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Burning Fat or just sweating?please answer the question, I want the Truth!!!

ViLo

By ViLo
in Sound, Stage, and Studio

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Ani Newbie

Ani

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Vilo,

 

I'm not a personal trainer or a doctor, but from my personal experiences in being involved in serious workout programs on and off over the years; you need to be doing vigorous enough exercises to accelerate your cardiovascular system which speeds up your metabolism; higher metabolism rates tend to burn fat more rapidly than sluggish metabolism. Slower, muscle building exercises may not break the sweat beads, but muscle will triumph over fat tissue and the inches will melt away as you continue to build muscle; that is, unless you are intentionally trying to bulk up by eating more.

 

Exercise is good, but many people often take the word for granted and go about it all wrong. Depending on how you do Sets and Reps will determine whether you tone or build targeted areas of your body. Sweat can be caused by heat and humidity, even for those that live sedentary lifestyles. Sweat is not an indication that you are burning calories. Some folks break a sweat after one flight of stairs and yet they are completely out of breath and their heart rate is racing at lighting speed because they are so out of shape. Consistency and repetition to a committed workout plan will be rewarding; sweat or not.

 

If you are not doing warm up exercises prior to a vigorous workout, you are setting yourself up for injury. Also, you want to do your exercises in mini reps while alternating the muscle areas you are targeting. The speed and duration at which you do these reps will determine whether you build or tone.

 

Getting involved in a quality fitness program is an excellent thing to do, and if you can afford it, it pays to consult with a personal trainer. If not throughout the entire process, do it at least throughout the initial stages where you learn how your body responds to exercise and what you need to do to protect yourself against injury. Many gyms offer on site instructors. If you do not have someone at your dispose that can assist you, at least pick up a video or two that focuses on the areas your are seeking to tone. Don't take it for granted that less calories and more exercises will help you lose weight more quickly; that's the WORST thing you can do.

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MrKnobs Rookie

MrKnobs

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:cop:YES I CAN HANDLE IT!!!

When a person exercises, is really burning fat or just sweating? or both?


My inquiring mind needs to know!!!:poke::poke:


10 Q!
:thu:

 

Well, it works like this:

 

Muscles require energy, whether they're moving or just idle. Of course they require more energy when you're using them. This includes both voluntary striated muscle (like your arms and legs have) and smooth muscle like your heart.

 

The energy comes from burning stored glycogen, which is kept in the liver. This is basically blood "sugar."

 

If you keep exercising, the liver runs out of stored glycogen, and the body must turn to ketosis to get energy. This is the burning of stored fat.

 

So, if you work out hard enough, long enough, often enough, and you restrict your calories, yes, you will burn fat by exercising. But it's a slow process as there are quite a few calories in a kg of fat.

 

The good news is that, as I mentioned, muscle mass requires energy even when you're resting. So adding muscle by running, weight lifting, etc. can even burn fat when you're not working out.

 

The bad news is, fat cells aren't just passive as was once thought. They're actually endocrine organs meaning they secrete hormones that affect the rest of the body. One thing they do is make you want to eat and fill them back up with fat! Another thing they do is make your cells less sensitive to insulin, so you want to keep the fat down, especially abdominal fat, lest you develop type II diabetes or a host of other medical problems.

 

So the short answer is, exercise makes you lose weight quickly by water loss (sweating), but more slowly and permanently by burning fat. At first, though, as you convert fat to muscle you may actually gain some weight because muscle is denser than fat. But patience, it's a good thing.

 

Terry D.

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ViLo Newbie

ViLo

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Thanks Ani and Mr.Knobs:

I will be 50 yrs old this month,I'm 5"5 [At least that's what my driver license says :DI think I'm shorter, but that's a secret] as I got older I reduced the exercise big time, stop running, playing sports... etc. I'm a vegetarian and I was recommended to take protein, which I started doing by blending it with soymilk and fruits, what I noticed is that I'm getting hungrier, I have developed a gut[that I started noticing about 5 years ago] not a big one but to the point that does not look good since I'm short :D:D

and I Used to be proud of my "gutless" body :D, I know as we get older the metabolism slows down, but hey I got to do somthing!!!

 

My weight is 137 lbs.

 

I must say that I work in construction, and I walked a lot, and go up and down the stairs a lot, which is good but, I end up very tired, and when I get home , I don't feel like exercising, my mind wants to do it but my body says:"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT"!!!

 

Thanks again guys!

