This week, we are talking about fat burning. This isn’t simply losing weight. It is reducing the amount of excess fat you may be carrying on your body.
On Monday, we shared the secret. Turns out, there are three elements to burning fat: Controlling your calories, increasing your respirations, and increasing your muscle fibers. In today’s email, we are going to talk about increasing respirations.
Increase your Respirations
When it comes to increasing your respirations enough to burn fat, we mean breathing faster and heavier for a prolonged period of time. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we are talking about CARDIO. Commonly, cardio comes in the form of running, rowing, jumping rope, swimming, etc. The common misunderstanding is how to use cardio to actually burn fat. We aren’t talking about your 10 minute run around the block or the pickup game of basketball.
The Science
Let’s talk science for a moment. Our muscles receive energy from a molecule called ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). ATP is made in our body through a process known as the Krebs Cycle. Anyone remember that from high school biology? In the Krebs Cycle, our body takes molecules like Glucose, converts it to a usable source, and uses to create ATP for our muscles to use. The important element here is that the Krebs Cycle requires oxygen.
With this understanding, let’s turn back to cardio. When we start moving, our respirations increase because our body is using stored sources of ATP. That means our body has to replace it. In order to replace it, we need to supply our body with more oxygen. The harder we run, the more oxygen we need for ATP production, so the heavier we breath.
So, how does this relate to fat burning? The more ATP our body needs, the more times our body goes through the Krebs Cycle. The Krebs Cycle s fueled by . . . carbs and fat.
The Training
This is why high intensity interval training programs, like CrossFit, are so effective for fat burning. First, perform an activity that makes you breath heavy and fast. Second, keep it up for 20-30 minutes.
If you are controlling your diet, like we talked about on Monday, and then you add some high intensity cardio training, your body will become a carb and fat burning MACHINE!!!
