In previous articles we touched on a very important topic – nutrition. Now knowing how to eat properly, you can lose body fat without jeopardizing your health. Fitness classes reduce this percentage, but not as quickly as some would like. If your main goal is losing weight through fitness, then this article is for you.
First, you need to shed the truth on several popular stereotypes:
1. “I need to lose weight only in the abdominal area”
The human body, be it a man or a woman, is designed so that losing weight and getting rid of fat in only one area is impossible. Unfortunately, local fat burning does not exist – it’s a myth. In addition, nature has chosen a very inconvenient process, which is activated when there is an excess of carbohydrates. According to this process, excess carbohydrates are processed into fat and stored in special storage areas – the abdominal area, and in girls, in addition, the mammary glands are susceptible to obesity. That is why the stomach and chest initially become fat, and only then all other parts of the body. As a result, we see that there is no local lipolysis (fat burning), but local obesity does exist.
People who firmly believe this stereotype begin to diligently load their abdominal muscles – the abs. In fact, working your abs only improves their characteristics, such as appearance, strength and endurance. Of course, someday you will pump it up and bring it to peak strength, but if you have a high percentage of fat, then all this result will be hidden behind a large layer of fat. Initially, you should reduce the content of fat cells throughout the body and only then intensively move on to abdominal training. By the way, we will talk about such training in the following articles.
2. “The weight loss belt works!”
If only the people who claim this knew how far from the truth they are. First, I’ll tell you what this stereotype is. It can take on completely different forms, but the essence is always the same: the stronger the sweating, the faster and more efficient the fat burning process occurs. As a result, people tie themselves with belts or films, put on thick sweaters, and all this with one goal – to increase sweating.
Let’s look at this situation from a scientific point of view. Sweat is the body’s reaction to high body temperature; by releasing it, it tries to cool us down. Using the above means, you increase the temperature of the abdomen (if you are using a belt) and the temperature of the whole body (if we are talking about sweaters, etc.). Fat cells, as you know from anatomy courses, are used by the body as fuel during aerobic exercise. This process is a simple transport of fatty acids via the carnitine transporter to the mitochondria, where they are broken down into energy.
So, few people know that under the influence of high temperatures, the carrier carnitine dies, and fat cells close all transport channels. As a result, by heating your own body, you do not allow the body to use fats as “fuel” and it switches to carbohydrates, causing a feeling of hunger, which is also bad.
As mentioned above, the body uses fats only during aerobic exercise. Such loads include running, jumping rope, all elliptical trainers, in general, all exercises that are performed without using the explosive force of the body, that is, no dumbbells or weight machines. As a rule, suitable equipment is located in special cardio zones, which you can find out about from the fitness center staff.
Your main task when training to lose fat percentage is to prevent the body from using carbohydrates. To do this, the pace of aerobic exercise must be fast, but at the same time you should not be out of breath, although heavy breathing will certainly be present, but still, these are different things. As soon as you start to get out of breath, slow down or rest for a couple of minutes, otherwise you will start running on carbohydrate “fuel”.
Aerobic training, also known as cardio training, can be combined with anaerobic (strength) training. However, the aerobic session in this case is divided into before and after. Do a 25-minute cardio session at the beginning and 25-30 minutes after the entire workout. There should be at least 4 aerobic workouts per week. If you need results as soon as possible, you should add a 20-minute morning run on an empty stomach. The pace should be slow, almost like fast walking. When running, the same rules regarding breathing are observed. Breathing is your main clue.
Finally, I would like to note that cardio training is one of the most difficult. They are real, you can do them, but it is HARD, first of all it is hellish WORK and overcoming yourself. Don’t give up losing weight halfway, go towards your goal, even if slowly, but surely.
