3 Scenarios - Who Burns More Fat?

In last week's post, we discussed several different ways to create a 300 calorie deficit:

•Skip the morning bagel (-300 calories)
•Walk on the treadmill for an hour and half (-300 calories)
•Perform a very high intensity interval session (-300 calories)
In all 3 instances, the net calorie burn is -300 cals; however, as mentioned in the previous post, scenario 1 sucks, scenario 2 really sucks, and scenario 3 trumps them all–by far.

And today I want to share 3 other “scenarios” with you, with yet another lesson to be learned.

Out of the below 3 individuals, who will burn more fat and achieve better, faster results?

Scenario #1 - Subject A

•Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
•No additional calories burned per day through exercise
•Total calories burned: 2,000
•Dietary intake: 1,300
•Deficit: -700 calories

Scenario #1 - Subject B

•Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
•Additional 200 calories burned per day through exercise
•Total calories burned: 2,200
•Dietary intake: 1,500
•Deficit: -700 calories

Scenario #1 - Subject C

•Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories
•Additional 600 calories burned per day through exercise
•Total calories burned: 2,600
•Dietary intake: 1,900
•Deficit: -700 calories

Paying careful attention to the 3 scenarios above, you see that Subject A, Subject B, and Subject C all have a Basal Metabolic Rate of 2,000 calories, and all subjects are creating a -700 caloric deficit daily.

Who will be more successful?

If fat loss were simply a mathematical phenomenon, then all three subjects would have equal success and would experience the same exact fat loss.

But, just in case you didn’t already know, there’s MUCH more to fat loss than just the numbers.

Fat loss, by and large, is largely hormonal. Indeed, a caloric deficit must be in place for fat loss to occur, but not all deficits are “equal”.

Subject A, while still being negative 700 calories, is creating a hormonal environment in the body resistance to fat loss. Subject B is slightly better, but still far from optimal.

Subject C is the clear winner here. Although Subject C is creating the same exact numerical -700 calorie deficit, this individual will without a doubt experience greater fat loss and overall results.

Why?

When you decrease calorie intake, the body’s anti-starvation mechanisms are alerted and it creates a hormonal environment conducive to fat storage.

So, 1) if you need to create a calorie deficit to burn fat, but 2) you DON’T want to drastically reduce calorie intake for the reasons mentioned, what are your options?

It’s called G-flux, or energy flux.

Eat more. Exercise more. Lose more.

It really is THAT simple.

Simply put, the more calories you burn through exercise (versus a dietary caloric deficit), the greater your fat loss results will be. Every. Single. Time.

Fat burning enzymes will be elevated, the body will remain happy from a nutritional stanpoint, and let’s fact it, eating an additional 600 calories per day is a lot more livable from a psychological standpoint than attempting to create a large caloric deficit through diet alone.

My challenge to you: Starting this week, on top of what you are already currently doing, add an additional 300 calories to your daily diet, and strive to burn an additional 300 calories via exercise.

Watch what happens. You’ll be surprised.

Or maybe now that you’re “in the know”, you won’t be.

Questions? Comments? Respond below.

I’ll be checking in throughout the day and responding below, so bring on the discussion!

Talk to you in the comments section!

Marty Ozaeta
VPTraining10@yahoo.com
831.869.5348

How Will You Burn 300 Calories?

If you’re looking to shed body fat, there’s simply no getting around the fact that you absolutely must create some sort of caloric deficit.

Any way you look at it, you MUST burn more calories than you consume.

Now, it can get quite a bit more complicated than simple math would have us believe, but the fact remains–a deficit must be in place for fat loss to occur.

But, there are many different ways to create a deficit, some more effective than others.

For example, if you’d like to create an additional 300 calorie deficit per day, you could simply skip your morning bagel (approx 300 calories). Fairly simple to do, unless you have some weird affinity toward bagels like I do (especially with peanut butter :) ).

OR, you could walk for an HOUR AND A HALF on the treadmill and create the same 300 calorie deficit.

OR, you could do a 10 minute high intensity interval training workout and create the same 300 calorie deficit.

And here’s where things get a little more complicated than the numbers suggest.

In all three instances, you are essentially creating an additional 300 calorie deficit each day. BUT, scenario 1 sucks, scenario 2 really sucks, and scenario 3 trumps them all–bigtime.

Why?

Well, first, let’s say that you decide to create your caloric deficit soley be eliminating calories in your diet. This will only result in some nasty hormonal consequences, leading to slowed metabolism and your body more or less canceling out the very deficit you are trying to create.

As far as scenario #2 goes, there are several issues. First, 90 minutes to burn 300 calories??? That’s a LONG time to invest to burn less than a tenth of a single pound of fat (assuming that all calories burned are from fat, which they won’t be). At that rate, if you wanted to burn a pound of fat, you’d have to walk for close to 20 hours.

Wow.

Count. Me. Out.

The second problem with scenario #2 is that there is virtually no “afterburn” effect, so once the session is over, so is your calorie burn–metabolism goes right on back to it’s slow ways.

Now, with the third scenario, you’re investing much, much less time, but have the added benefit of the “afterburn” or elevated metabolism for the entire day (and sometimes even into the next day).

Which brings me to the question — how are you burning your calories?

Are you trying to “diet” the pounds away? Are you hoping to walk away 5, 10, or even 20 lbs — that will probably take you a few years (of walking). Or have you embraced the power of intense exercise?

In tomorrow’s post, I’m going to share with you 3 different scenarios (different from those I shared today), and in that post we’ll dig a little deeper into diet vs. exercise for fat loss and the REAL factor in determining fat loss (hint: it’s not calories in, calories out).

Comments welcome…

Talk to you below!

Your friend & Coach,

Marty Ozaeta
VPTraining10@yahoo.com
831-869-5348