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rasputin1963 Newbie

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When you're over 35, the time period you work out becomes more important than the vigorousness of your workout-- if fat burning is your goal. Truthfully, once you're over age 35 or so, the first 30--40 minutes of exercise are just warm-up... getting you into an optimum fatburning zone.

 

Burning fat is an WHOLISTIC exercise, whereas building muscle is a LOCAL exercise. Contrary to popular thought, you cannot "spot-burn" fat. But you can "spot-train" muscle.

 

The implications of this are these: All the situps in the world are not going to give you "Six Pack Abs"... that is, if fat is still covering your abdominal muscles. Your abdominal and back muscles will get a monstrous muscular workout locally, but fat will not burn LOCALLY on your ab region...

 

OTOH, ANY cardiovascular exercise you do-- provided it's in your fat burning Zone--- will burn fat wholistically, all over your body.

 

This is why those "last stubborn pounds" men tend to get are on the belly, man-tits and "love handles"; women tend to get "saddlebags", big fat butts, thunder-thighs and "childbirth pooches".

 

Remember those mechanized belt apparatuses of the 1960's and earlier? Pert 'n' pretty Debbie Drake, with her pointy cone-bra and leotards would smilingly step inside one of those jiggly-belts, and the belt would jiggle her butt back-and-forth, very rapidly, while her teeth chattered. What did she achieve? "Those pesky fat pounds just melting away effortlessly?"

 

No. Nothing. Those belts did NOTHING. olddieting.jpg

 

This is because fat burning is controlled by the pituitary, thyroid and related-hormones in an "all over the body" fashion, and they're triggered by Work.

 

Depending on your age, there are optimum Fat Burning Heartrate Zones which you must stay inside in order to burn fat. You might be surprised to know that these special heartrate zones are lower than you think in BPM. In other words, you don't have to work your ass off to burn fat. In fact, if, during exercise, your heartrate exceeds your unique fat-burning zone, you will be defeating your own purpose.... Don't get me wrong, you'll still get one helluva cardio-vascular workout (improving heart strength, lung function and bloodflow), but you will no longer be burning fat.

 

Visit this website:

 

POLAR HEARTRATE MONITOR-WRISTWATCHES

 

The $85 or so you spend here will be the best spent money of your life. You wear this rubber belt and wristwatch while you work out. It carefully monitors your heart-rate to keep you within the fat-burning zone optimum for your sex and age.

 

So long as you stay inside your fat-burning zone, it remains silent. But if your heartrate drops BELOW the Zone, it will beep at you as a cue to move your ass more. And if your heartrate gets too fast, it will beep at you, telling you to slow down your exercise intensity and/or speed, and drop back down into your Zone.

 

At the end of your workout, it will give you a computerized tally of how long you worked, how much of that time was spent in the Fat Burning zone, and the estimate of Kilocalories oxidized (fat burned).

 

These things are marvelous. When I was weight-training seriously, it was a most important way to keep fat off while I was trying to keep muscle-mass on. At one point, I actually made it down to 13% bodyfat... nothing to sneeze at at all!

 

The interesting thing is, the older you get in years, the more your Fat Burning zone drops. So a 50-year-old man can burn fat at a lower heartrate speed than can a 20-year-old.

 

Acumen_Target_Heart_Rate_Zone.gif

 

Get yourself a POLAR!

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nerol1st Newbie

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It's sweat. It's impossible to lose 2 (or whatever) Ibs in one workout session.

 

I'm not claiming to be an exspert I just very convieniently got done with a basic nutrition class for college this semester and the professor is a personal trainer.

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Super 8 Newbie

Super 8

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Oh cool, I'm learning something.

 

I've struggled with weight. I was at my highest (I'm not even going to say what that was, but it was high.) when my daughter was born (5 years ago this very night, in fact). Then I got serious and started walking and some upper body weight training. I lost a lot of weight but gained some back last year, which I'm losing now.

 

I've never been terribly intense. I try to be more consistent than intense. My goal is just to be able to continue to do this basically for the rest of my life. However, I am pushing pretty hard on the machines. I don't run though. I've never been much of a runner. I love to walk, and do between 12 and probably 16 miles a week when the weather is decent.

 

I'm still fighting with my stomach, and my appetite (I don't like being hungry, it's a real battle). But my chest, shoulders, and arms have grown a bit, so it helps balance me out. :)

 

I never really was the exercise type. But now that I've gotten into it, I've found that I really kind of enjoy it. I feel good when I leave the Y and I know I've pushed as hard, or close to as hard as I can. Also, fear of what would happen if I stopped even for a short time keeps me going. I had to stop for a couple of weeks recently due to pneumonia, and I can't get over how much just those two weeks cost me. Less motivation to hit the gym, more pain, inability to complete sets even if I knock 5 pounds off. No, I'll never take a vacation for working out.

