Help! Cardio is making me FAT!

Here is a question for you: What goes through your head when you are planning your exercise sessions? I mean, do you ever actually sit down to think about what you are trying to achieve through exercise and consecutively, what would be the best exercise routine to achieve this goal?

If you’re like most people you’ve probably just fallen into the rut of doing the same things from workout to workout with little consideration as to WHY you’re doing them. For example, most people are presented with a beginner programme when they join the gym which includes some basic exercises for each muscle group and is essentially designed to “introduce” you to the environment, the equipment, the routine, etc. The problem comes when this programme is being followed blindly for weeks, months or even years without ever taking the time to think about whether or not the programme is right for your particular goals. No wonder so few people achieve the results they desire from their training… they don’t even know what their exercises are supposed to do!

It is simple: exercises are tools that you need to use to sculpt the body you desire. In order to achieve your training goals you need to use the right tools! Choosing the wrong “tool kit” will make it harder (or may be even impossible) for you to reach your goals. It’s like trying to drill a hole using a hammer! It simply doesn’t make sense…

But here comes the twist: it is not only the TYPE of exercise that is important, but also the INTENSITY and DURATION. I know this probably sounds way to “scientific” so I will explain it through a simple example – cardio training!

Most women incorporate cardio into their training routines primarily as a method of weight control and body fat reduction. Using all sorts of cardio options from rowers to steppers, treadmills to bikes and cross-trainers to ‘aerobics’ classes, women can be found spending a disproportionate amount of their total training time on exercises that… …wait for it… …may actually be making them fatter!

That’s right, it’s not a typo. The much hailed panacea of aerobic training can actually contribute to making women (and men too) proportionately fatter than before they started training. Talk about using the wrong tool!

You see, the way the human body works is paradoxically simple yet complicated at the same time. The simple part of the energy system equation tells us that exercises that are performed at a lower intensity (like walking) use fat as the primary fuel source and oxygen as the catalyst. Indeed, the very term ‘aerobic’ means ‘with oxygen’. By definition these activities are less taxing and are able to be sustained for longer, almost indefinite periods of time. So aerobic = low intensity fat burning. Right?

The twist, again…
The longer we engage in higher level aerobic activities such as those typically included in a workout, the more we secrete a nasty little group of hormones, with the stress hormone ‘cortisol’ chief amongst them. One of the lesser known qualities of cortisol is that it is catabolic in nature, meaning that it breaks down muscle tissue along with fat in order to metabolise this stored energy for immediate fuel.

Why is this bad?

Well, it’s our muscles that give shape and definition to our bodies. If we lose muscle faster than we lose fat then proportionately we’re fatter… even if the scales tell us we’re several pounds lighter! To add to that, it is our lean tissues (our muscles) that burn the fuel (calories) we eat to create movement. So, any loss of muscle tissue will result in slowing down of your metabolism. We have spoken enough about why you don’t want that to happen, right? (See old blog posts if you are not sure)

So, am I saying that cardio is “bad” for you?
No, far from it!
Cardiovascular training is extremely beneficial in maintaining a healthy heart, preventing disease and keeping surplus body-fat at bay, but over-emphasising cardio in your training plan will NOT speed up your weight loss.

What I am suggesting is to give “anaerobics” a try. Anaerobics is basically, the opposite of aerobics… really! It is an activity carried out “without oxygen”. (OK, this is not really true, strictly speaking… we are never really without oxygen; it’s just that these activities are performed at such high intensity that oxygen cannot meet the body’s demands.) You may have heard of it under the heading “interval training” – shorter bursts of high intensity exercise, intermittent with slower pace breaks that help you recover, before you go again.

The benefits of this type of training are huge:
- Higher calorie consumption;
- Anabolic in nature (i.e. it promotes lean tissue growth);
- Increased metabolism
- And my personal favourite: Shorter, more effective workouts (you are looking at 20 min session vs. 45-60 minutes if you were to do “traditional” cardio)

So, enough academics... Practically speaking, this is what you do: Climb onto your favourite cardio machine and do 2-3 minutes of moderate intensity as a warm up. Then go for 1 minute of the highest possible level you can bear, followed by 2 minutes back at your moderate pace. Now do it again. And again! 5 times in total. (Come on, it’s only one minute!). Now 3 minutes of cool down. Here… you are done!

You can also try “climbing” levels (i.e. start at moderate for 1 minute, then hard for 1 minute than harder for another and all out for the fourth minute). Repeat this “cycle” 4-5 times for a full workout.

There are various other “sequences” you can use, but don’t worry about this just yet. Focus on the 20 minutes! You really need to do this, because the kind of intensity I am talking about will “require” it from you. That’s the key to making anaerobic intervals work! If you can hold a conversation during or immediately after the activity then you didn’t come out of your aerobic zone and need to put forward a little more effort next time.

There you have it. Probably the most effective, yet least utilised, fat loss method there is. Give intervals a try, I mean a fair try and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve in a relatively short period of time. The results can be quite spectacular!

Just one last thing… don’t expect it to be “a walk in the park”! It definitely isn’t! Well, let me know how it goes!

Ciao!
Jeni