One common misconception is that the amount of calories you
burn in the gym is most responsible for weight loss. While not completely wrong, the amount of calories burned throughout
the rest of the day (post-exercise) is equally if not more important (1). So the question is “why does this
matter?” It matters because
choosing exercises that increase your expenditure throughout the day is what is
going to help the most. People
usually think countless minutes on the treadmill, tons of reps in the gym, etc
is what is going to help the most.
What helps the most is taking advantage of your time and eating correctly. I’ll discuss a few tips on how to keep
your metabolism up to help aid in your weight loss journey without sacrificing
time.
One
area of being healthy that people take advantage of is nutrition. They believe that if they shovel in
copious amounts of protein that this will aid in muscle building or weight loss
or both. And while you do need
extra protein to build muscle, an extraordinary amount will not keep adding
muscle just because you’re taking it in.
There is a ceiling effect that takes place and you’ll basically be
wasting money on extra meat or protein supplements. The general RDA is around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram
of body weight (to get your body weight into kilograms take your weight in
pounds, 180 for example, and divide by 2.2. This would be 81 kgs for that same 180 pound person). If you were 81 kg’s then that would
equate to a protein intake of around 65 g/day. This seems pretty low and you’d be right. Keep in mind that this is the minimum
amount for people who are sedentary, which you are not because you’re
exercise…Right?! Other research
has been done to show that amounts up to 2.2 g/kg of protein (or about 1 g/lb
of body weight) is the ceiling for muscle building. In regards to weight loss one study found that protein
timing plays a role in weight loss and resting energy expenditure (2). Ingesting protein before your workout
can actually help you burn more calories for the next 48 hours compared to a
group who had carbohydrates only.
It’s important to have protein after your workout as well, but making
sure you have protein throughout the day and before your workout is seen to be
more important than originally thought.
Another
way to keep calorie burning throughout the day is to try high intensity
interval training (HIIT) (3).
By doing 3-4 all out, 100% effort sprints, you can actually lose similar
amounts of weight and at times more than continuous aerobic exercise
alone. What’s great about HIIT is
that it takes less time and has shown to be safe for most age groups and
various health backgrounds. And
any safety concerns that arise are usually due to a lack of research in that
specific group (I.e. elderly/cancer patients/etc). Another great benefit to HIIT is that it can be done in the
street as a traditional sprint (as long as no cars are coming), on a treadmill
or a stationary bike. So there
really is no reason not to do them because any deficiency is covered within
those various modalities.
Considering
the info just spelled out, if you’re reading this then there is no reason not
to go out and try some of these things out and try to get healthier! Time is no longer an issue and you don’t
necessarily need tons of protein so this will be easier on your wallet.
References
Melby, C., Eduwards, O., & Bullough, R. (1993). Effects
of a Bout of Resistance Exercise on Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption and
Resting Metabolic Rate. Journal of Applied Physiology, 75(4), 1847-1853.
Hackney, K.,
Bruenger, A., & Lemmer, J. (2010). Timing Protein Intake Increases Energy
Expenditure 24 h after Resistance Training. Medicine
& Science in Sports & Exercise, 42(5),
998-1003.
Gibala, M., &
Mcgee, S. (2008). Metabolic Adaptations to Short-term High-Intensity Interval
Training. Exercise and Sport Sciences
Reviews, 36(2), 58-63.