valshealthblog.com

Hi,

Many diet companies have maintained that you can burn fat while you sleep.

All you have to do is take their magic pill and voila your are a slim, fantastic looking 20 year old fitness model in only a few days.

Well, that is pretty much BS.

However, the premise of burning fat while sleeping is not BS.

When you do certain kinds of exercise routines, you will actually raise your metabolism. 

Actually any exercise routine will raise your metabolism during the time you are doing the exercises.

However, most exercise programs are so feeble that this raised metabolism goes away almost as soon as you stop the exercise program. 

By altering your exercise routine to specifically keep your metabolism raised after the exercise stops is very possible. 

This raised metabolism can last from 24-72 hours after the exercise session. 

So if your metabolism is raised for say 48 hours the odds are you are going to be sleeping during that time.  And even though your metabolism does slow down when you sleep, it will still be slightly elevated because of your exercise session.

This process is called EPOC or excess post-exercise oxidative consumption.

That is a big long fancy term for saying that your body will burn more oxygen after the exercise is over. 

So what kind of exercise sessions will induce EPOC?

Weight training is one of them.  But, you have to really weight train, not just lift some tiny weight for 500 repetitions. 

And you have to do it long enough.  Long enough does not have to be that long however.

You are trying to induce enough muscle trauma (from lifting the weights) that your body needs to spend a lot of energy on repairing those muscles. 

4-5 sets of 10-12 repetitions is probably the easiest way to start.  The weight should be heavy enough that you can get 12 reps moderately easy on the first set. 

Your rest period is only 30 seconds at the most. 

This is much different than the 3 sets of 10 and rest 3 minutes protocol you see in many muscle building books and magazines. 

The three minute rest comes from power lifters and people lifting to be as strong as possible.  This gives you about a 95% recovery so that you will be strong on your next set.

A lot of body builders started using this 3 minute thing and of course the magazines picked it up and now everyone in the gym rests for 3 or more minutes between sets.

Even if they haven’t lifted more than a three year old girl could.

So skip that long rest.  And add one or two more sets to the standard 10 reps.  Extended sets will help the EPOC effect much more. 

Make sure you are controlling the weight throughout the session.  Don’t race through the reps.  In fact try to extend the set for at least 36 seconds. 

This works all the different types of muscle fibers.  Short sets don’t get to the endurance fibers. 

More on this topic of burning fat while you sleep in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

Well, we are done with the junk food posts, so let’s move to what you can do on the positive side.  Start with eat more protein to burn more fat.

Most dieticians and nutritionists focus too much on low carbs and low fat diets. 

Maybe they should focus more on eating more protein.

But, let’s make it high quality protein.  Eating a hamburger that has more fat than protein is not the way to go. 

But, a lean hamburger could be just what you need. 

So exactly how much protein do you need?  The amount will vary depending on your activity levels.  The more active, the more protein.

If you are a weight lifter or body builder most recommend from 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. 

The average sit at work, sit at home person probably only needs .75 to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

However, an interesting study done with obese people found that eating more protein equaled more fat burned.

This study, reported in the Nutrition Journal took 100 obese men and women.  They all got 2 protein shakes per day to replace two meals. 

Everyone lost weight on this 12 week diet.

The 100 participants got either 1/2 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or 1 gram.

The average weight loss for both groups was 8.5 pounds for the 12 weeks.

The interesting part was that the group that got double the protein lost almost 3 times as much fat – 3.6 pounds vs. 1.32 pounds for the lower protein group. 

That is a pretty significant difference.  So everyone should eat some high quality protein every day. 

If you are very overweight or obese, eating even more protein could be just the thing you need to start burning more of your body fat.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Hi,

You have probably heard that if you have more muscle that equals more calories burned. 

But, is it true. 

There have been estimates that having 1 extra pound of muscle will equal 50 extra calories burned per day. 

While it is true that having a more muscular body will usually equate to a higher rate of calories being burned per day, sometimes the truth gets stretched. 

If 1 pound of extra muscle means 50 extra calories burned each day, then 2 pounds should equal 100 extra calories per day. 

So if you could gain 10 pounds of muscle that would mean an extra 500 calories burned per day. 

While that seems somewhat logical there is a slight problem. 

Since 1 pound = 3500 calories that means with a 10 pound gain you would burn off 1 pound of body weight each week. 

Yet, somehow you have gained 10 pounds of muscle weight as you are burning more calories per day. 

To gain 1 pound you have to eat an extra 500 calories per day. 

So you are eating more (gaining), exercising more (burning) and as you are gaining you are naturally burning more. 

That means you would have to be eating a heck of a lot more than you are burning. 

Let’s say you doubled what you are eating – an extra 1000 calories per day. 

Now even if you were exercising more and building muscle do you really think eating an extra 1000 calories per day is all going to be muscle gain? 

If you do, then let me be the first to burst your bubble. 

It won’t be.  For most people most of those extra calories will go right to the adipose tissue.  Even if you are exercising like crazy, your body will not be able to process all of that extra food into muscle. 

And that is if you are eating clean.  Add any junk food or too many extra high glycemic carbs and muscle gains will be minimal. 

And you can see the consequences at any gym in the US (probably the world).  There are really big guys with lots of muscle who have even bigger guts. 

So why don’t all these big muscled guys have ripped bodies?

