The Smarts to Losing Pounds

by Rod Cedaro (M. App. Sc.)
Consultant Exercise Physiologist.
ACC Accredited Level III Triathlon Coach.

Working in a human performance lab and in conjunction with a weight management program it is interesting to see the number of people coming through both organisations desperately wanting to loss body fat. The sad thing is, people make it harder on themselves than it needs to be. I don’t suppose nonsensical shows like “The Biggest Loser” which suggests you have to train at maximal intensities 8 hours a day helps the cause. Most people who don’t understand basic exercise physiology and nutrition look at programs like that and think, “It’s all too hard” and unfortunately the health and fitness and nutritional supplement market propagates this crap.

So in short, the key to optimizing fat loss is knowing how hard to exercise.

Fat loss should be the first port of call in helping you get “healthy” before considering “training”. It doesn’t matter if you are an elite athlete coming back from a winter break or a novice athlete starting out for the first time. You HAVE TO train gently and establish (or re-establish) an aerobic basis.

“Fitness” should then follow “health”. Focus on getting “healthy”, then you can get “fit”.

Your goal is to turn your body into a “fat burning furnace”. This is no “easy” task or maybe it is……

The hard part is to knowing how EASY to exercise.

Here is a list of some basic guidelines:

1. If you can’t talk while you’re exercising you’re going too hard. The harder you exercise the more your respiration rate increases in an attempt to get rid of the additional carbon dioxide your body is producing. If you’re too puffed to talk chances are you’re changing from fat metabolism to carbohydrate as your principal energy source. Not what you want to do to get lean and build your aerobic base.

So keep your heart rate down. Even if it “feels” way too easy, even if you think you’re not getting any benefit from it – stay with it. The rewards will come.

2. A rule of thumb often suggested is 220-age X 0.65-0.75, however this estimation is thwart with potential pitfalls. A far better way to precisely determine your fat burning exercise intensity is to avail yourself to some sort of physiological testing from a performance lab. Alternatively, track down an exercise physiologist or coach who has a lactate analyser and get a lactate step test done – not as accurate as the lab option, but much better than the 220-age “guessimation”. Armed with this information you’ll be able to target the heart rate training zone you need and/or pace you need to be running or swimming at, in order to optimize fat metabolism.

3. Sometimes you’ll have to go backwards to improve!
If you’ve been exercising hard under the guidance of a personal trainer, or pushing yourself in training you may have already built up a reasonable level of cardiovascular “fitness”, however you may still be struggling to shift that stubborn body fat. In order to do so you will have to slow down, lose some of that cardiovascular “fitness” – which is dependent on carbohydrate metabolism – in order to tap into your fat metabolism and improve your “health” and get leaner.

You have a largely unlimited amount of fat to burn as a fuel source, even lean endurance athletes have enough body fat to sustain them for 4-5 weeks of complete fasting! On the other hand, you only have a limited amount of carbohydrate stored within your body. Since fat requires much less oxygen to be burned it is a very efficient fuel source to use over extended bouts of exercise. Try to burn small amounts of carbohydrate in a blazing furnace of fat metabolism by undertaking extended periods of low intensity exercise.

4. Fasting gives you a head-start.
After you’ve had your optimal fat burning zone identified in the lab go out and exercise at that prescribed intensity for at least 30-45 minutes. Thereafter (building up to a maximum whatever duration – depending on what you’re training for) ingest about 20 grams of carbohydrate (e.g. About a 1/3 of a 500ml bottle of Gatorade) every 15-20 minutes. This will help stoke up the “lipolysis” (fat burning affect) of the low intensity exercise.

5. Don’t go beyond about 60 minutes before taking in some carbohydrate (i.e. A glucose solution like Gatorade). This actually aids lipoysis or the metabolism of fat.

6. Time of the day. Since fasting gives you a head start, the best time to do your exercise in order to tap into your fat stores is first thing in the morning, before breakfast as it will maximize fat loss. Sipping water at the start of such sessions is fine.

If you’ve been struggling to shift those stubborn kilograms apply the guidelines above with appropriate dietary habits over the next few months and it will just be a matter of time before those unwanted kilograms start to melt away and you’ll be  looking like a lean, mean racing machine.

Commit to a healthy & balanced lifestyle today with Croc Squad!

The Croc Squad takes the combined 45 years experience from Brad Beven and Rod Cedaro in the sport of Triathlon to coaching.

With a train smart race hard philosophy, Rod, a sports physiologist and Australian Coaching Council Accredited Level III Triathlon Coach, and Brad, a multiple World number one in the sport, have created a training group that allows people achieve their personal goals.

You may want to be the best in the world or to just meet new people in a safe and friendly environment. It’s not always about winning but it is about enjoying yourself while reaching your potential.

We may come from an elite background but that doesn’t mean we don’t cater for beginners. The Croc Squad takes all of the guesswork out of training by optimising your training time availability.

The Croc Squad conducts beginner courses, camps, social events and structured training sessions. If you’d like to be part of the fastest growing sport in the world, give us a try, the first session is free.

Visit www.crocsquad.com for more information.