 

 

Ras,

The Y is selling those Polars, and I'm interested. Which one do you recommend?

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rasputin1963 Newbie

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Ras,

The Y is selling those Polars, and I'm interested. Which one do you recommend?

 

The most basic models--- watch + belt--- are perfectly adequate. I think they start at around the $55 dollar range. Worth every penny.

 

They get fancier, with more features, the more you pay. I hear tell their top o' the line model gives head and fixes breakfast. ;)

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Ani Newbie

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Truthfully, once you're over age 35 or so, the first 30--40 minutes of exercise are just warm-up... getting you into an optimum fatburning zone.

 

That might hold true if you are in the position of wanting to lose weight, but if you have already reached your ideal weight; a moderate warm up of about 15 minutes should be sufficient enough to lead into a 30-50 minute workout. You don't have to live in a gym to stay fit once you are toned. It takes more to get back into the swing of things if you have slacked off for a long period of time, but once you're toned back down, 3-4 days a week with an hour tops is plenty of time to maintain.

 

I must say that I work in construction, and I walked a lot, and go up and down the stairs a lot, which is good but, I end up very tired, and when I get home , I don't feel like exercising, my mind wants to do it but my body says:"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT"!!!

 

It's real easy to let the laboring jobs wear our bodies down to leave us feeling tired and aching after a hard day's work; it catches up to us all too soon. Overtime and inconsistent schedules sometimes lead to eating irregularities which, more often than not, lead to weight gain. Weight gain leads to depression, lack of motivation, health issues, exhaustion, poor self esteem, and many other things. There are many numbers of things that can take us out of the routine while causing us to slip into "comfort" mode. Surgeries, unhappy relationships, doing too much for your family (being too self sacrificial), overtime on the job, and etc all contribute to the excuses we make for not MAKING the time for ourselves to workout.

 

Having 2 major surgeries on my stomach back to back (8 months apart) took me out of the routine; it just snowballed from there. I reached my all time high, and like Super8, I'd rather not share that info... but at least I'm back on the downward spiral again and I'm losing weight. The more weight you pack on, the less energetic you feel. Those minor aches and pains from an average day's work intensify. Last autumn, I had the opportunity to take on a job that would put me walking a minimum of 7 miles a day (measured by a pedometer with accurate settings) I jumped on the opportunity and, when traveling between floor levels, I use the stairways instead of the escalators and elevators available. Folks tell me I'm crazy for not using the escalators, or for wanting to do a job that requires walking the distances required, but I love it. It's not quite the same as a vigorous workout at a gym, but I'm definitely not sedentary.

 

Even with the 7 miles a day in walking at a moderate to FAST pace, I still am planning to get involved with my swimming again come summer. I would have already bought a membership to the community center, had it not been for another recent surgery of a triple ventral hernia (incision). With all the walking, I can certainly tell a difference in my leg muscle.... that's a good thing. But, I want the rest of my body to feel the benefit of exercise... Swimming or bicycling gets me off of my feet and allows me to work the OTHER muscles that go begging throughout the daily routine of walking the plant.

 

Ras mentioned that you can't "spot-burn" fat. But you CAN "spot-train" muscle. I call it body sculpting. It takes a mindset. You HAVE to want to make it happen to achieve any level of success. I don't want to be "fat", I don't want to feel run down, I don't want to look like other women that don't care anymore. It's really great to be able to walk three flights of stairs without having to stop in the middle to catch my breath again. I can't wait until I'm swimming non-stop for 45 minutes to an hour while breaking a "SWEAT" in the water. It's a great feeling.

 

FWIW, exercising stimulates the estrogen and testosterone levels in aging individuals.... :o

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Jeff da Weasel Newbie

Jeff da Weasel

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5'11", 165, and I still have 10+ pounds of flab on my gut. You can't describe a height/weight number and have it mean 100% that the weight is distributed in a healthy way.

 

IOW, I'd WEIGH more if I lost all that gut flab but built more muscle throughout my body, and be in better shape, not worse.

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rasputin1963 Newbie

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In 1979, when I was 16, I looked like Alain Delon:

 

alaindelonbw.jpg

 

now, at age 45, I look like Charles Laughton (shown left):

 

Charles_Laughton.jpg

 

I only WISH that I were exaggerating or joking. There is now "a lot of me to love", as people say euphemistically. Cervine to porcine in 30 years.

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