eat less than ever but actually gain weight because there is no longer a deficit . At our facility , we have found that the majority of clients , especially women , have a lifetime history of dieting and have lost muscle , as described previously , over and over again by eating low-calorie diets . Eventually , their bodies get to a point where their muscle mass , and therefore metabolism , is so low that previously effective low-calorie diets no longer work , and they decide to hire a professional . By the time they turn to us they usually have a history of low-calorie diets that we have to undo .
Increasing activity levels and increasing muscle , with the result of increasing RMR , is a more effective approach than just cutting calories from the diet . Dieting deprives the body of energy , and that works to an extent , but ramping up the system demands is the more effective way to go . Therefore , a metabolic resistance training program is key ; this not only increases calories burned , but it also forces the body to recognise muscle , meaning that during a caloric deficit it will burn fat stores , not muscle . Acknowledging muscle as it pertains to exercise is one of the most important factors in changing body composition ( body fat to lean tissue ratio ). In other words , exercise designed to grow , or at least maintain , muscle ( i . e ., resistance exercise ) is one of the most important factors in an exercise program designed to change a person ’ s ratio of body fat to total bodyweight .
In summary , our goal when designing fat loss programs is to increase metabolic rate to accomplish the following :
• Burn as many calories as possible through resting metabolic rate ( lean muscle is metabolically active so building muscle , or at least maintaining it , is extremely important )
• Burn more calories through the thermic effect of food by adjusting meal frequency and manipulating macronutrients ( the thermic effect of protein is twice as high as the thermic effect of fat or carbohydrate )
• Burn calories through metabolic disturbance ( increased activity levels and EPOC )
• Create a gap between total metabolism ( calories burned ) and intake ( calories consumed ). In addition , increase calories burned so that calories consumed can be as high as possible . If this situation is met , and adequate protein is consumed and an effective resistance training program is implemented , the body will borrow from its fat stores .
AFTERBURN EFFECT
In our gym , we call excess post-oxygen consumption ( EPOC ) the afterburn effect . Recent studies have disputed the overall contribution of EPOC to the caloric burn of exercise , suggesting that its involvement is much less than we once thought ( although these studies have tended to only focus on aerobic exercise ). Sometimes the research disputes the mechanism by which we think something works , but it doesn ’ t dispute what actually works . For example , it is widely accepted that interval training and weight training , despite burning less calories during the session , results in significantly greater fat loss than from longer sessions of lower-intensity activity .
In isocaloric comparisons ( i . e ., in which the sessions burn the same total amount of calories ) weight training always results in greater fat loss than aerobic training . The mechanism by which it works is definitely outside the workout period — an adaptation . We have suggested that it is primarily EPOC or an increase in resting metabolic rate ( RMR ), but there ’ s recently been discussion on EPOC ’ s actual degree of effect . Other experts have suggested that the increased fat loss could be part EPOC , part elevated fat oxidation , and part increased mitochondrial enzyme activity . So , it may not be an EPOC-related phenomenon only , but it ’ s still a post-workout effect that results in additional fat burning .
Regarding the research dispute , as practitioners we don ’ t really need to know why something works . We are only interested in what actually works and what will repeatedly work with clients . Our suggestion is to focus on the activities that we know to work for fat loss , and let the researchers discover the exact mechanisms behind them .
Essentially , the goal when designing a fat loss training program is to massively disrupt the metabolism and create as much of a caloric deficit as possible while maximising the afterburn effect . We increase fat loss by creating a caloric deficit with a reduced carbohydrate diet . We then burn calories through the judicious use of a resistance training program combined with an interval training program . This combination will not only burn a lot of calories during the workout , but it will also crank up the afterburn effect and allow us to continue to burn an elevated amount of fat and calories for several hours after each session .
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