Losing Fat: Weights, Cardio, or Circuit Training?

[JackHanma]

I have lost a lot of weight since I started grappling but my body fat % is still too high. I was wondering kind of excercise program is best for fat reduction. Not water, not mass... just fat. I have heard that building muscle helps you lose fat... but Cardio has some good affects on growth hormones that help with fat. What about Circuit Training? I'm moving a lot better without extra weight but I know I still have a fifteen pounds of fat to go lose before I'm in perfect fighting condition. What should I do?

[Nid]

Exercise...ANY kind of exercise (while you're doing it) is a very inefficient way to mobilize and burn body fat. It just is. An hour per day of activity does not make up for the other 23 hours in which you're diet amounts to god knows what.

Indisputable facts.

#1. At rest, your body uses the highest proportion of fat for it's energy. Anything above rest tips the scales more towards blood sugar use. The best-case-scenario proportion is still in the neighborhood of 60% BF to 40% blood sugar. That's at rest.

#2. Steady state exercise (a la grappling as you've discovered) will burn more total calories, but at the expense of the fat/sugar ratio your body will be utilizing. Furthermore, DURING exercise your body procures it's blood sugar indiscriminatly. Part of it will be coming from your own muscle because the body percieved moving around as STRESS. Stress---> cortisone---->protein cannabilization. The longer the duration the the worse it is.

#3. That cannabilzation of muscle tissue compromises the most valuable metabolism you have...your resting metabolism. Less muscle----> fewer calories burned at rest----->increasingly harder to mobilize existing fat during MOST of the day in which you're not exercising.

You don't have conscious control over what your body decides to do while you're moving around. You do, however, have much more precise control over what goes in. You can know with 100% certainty that you are eating 200 fewer calories. Whereas, if you "burn" 200 calories (according to a treadmill screen) you don't know where those calories are coming from, nor if the damn thing is even accurate.

Cycles. More food+resistance trainig= more muscle. More muscle=more effective dieting.

Do not, do not, do not try to run (swim, bike, jump-rope, juggle, ****, jumping-jack etc etc) those calories off. Bad.

[TaeBo_Master]

First off....

#3. That cannabilzation of muscle tissue compromises the most valuable metabolism you have...your resting metabolism. Less muscle----> fewer calories burned at rest----->increasingly harder to mobilize existing fat during MOST of the day in which you're not exercising.

It's not CANNABILIZATION of muscle tissue. When the body digests its own muscle tissue for energy, it's called CATABOLIZATION.


Anyway, back to the original subject. There is only one way to lose bodyweight. That is to consume fewer calories daily than your body's maintenance calorie needs. There are however, several ways to do this. One is to simply reduce your calories without increasing your activity. Another is to not change your diet, but raise the amount of calories your body uses on a daily basis, through exercise, but as was already said, this isn't terribly efficient. The best way is a combination of the two. Reduce your calories, and choose good foods, and increase your activity level. Doing cardio work will burn a lot more calories as exercise than strength training will. But even so, even intense cardio will only burn around 600-800 calories per hour, whereas the maintenance needs of most people (depending on size and activity) is between 1800 and 3000 calories per day. Strength training is not to be forgotten though. While the exercise itself doesn't burn many calories, the results of the exercise can. The body requires a moderate amount of energy to build new muscle tissue. And it requires energy to maintain that tissue. Adding muscle mass increases your metabolism, i.e. it raises your maintenance level of calories.

Therefore, a small to moderate calorie reduction in your diet combined with a balance of cardio exercise and strength training will most likely result in a loss of bodyfat.

[FingerorMoon?]

JackHanma -

Worry about getting technical when your bodyfat is down at very low levels and you've looking to drop it further. Until then always keep it simple.

Cut out all crap food for the moment - sweets, sugar, saturated fat, soft drink, beer

Add some compound weighted exercises (squats, bench press, shoulder press, etc...)
Weight train a few times a week.

Add a few cardio sessions in there, make them high intensity (sprints or HIT work)

You'll lose a lot of weight fast.

[Nid]

It's not CANNABILIZATION of muscle tissue. When the body digests its own muscle tissue for energy, it's called CATABOLIZATION.

You are correct. But when one wantonly does that which catabolizes it seems so much more insidious. Cannabilize implies savage feasting, which is what I was trying to illustrate in the mind's eye.

[Student]

FoM - did you say cut out beer?? are you insane - what would then be the point of living

[Student]

I also assume since you mentioned cutting out - soft drink - then hard liquor is fine ;-)

[GajusCaesar]

I asked two endocrinologists this very question just a few weeks ago. They both said that it is bullshit that any type of exercise burns fat better than another. According to them, the more total calories you burn, the more fat you burn. No exercise stimulates more or less lipolysis than another exercise as long as your burn them same amount of calories. Cardio is great because it allows you to burn a lot DURING the exercise. However, don't discount weight training as you will use calories during lifting, but most of the total calories you expend will used be to repair and strengthen your muscles after you lift.

If you really want to manipulate your body's hormones into reducing body fat percentage, diet is one of the only effective ways to do so. Try Atkins for a bit (3 weeks or more) and see if that gets you where you want to be.

[matzahbal]

Get malaria

[JackHanma]

Ok, if diet is the way to go, then why do bodybuilders use thermogenics? Dudes, I already eat Paleo and do compound lifts. I'm starting HIIT. Its just that the last 15 lbs of fat are a bitch. I want to fight at 205.