Defined Fitness Tip For Results #3

Fitness Myth #2: Aerobics for Fat Loss

This is the second in a three part series...

You know that you need to exercise to lose weight. So just start walking and then eventually jogging and pretty soon those pounds will just be melting off your body. Right?

Sorry, you can walk and jog all you want, but you will never get the lean toned body that you desire. And sorry aerobics queens, but the time has come to put away your spandex unitards and leg warmers. Aerobics and aerobic type activity (aka: steady-state cardio) didn’t work then and doesn’t work now!

According to a 2006 study published in the International Journal of Obesity, researchers found that men and women who ran the same weekly mileage, regardless of distance, actually gained weight.

In that same journal another study found that the addition of 4 hours of aerobic exercise had no effect on weight loss.

In a 1994 study, done by Tremblay et al, they looked at two groups. Group #1 performed 20 weeks of steady-state cardio, Group #2 performed interval based training for 15 weeks. In 20 weeks Group #1 burned 28,661 calories over twice the number of calories as Group #2, which only burned 13,614 calories. However, Group #2 lost 9 times more body fat in 5 less weeks than Group #1 when corrected for energy cost.

One last study.

In 1999 researchers found that resistance training increased fat loss by 35% over diet and aerobic training. They also found that 3 aerobic sessions of 50 minutes per week for 12 weeks only resulted in one pound more of fat lost than dieting alone.

How can that be that be?

The reason we see this is because the metabolic effect, amount of time your body continues to burn calories after exercise, of aerobic training lasts only 30 minutes to an hour. But, the metabolic effect of resistance training will last up to 48 hours. That’s two days after you last worked out and your body is still burning calories from your workout.

With aerobics you may have burned a lot of calories during your workout, but you do not burn many afterwards. With resistance training you not only burn calories during your workout, but you also continue burning them for the next 48 hours!

Josh

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Thermometer Jeans Challenge - drop 1-2 pant sizes in 6 weeks!! Call 724-934-2000 today to register! Limited to the first 20 people. $129 to join, only $50 for members. Includes: Fitness program design, 6 fitness coaching sessions (1 each week), unlimited access to all group fitness coaching classes, unlimited access to the facility, and a nutrition program all designed to get you into your jeans.