Strength Training to Lose Fat

Today, we will focus on developing a Strength Training to lose Fat combined with a corresponding diet

Are 30 minutes of physical exercise enough to ensure that we are healthy?…

Obesity and Sedentarism

Obesity has increased in most countries from the European Union. In fact, sedentarism is one of the risk factors for aging and the onset of many diseases.

Both issues are a series problem that can threaten our quality of life

First of all, we want to make things very clear:

People tend to make general statements, we associated fat loss to terms such as “aerobic exercise” or “cardio”, which consists of moving. However, one of the main aspects of training is neglected, we are talking about individualization.

Why is aerobic training not valid for everyone?

The main reason consists of assessing the risk-benefit relation of this method

One of the main risks is that it involves a repetitive movement. In fact, the subject will have to be ready in terms of a healthy muscle-skeletal system in order to deal with this type of workout.

That is right, this effort is produced by our muscles in order to respond to external or internal stimuli that reach our joints.

That is why we think that every single person should do some strength conditioning before going any further(1).

Why is strength training so important to lose fat?

The basal metabolism makes up around a 60-75% of our daily energy expenditure

Within this concept, we find the basal metabolic rate which is what keeps many vital processes going (breathing, blood flow, body temperature…). Nevertheless, the main factor that determines the energy that we use at rest is our lean mass(3).

If we focus on the basal metabolic rate, the main factor that determines the energy use at rest is the lean mass or fat-free mass

High intensity training and EPOC

It is worth mentioning that a high intensity routine will produce a slow EPOC (Excess Post Oxygen Consumption) for a week approximately.

This means that the body will need more time to recover from that effort due to a higher oxygen deficit. This is mainly due to 3 factors:

1. More heat production
2. Higher plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline concentration
3. More expenditure of the phosphocreatine reserves

Preventing Sarcopenia

As we previously mentioned, we need to get ready physically because we lose from a 3% to an 8% of muscle mass as we grow old. This happens every decade after becoming thirty, triggering three problems that will take place progressively:

1. Loss of muscle mass
2. Low metabolic rate
3. More adipose tissue

These are the reason why the elderly start losing their ability to move. That is why we need to start doing strength conditioning programs in order to prevent sarcopenia while preserving our muscle function.

In physiological terms, the balance will lie in the anabolism-catabolism relation. The concept of dose will be key for our organism to adapt(5)

Conclusions about Strength Training

To conclude, we could say that there are many factors involved in losing fat

Apart from the strength training that we have previously mentioned, there are other determinant factors like nutrition.

All in all, the purpose of this article is to destroy the myths surrounding cardio or aerobic training as the main way of losing fat. We want to emphasize that strength conditioning is a more efficient way of reaching this goal.

However, we do not mean to say that this type of “aerobic” training does not have any benefit. Rather, it has to be done as long as our system can deal with it.

Bibliography

1.-Leal, L.(2017).Master en mecánica del ejercicio.Fisiología y adaptación a las fuerzas.
2.-F.J.Orquín Castrillón.,T.L.Gema.Ponce de León.F.(2009).Efectos de un programa de entrenamiento de fuerza sobre la composición corporal y la fuerza máxima en jóvenes entrenados.Apunts.Medicina de l’esport.(44):156-162.
3.-C.M.López-Fontana.,M.A.Martinez-Gonzalez.,J.A.Martinez.(2014).Obesidad, metabolismo energético y medida de la actividad física. Researchgate.
4.-W.L.Westcott (2012). Resistance training is medicine: Effects of strength training on health.Current sports medicine reports.(11):209-216.
5.-Leal, L.(2017).Master en mecánica del ejercicio.H.I.S.T.Anabolismo y catabolismo.

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