EPOC?

For the last couple of days I have been receiving mails and messages from my former clients about what exactly is excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Now believe me, I have been over this subject with every single one of them, it’s just that they have forgotten all about it. Maybe because I didn’t call it EPOC but AFERBURN!

Our bodies don’t burn calories only while training. They burn them every single second of our lives to provide sufficient energy for growth, recovery and increased activity. Let’s say that I go for a medium intensity workout like a medium challenge TRX workout at the local gym. In those 45 minutes I burn roughly 450-500 calories, and my heart rate is pretty much constant during the whole workout. Considering this wasn’t a rough exercise for me, my heart rate went down to its normal pace relatively soon after the workout has ended.

Now on the other hand let’s say that I go for a high intensity TRX workout with my trainer Peter Bele from the Sportclub welness center in the faculty of sports in Ljubljana. My heart rate will be high most of the time and during the workout I will burn around 550-600. And that isn’t all! After an intense workout like that the body increases its metabolism to repair itself and to refuel. Some studies suggest that a high intensity workout can increase the metabolism up to 15% for a few hours, resulting in even more calories burned.

So tell me, what type of exercise would you like to do? A medium or a high intensity workout?

Until next time, stay strong and be kind!

The skinny on HIIT.

If you think, that cardio is extremely easy and that it is nothing more than a leisurely jog in the park, then I have some major news for you. Sure, you can burn a lot of calories just by jogging, but what if I told you, that you can burn even more calories (and burn more fat) during that time. We call it the HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training. It’s simple, but definitely not easy. On the positive side, HIIT can really help you improve your fitness and it definitely beats the monotony out of running.

Now again, HIIT stands on a simple concept, but it is anything but easy. It is a very physically demanding form of exercising and is not meant for everyone. If you have heart problems or any concerns about your health, you should first consult your doctor before doing this kind of training.

HIIT is a training method that involves short intervals of maximum intensity and long intervals of moderate (or we could call it recovery intensity). As you might have guessed it, HIIT trains both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Because it rapidly increases your heart rate during the short intervals of high energy. It also increases the amount of total energy used during a training session and it creates the so called afterburn (a metabolic state after a workout in which the body burns more calories).

Let me give you a few tips if you are just starting to explore this method of training.

Like I’ve said before, HIIT is not for everyone. You should already be trained enough so that you can do at least 30 minutes (40 is preferred) of medium intensity exercise (about70 – 80% of your max heart rate).

Like always, start with a warm up and end with a cool down. After the warm up you should start with the medium intensity phase (around 70% of your max heart rate) for 4.5 minutes, followed by 30s of high intensity exercise. Repeat the cycle of medium/high intensity 3 times and. This should be enough for the first week (with the warm up and cool down it you will have done 25 minutes of cardio).

Over the course of next two weeks increase the number of cycles by one. On the fourth week you should be trained enough to increase the duration of the high intensity interval by 30 seconds. Of course you should also lower the duration of the high interval to 4 minutes. Don’t increase the number of cycles this week (you can even take one out if you think you can’t manage the whole routine).

So in short, you can increase the number of cycles, the duration of the max intensity interval or both if you wish.

Like with all things, HIIT should be balanced out with your usual cardio. So 2 cardio training session and 2 HIIT training sessions per week are the best balance (the ratio is the same if you are training 6 times per week).

Until next time, stay strong and be kind!

Anaerobic fitness

So let’s look at what happens, when there isn’t enough oxygen.

If there isn’t enough oxygen, the body can’t sustain the aerobic metabolism and it goes into the anaerobic metabolism, creating an oxygen debt. Anaerobic means, that all the processes function without oxygen and it can be further divided into anaerobic glycolysis and creatine phosphatase system.

They both use glucose for energy, but they don’t produce ATP . Both systems produce huge amounts of heat, hydrogen ions and lactic acid, created due to the oxygen debt. Most people believe that lactic acid is the main cause for immediate and prolonged muscle soreness (because it accumulates in the muscle), but some studies suggest, that even though this might be true, the main cause for muscle soreness are micro fractures, or microscopic tears, in the muscle. This is explained that 80% of the lactic acid created, diffuses into the blood stream and is transported to the liver, where it is converted back to glucose.

The body will try to adapt to this kind of training immediately by hyperventilating (faster and deeper breathing). But unfortunately, this is a futile process, because the main reason for an oxygen depleted state is not in the lung capacity, but in the rate at which the oxygen from the blood is absorbed by the cells.

