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Questions/Ideas on fat burning


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For years it has been the accepted idea to workout at the best target heart rate to burn fat, approx. 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate for max fat burning.

 

I recently read on a cycling forum that this has recently been discovered to be "wrong", and they feel that H.I.T., shorter workouts at higher intensities are much more beneficial for this.

 

Not sure what to believe; I've been physically active in one form or another for over 25 yrs. and I cannot seem to shed fat! Most of my workouts have always been all-out, high intensity type, as I feel best working out at that pace.

 

But it has really done nothing for my fat loss, belly/chest area esp..

 

I have very cut/toned arms/shoulders/legs but the "middle" section is always lacking. So, I'm looking for a sure fire way of fat burning.

 

Comments/suggestions welcome - thanks!

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I'm of the belief that fat loss predominantly comes down to diet manipulation and cardio/weights. However I think many people misunderstand (or just don't realise) that hormones can influence peoples' results/gains quite a bit, especially with regards to things like late night eating, carb cycling, nutrient timing etc. I'll try to explain as simply as possible...

 

If we consistently have a caloric deficit occurring (either falling short on what we need or if someone is dieting) then our leptin levels will fall below their natural range. Ghrelin pretty much does the opposite of what leptin does; one of its' roles is to tell the body when to store energy as fat as well as when it should stop burning calories ~ so it's a hormone of relative importance.

 

Ideally for lipolysis to occur you need to optimise your leptin hormone levels whilst keeping ghrelin on the lower side

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Thanks for that info. Mini Forklift,

 

It was a good read & concise, straight to the point.

 

About this;

 

Ideally for lipolysis to occur you need to optimise your leptin hormone levels whilst keeping ghrelin on the lower side

 

I did a bit of searching on this, now a bit more confused. How does one go about to optimising ones' leptin hormone levels whilst keeping ghrelin on the lower side? I just read on a couple of other sites to cut food intake to 3 meals/day.

 

Surely this cannot be right, because that is pretty much what I have always done with poor results.

 

There was a period of time in the 90's when I religiously ate 6 meals/day and followed with "mega" cardio sessions of 2/day and also a split/bodybuilding program...and I started to see fat loss in the midsection during that time.

 

Sadly, work schedules changed & I could not keep up with it all. I'm fed up with living with this jelly belly/spare tire.

 

So again, I ask -

 

How does one go about to optimising ones' leptin hormone levels whilst keeping ghrelin on the lower side?

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So again, I ask -

 

How does one go about to optimising ones' leptin hormone levels whilst keeping ghrelin on the lower side?

Mark Burkham has some good writing on this topic and how to manipulate leptin/ghrelin and keeping them optimal. It's done through 'Intermittent Fasting'.

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yeah well 40/40/20 would be good however thats only part of it. energy in and energy out... i know the 99 banana people and the paleo ppl will disagree.....but maybe ur body has adapted to ur caloric intake and ur energy expenditure and u need to shock it some how. maybe your training is intense but if its always been that way how does ur body know its intense? obviously at least one factor needs to change so i would try measuring ur carbs and other macros for a week and then adjust them, and make sure u are training in intervals. and by intervals i mean when ur on ur intense ones you want to throw up. not just pedaling hard...

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what do u mean when u say intense exercise? i hope you are doing all the big compound movements with barbells... or are u doing endurance training??

 

Well, currently I am into week three of Insanity & my heart rate is usually 80% or so, (or s\zone 4 according to this calculator) pretty high intensity.

 

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/heart_rate/heart_rate_zone_calculator_abcc_bcf.html

 

I've slacked off on the bb/mass building stuff for the past 6 months or so.

 

But to answer your lifting question, yes, I am a big compound movement type of guy. Squats/bench and so forth. I would say you are honing in on my issue with this:

 

but maybe ur body has adapted to ur caloric intake and ur energy expenditure and u need to shock it some how. maybe your training is intense but if its always been that way how does ur body know its intense?

 

I am guilty of staying with one style, big/heavy lifts/ low reps so even though it seems intense to me, I would say you are accurate in the statement that I have probably adapted & need to shake things up frequently...which is one of the reasons I have embarked on the Insanity program - to shock my system with something different.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Post some photos of you first thing in the morning with good lighting and good flexing posture. Then we will objectively be able to critique fairly.

 

I don't know what your eating but if you want to eat junk and be mega cut, you need to starve or ride 1000miles a week.

 

Im approx as lean on my banana vegan diet doing 100miles a week as literally 1100miles a week. The only difference is the tan lines lol!

 

Increase your carbs, cut back your salt intake to less than 1000mg a day. Yeah you can just stop eating and drinking all together like bodybuilders do the week before a show but do you want realistic results or 24hr results then back to normal the next day/week?

 

Maybe you are lean enough and just comparing to people that are posing right, dehydrated and photoshopped or guzzling lasix and not actually that lean all year long. Even Lance admitted he could only hold his 'mega cut' race weight for 4 weeks out of 52.

 

Be objective where you are.

Be realistic of where you can go and how long its actually sustainable for.

 

Its like the 15 year old kid that saw a photo of someone doing the human flag and felt bad cos when they practiced all year, they could only hold it for 10 seconds vs a whole week like they thought was possible.

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