Because they eat too much.  Just having big muscles does not mean you will be burning so many extra calories that you will be ripped. 

Now, here is the thing.  Being more muscular will help you control your weight and fat levels.  You will burn a few extra calories per day – but not 50 calories per pound of muscle. 

Being more muscular will help you burn more calories per day, but that is because you are more active, you pay more attention to what you eat, you exercise regularly. 

All of these little things add up and help you keep any extra calories from going to your waistline. 

So yes, build more muscle and more calories will be burned throughout your normal day.  Just don’t think of it as a miracle way of burning fat. 

Thanks,

Mike Val

Hi,

I know you might be getting a little sick hearing about exercise time, all the time.  But it is important.

After all you have seen how the old stand by for cardio – ie. doing 30 minutes to get in the fat burning zone – is pretty much BS

Well, is the same true for your weight lifting sessions?  Or fitness sessions?

Yes and no.  It really depends upon what you are trying to do. 

Let me give you an example.  There is a trainer at the gym I go to.  It is a woman, probably in her early 30′s.  She has a decent body, expect for the little pooch around her abdomen.  

She trains, as far as I can tell, a couple of days a week, maybe three.  That is if you can call it training. 

She does an exercise for a few reps only.  Then she rests for several minutes.  She brings a book with her to read.  Even if she does a bilateral movement – one arm at a time – she rests between each arm.  Again for several exercises. 

She is not using heavy weights.  Her cardio is pretty much walking at a leisurely pace. 

When she is training someone else, she is usually sitting. 

And she gets paid for this.  She gets paid to help others get in shape. 

Contrast this with someone else whom I know quite well. 

He goes to the gym and has his exercise log book so that he knows exactly what he is going to do.

First he warms up his joints and muscles.  This takes about 3-4 minutes.  Next he sets up his two exercises.  For this example he does leg presses for 20 reps, then does barbell half squats to a shoulder press for 10 reps. 

He alternates these for 3 sets without stopping.  Then he goes and rides the bike for 90 seconds as fast as he can. 

He is already sweating, he is already breathing hard. 

The next group of back-to-back exercises is leg presses again with more weight and 15 inverted hanging rows.  Again, non stop and again followed by 90 seconds on the bike. 

This goes on for 4 more groups of exercises and 4 more 90 second rides.  The last 90 second ride is followed by a slow ride until the heart rate gets down to 125 beats per minute (as measured by the bike) – usually 60 to 90 seconds.

The whole session takes about 45 minutes. 

So whose exercise session is better? 

From a calorie burning point of view the guy’s session burns a lot more calories in the 45 minutes.  And there will be no after burn from her session.  So she will never lose that pooch. 

From a muscle building point of view, the woman is using too light a weight and resting too long between sets.  There is no reason for the woman’s muscles to get stronger.  The guy’s workout is not a muscle building workout, however he is getting stronger and you can tell because he is using more weight.

From a cardio point of view, the woman gets no benefits.  The guy gets 9 minutes of all out cardio + the non stop movement of the exercises. 

From a fat burning point of view, again the woman gets no benefit while doing the exercise and no benefit after stopping the exercise.  The guy’s metabolism is ramped up within a few minutes of starting the exercises and continues for up to 48 hours afterwards. 

Next post I am going to give you a shocking answer to the question of who’s exercise session is better?  Stay tuned…

Thanks,

Mike Val

PS.  Hey I started a new site over at:

http://www.femfigueres.com  Feel free to check it out.  Thanks.

Hi,

By now you should have an understanding of how best to use your exercise time.  This is especially true for cardio.

Don’t worry we will get to other methods of exercise also.

You have seen how medium to slow paced long term cardio is not the most efficient way to burn body fat. 

Increase the intensity for several seconds and then lower it  is a better way to go.  You can actually burn more calories over a 48 hour period by doing this than you will with 1-2 hours of the more conventional cardio.

So let’s ramp this up a bit. 

But, before we do, there is a warning.  This is intense and stressful to the  body.

So if you have never done this exercise before you have to start out slow and build up to it.

This exercise is running sprints.  This is flat out running as fast as you can. 

This was popular for a short while several years ago and then died out pretty quickly.  The reason for this is because people just started going out and sprinting.

You really need to build up to this or you will have ankle, knee, and hip problems.  Your lower back will take a lot of pounding as will your tendons and ligaments and achilles tendon. 

This came from my chiropractor. 

So, the first time you go out, warm up with a slow jog for 2-3 minutes.  Then do some higher intensity jogging with lower intensity for 2-3 cycles.

Then when you are ready to sprint, do it on a soft surface.  If you can find a modern track, then that is great.  If not, just try not to do it on hard concrete.  That will pound the heck out of your body.

Okay, so start with 15 seconds.  Sprint for 15 seconds and rest until you catch your breath again. 

Repeat this for 4-6 times and that is it.  You can add 2-3 minutes of slow jogging afterwards if you want.

Do not go out and do this the next day no matter how good you might feel.

Take 1-2 days off before starting another sprint session.

As you do this over time you can add more seconds to the sprint time and maybe do 5-7 repetions. 

Build up slow and you will be rewarded with stronger leg muscles, a higher metabolism and less body fat. 

Sprints will really rev up your metabolism while you are doing them and afterwards as well. 

Stay tuned for more about exercise time…

Thanks,

Mike Val