Anaerobic training is really strength training. It lasts for a shorter amount of time (up to 2 minutes), with high intensity such as lifting weights, sprints and others.

But don’t think that our bodies use only one or the other metabolic pathway. Like all things in life, both aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms are in balance. You can read more about that here.

So now you might be thinking, what exactly are the advantages of strength training? I mean, it doesn't burn fat, right? That's a big and determined NO! Strength training should be an equal part of any fitness program together with good nutrition and aerobic exercise.

Allow me, to give you a few benefits of strength training:

1.       It reduces body fat

Strength training increases muscle mass, thus increasing your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn per day even while resting. Plus, if you train hard enough, you will create the “after burn” effect, that will continue to burn calories a few hours after you’ve finished exercising.

2.       It builds and maintains muscle mass

As we get older, our bodies start to decay slowly and muscle tissue is a lot easier to dispose of than fatty tissue. Strength training prevents the loss of our muscle mass, and if we train harder it can actually increase it.

3.       It helps to prevent heart problems and other diseases such as type 2 diabetes, lower back problems and it strengthens your immune system (because of the increased blood flow).

4.       It increases bone density

Strength training increases blood flow to the bones and it keeps them well nourished.

5.       It reshapes the body

This one is really self explanatory, right?

Untill next time, stay strong and be kind. 

Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/8rvmhw

How to determine your daily calorie needs #3

Let’s review everything I’ve told you up until now.

We have a female teacher, who is 30 year old, 156cm tall and weighs 70kg. Her BMI is 28.76 and her BMR and AMR are 1476.8 and 1772.16 kcal respectively.

To lose 9 kg of body fat she needs to create a calorie deficit of 69300 kcal during her weight loss journey, with as little loss to the lean body mass as possible. If she creates a 500 kcal deficit every day, she will lose the weight in 138.6 days or roughly 5 months. But if she creates a deficit of 750 calories she will achieve her goal in 92.4 days or roughly 3 months.

But how can she create a calorie deficit? Think of calories as a currency. You have 1400 calories you can spend each day. If you spend more than that, you’ll be in a calorie debt to your body (you’ll fain fat) and if you manage to save a few calories, the bank (your body) will reward you with interest in the form of a slimmer and a healthier body.

For that she has 3 options and all three of them are very specific.

1.       Reduce her calorie intake

2.       Increase her physical activity

3.       Reduce her calorie intake and increase her physical activity

Let’s look at how to reduce your calorie intake.

You can reduce it simply by knowing how much energy your body needs during the day with your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and active metabolic rate (AMR).

If you don’t move around the whole day and just stay in bed, you need to consume the exact amount of calories as your body burns to keep your weight the same. If you consume more than you need, you will gain weight, but if you consume any less, your metabolism will start to slow down and your body will be in a state of shock. This happens with most people on diets. In this case the body shuts down and stores every calorie that it can get, because the metabolism switches to “survival mode”.

If our teacher eats 1476.8 calories she won’t gain weight, if she has more, she’ll gain weight in the form of fat. And if she has, let’s say, 1000 or even less calories, her whole metabolism will slow down and go into “survival mode”

[IMPORTANT NOTE: The lowest calorie allowance I would even dare to put a client is 1600 for men and 1200 for women. Still, this is done only for a short period of time and for clients that have a lot of weight to lose.]

If she is active that day, her calorie allowance is 1772.16 calories. If she eats more than that, she will gain weight. If she eats that exact amount she’ll stay the same and if she eats less than that, she’ll lose weight.

Simple isn’t it.

Onto the other option. What should her calories be, if she decides to move more during her day and decides to burn 500 extra calories with jogging?

In this case if she eats the same amount of calories as her AMR every day she will definitely lose weight on the days when she is running, because she has created a 500 calorie deficit.

And if she decides to watch what she is eating and is physically active with jogging and a bit of weightlifting?

In that case we add those 500 extra calories burned to her AMR (2272.16) and we get her modified AMR during the days when she works out. The same rule applies here, if she wants to lose weight, she needs to create a calorie deficit. If she wants to maintain her weight she needs to eat exactly that amount and if she wants to gain weight, she needs to eat a lot more.

But this option is the best and you know why? A part of her calorie intake goes to muscle repair and it also helps to build her muscle, which increases her lean body mass while decreasing her fat body mass (but only if she is doing some anaerobic training).

This last part is a bit trickier for people with about 5kg or less to lose, but for people with a lot of kg, regular physical activity combined with good diet is a way to go.

Until next time, stay strong and be kind. 

Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/pgcnhw