Dr. E.C. Fulcher, Jr.

Hello, It’s Fred Hatfield again. I am back with some tips on finding the right type of Exercise for yourself that you will stick to and get the results that you are looking for, This is not a one size fits all journey and you may need to incorporate 1 or more styles to reach your goal, but none will work without the proper diet to go along with it.

Exercising has many benefits, some of which are: mental clarity, improvement in your mood, and its benefits to almost all systems of the body.  All are good reasons, but the number one reason is (you guessed it) they want to look good!  Where do you go from there?  A fitness center can be quite intimidating for someone new to exercise with all its barbells, dumbbells, machines, and classes.  Furthermore, there are those infomercials with revolutionary and “cutting edge” programs. What’s right for you?  I’m going to discuss a few options so you know what to expect with my main focus being weight and fat loss. 

First, let me give you some solid foundational rules to increase your chances at succeeding: 

1.  You must enjoy it.  I have personal trainers say, “exercise isn’t supposed to be enjoyable!”  It’s not supposed to be comfortable, but you better enjoy it or at least tolerate it enough to enjoy the results. 

2.  If you are looking to lose weight or gain muscle weight, you must eat properly. 

3.  Your choice of exercise must be proper for your level of fitness and lifestyle.

4. If you are a beginner, you are going to need help setting up a program.  Each one of those rules could be an article of its own.  For now, I am just bringing them to light.  With that, let’s look at some exercise options.

Endurance Training

In this category, I am talking about running, swimming, cycling, and rowing (to name a few) for longer periods of time at a near steady-state.  It doesn’t always mean that, however; many endurance programs involve intervals of harder work followed by rest periods or periods of easier work. 

This form of exercise has great cardiovascular benefits.  You can expect your resting heart rate to drop and your local muscular endurance to improve.  It’s not going to improve muscle mass, however (which ironically is important for weight loss), and in some cases, you may lose muscle.  What may be disheartening is that by itself, it probably is going to lead to minimal weight loss. 

Let’s crunch some numbers.  A pound of fat contains 3500 calories.  If you go on a running program you can burn about 11-20 calories a minute depending on your weight and metabolism (how efficiently you use calories).  If you run 3 times a week for 30 minutes you are going to burn between 990 and 1800 calories.  That’s a good start, but at best that’s averaging 2.25 lbs of fat loss per month.  More disheartening is the fact that while you may burn those calories, they aren’t all from fat!  Your muscles will use stored carbohydrates as their first choice of energy and under extreme circumstances, it can even cannibalize its own muscle.  In that case, you’re making fat loss even harder.

There are those that take such training to an extreme.  Triathletes and marathon runners, for example, can burn 1000 to 1500 or more calories a day. This type of training takes years of conditioning to be able to handle. If you are not properly conditioned endurance training (no matter what the distance) overuse injuries are likely to happen.

The bottom line is that if you are going to engage in this type of exercise, do it for your heart health.  It can help you lose weight, but only if you stick to your diet plan. 

Anaerobic Threshold Training

This is a fancy, scientific term for working extremely hard for a short period of time, followed by a period of rest or less strenuous activity. For example, sprinting for 20 seconds followed by jogging for 40 seconds. There are many programs that fall in this category: T90X for one, which is done in a circuit, as well as any form of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

These programs will also benefit your cardiovascular system, local muscular endurance, and depending on how hard you work, increase muscle strength.  For weight loss, it is a better choice for long, slow-distance endurance training.  Even so, it alone is not very efficient for weight loss.  Some of these programs are extremely difficult and beginners may be well-advised not to tackle them right away.  Exercise should take you out of your comfort zone, but at a safe level. 

Core Training

Core training is popular, and actually very good in what it does.  Core training involves strengthening the abs, the lower back, the hips, and obliques (those muscles on your sides between your rib cage and hip).  Well-designed programs even focus on your hamstring and hip flexibility, which can alleviate lower back pain. Unfortunately, it’s not going to help you get rid of belly fat.  Likewise, the leg abductor and adductor machines aren’t going to help take fat off your hips or inner thigh.  They will strengthen the muscles in those areas and you will enjoy the benefits of that, but sorry folks… You cannot spot reduce fat.  Crunches are good for the muscle hiding under belly fat, but they don’t make that fat go away.

Resistance Training

In a very sneaky way, resistance training may be the best method for overall health and fat loss.  The problem is there is a stigma about it and people don’t consider the difference between weight loss and fat loss. 

When you mention weight training or resistance training most people assume they will get big muscles because bodybuilders use it and they assume they will end up looking like them.  This is especially prevalent amongst women.  Rest assured, ladies, it takes years of training for female bodybuilders to get their physique, and no, it’s not all “natural”.  Yes, you will get stronger muscles and they will grow in size, and that is a good thing.  Understand that weight loss and fat loss are not the same.  We should be less concerned about what the scale says and more concerned about what the mirror or dress size says.  If nothing else, if you are worried that you will become too bulky, rest assured it will not happen overnight, and it’s just as easy to reverse it by stopping.  If you find yourself becoming uncomfortable with how your muscles look, well then back off. 

Remember when I talked about running and burning 11-20 calories per minute?  Well, that’s dependent on your weight, and more specifically, your muscle mass.  People with more muscle mass burn more calories, plain and simple.  Muscle burns calories; fat does not.  The data I accessed shows that a 120 lbs. person will burn 11 calories per minute during that run, but a 180 lbs. person will burn 20 calories per minute.  These numbers are just examples to show the trend that when you have more muscle, you burn more calories.  While the exercise itself doesn’t lead to much fat loss without a proper diet, increasing your muscle mass burns more calories throughout the day –even while at rest or sleeping.

Resistance training has other benefits as well.  When properly set up works the entire body.  There are some cardiovascular benefits with resistance training, although not at the level that endurance training or anaerobic threshold training provides.

A problem with resistance training is that it can be confusing.  How many sets?  How many reps?  What exercises should I do?  Entire books have been written about such subjects and it’s a debate that is non-ending!  Remember the 4^th rule I spoke of at the beginning of the article: as with all disciplines of exercise you will need someone to help you set up a program.

In summary, you should choose the right exercise program for you, as no one program is “best” for everyone. If you are a beginner, you will do well to have someone teach you and set up a program.  Finally, while there are many benefits to exercise, fat loss as a direct result of exercise is very difficult without a proper diet.