I have a personal training client who asked me last night why she has to do cardio to burn more fat. Specifically, she doesn’t like to breathe hard and sweat. I explained to her that our bodies burn units of energy (calories) depending on the work our body is doing. The harder the work is, the more calories we burn, which generally pulls that energy from fat and carbohydrates. She kept insisting that there must be a way to burn that many calories without her having to work so hard.
I know there isn’t, but I’m left trying to find a simple explanation that shows how the amount of work we do to increase calorie burn will almost always increase respirations and heart rate.
Any help? Think of trying to explain it to an elementary student. It’s sort of frustrating to me because I know why, and it seems simple to me, but maybe I’m just not explaining it right to her.
She doesn’t have to sweat or breathe hard to burn fat. Have her work out longer. She can burn 600 calories in an hour by running and she’ll be breathing hard and sweating. If instead she walks for 2 hours, she’ll still burn 600 calories but hardly be out of breath.
Cardio helps her burn fat faster. She may not realize it, but she burns the same calories * per mile* running regardless of the speed. So a slow jog or a sprint would burn the same calories per mile. The difference is that the slow jog might take twice as long to cover that same mile. So calories per minute is higher the faster she goes but calories per distance is the same.
Also talk to her about her food intake. Show her what 400 calories of food looks like and compare that to running 3 miles. Maybe she’ll think twice about what she eats, which will greatly help.
She understands that she can work out longer but not as hard to get the same calorie burn, but she doesn’t understand the chemistry of it, I guess. To be honest, I don’t really clearly understand what she doesn’t get about this.
She also didn’t seem to grasp why running a mile will burn a bit more then walking a mile. Maybe it’s just something she isn’t able to understand.
I will talk to her a bit more on Saturday when I see her next and try and get a better feel for what her question is.
The benefits of cardio vs. non-cardio exercise are that cardio increases your endurance and the strength of your heart as a muscle (or so I’ve been led to believe) and, as **filmore **says, burns calories faster.
You might also introduce your client to the concept of NEAT, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This amounts to anything you are doing, even standing still, that is not sitting. So if she watches tv standing up instead of sitting down, she will burn more calories; if she rides the commuter bus or train standing up instead of sitting down, more calories burned. There are a lot of little things she can do which, if made habitual over time, can make a difference in her weight and her fitness.
Also, research seems to indicate that folks do not lose a significant amount of weight just from exercise alone. Your client also needs to reduce her calorie intake; in fact, reducing her calorie intake is a better indicator of weight loss than exercise. Exercise, on the other hand, is much better indicator of keeping weight off, once it is lost.
In turns of the chemistry, the body doesn’t like to burn fat. It won’t do it if it doesn’t have to. When she exercises hard, her body realizes that the carbs in her bloodstream aren’t sufficient and it starts to burn fat. Two fuel sources provide more energy than just one. But when she’s exercising at a low level, her body doesn’t need two energy sources. The trickle of energy from the available carbs is sufficient to keep her walking. Her body won’t go to the fat stores until the carbs are all gone.
Present it like having two candles she needs to burn out. One way is to burn the candles one at a time. Light one candle, wait for it to burn down, and then light the other candle. The other way is to burn both candles at the same time. The end result is the same–both candles burned–but one way takes twice as long.
You have to remember your body will eventually compensate for work. This is why when you left a 25lb weight it’s hard for a few weeks. Then your body says “OK enough of this. If this guy is gonna keep lifting 25lbs, we’ll make the muscle bigger.”
The bigger the muscle the less work you need to do.
I was involved in a sports medicine study in 2004 and they hooked me up to a lot of things and it was really interesting.
For instance, on days I worked out, my overall pulse was 70. On days I didn’t work out it was about 74 on average. While I worked out the pulse went up into the 140s but at night when I slept it was falling into the low 50s and high 40s. (that shocked me). On days when I didn’t work out, the pulse would go up to the low 80s and at night while I slept fall to the high 60s.
So clearly the body was compensating depending on the work I did. The harder I pushed in the day, at night, my body just slowed down. If I didn’t push it hard, when I slept it didn’t need to slow down as much.
The thing people have a tough time with is “your body ALWAYS takes the line of least resistance.” All animals and plants and everything are set up to conserve energy.
Only by pushing your body hard, but not too hard so you don’t overtax it, can you bring change.