 10 minutes. Your mitochondria are now working at full capacity and your anaerobic respiration in sarcoplasm is working towards maximum. Anaerobic metabolism is building up lactic acid, resulting in increased acidosis in the muscles the longer and harder you continue. Fatigue becomes unbearable and you soon slow down.

Will i lose weight?

Clearly, you can burn calories quickly with intense exercise. However, you cannot maintain a high intensity for long, so the total amount of calories burned may be less than during a prolonged aerobic workout. However, your body will likely continue to function long after the exercise is over, as it will have to recover from the muscle trauma that normally accompanies high intensity efforts. Other body systems are also stressed, and all of these need energy to fully repair themselves. Basically, anaerobic exercise is a useful weight management tool, but due to its intense nature, it should be used sensibly. It’s easy to exercise excessively and end up injured, sick, or discouraged. It is important to recover from intense sessions, ideally you will be fit enough to use easier workouts as recovery between more difficult sessions. In this way, the metabolism remains high and the calories continue to be burned faster than before.

3 Endurance exercise

Resistance exercise leads to greater muscle mass and a higher metabolic rate that burns more calories. This is because muscle tissue requires more calories at rest than fat-containing adipose tissue.

Will i lose weight?

There are several studies that show that resistance exercise is effective in producing weight loss. These exercises also increase the tone of your body. If you select a good variety of exercises, including bodyweight exercises and exercises that challenge your balance and agility, you should find many benefits that go beyond mere weight loss and looking good. In particular, a stronger and more flexible body is less prone to injury. As a result, less time is spent injured and exercise regimens can be maintained for longer without interruption. Breaks that can easily lead to unwanted weight gain due to excess fat deposited around the body. It’s also worth remembering that the muscle strength and flexibility gained from resistance exercise can increase the efficiency of your movements and open up the possibility of new movements that can burn even more calories.

Won’t I get too muscular?

If you’re a woman and you’re worried that resistance exercise or weight training in particular will make you appear too muscular and masculine, think again. There are many different ways of lifting weights and many things that build strength, agility, and balance without increasing muscle mass. Most bodyweight exercises will not bulk up, and neither will all balance and agility exercises you can do. In the deal, you will find that weight training will increase strength, helping you avoid injury. It will also tone your torso, arms and legs, reducing sagging, cellulite and bingo wings.

In summary

Exercise is very beneficial for psychological and physical health. The confidence and satisfaction gained from maintaining a functioning exercise program increase self-esteem and, very often, have a positive impact on attempts to change the diet. As explained above, exercise itself is more likely to reduce your weight if you follow as many of the following as possible:

1. Maintain the exercise program for at least 3 months or more.
2. Build your exercise program to at least 5 hours per week.
3. Try to incorporate all kinds of exercise, consistent aerobic efforts, short and hard anaerobic efforts, and resistance training.
4. Don’t accumulate too fast. If you feel particularly sore or tired, relax a bit with shorter sessions and / or less intense exercises.
5. Keep it nice. This lark exercise only really works when you enjoy it. So make it an attractive exercise / sport. Otherwise, the chances of giving up and gaining weight again are high.