Burning fat vs calories?

**kahala** · 07-16-2006, 03:39 PM

I am working on losing weight and gaining mass, oxymoron maybe

I read somewhere that to lose body fat, the body needs to be using oxygen. So if I am on a stair climber for 12 minutes roughly, then does after the 12 minutes roughly,, start burning fat? Also, this machine will tell you how many calories you're burning, can one gauge fat loss the same way?
What I read went on to say, that after using the stairclimber , to soon start your weight routine.
What I am looking for is someone to clearify what I have probably incorrectly explained on the process of weight training.
I am trying to cut way back on eating, and working with weights everyday. Everyother day, I go to the gym and am burning about 225 calories using the stair step climber,, about 18 minutes in time, on that machine, then hit the rest of my program.
Imput would be appreciated, thanks

**Duncans Donuts** · 07-16-2006, 07:37 PM

Okay, first of all, don't go to the gym everyday.

Don't try and cut back eating, do it. Organize your diet. Develop a plan of strategy. Figure out how much energy you use and how much it will take to lose it. Also pay attention to signs that give you an idea of your metabolism speed.

Secondly, lowly intense aerobic work is good if you want to be involved in endurance activities, and it's good in moderation for warming up and flexibility. Negative: chances are the low intese aerobic stuff will give you a bigger appetite that will negate your effort, and it wont' give you the metabolic spike of working out with weights, and it can cut into your muscle building effort IF YOU ABUSE it. Honestly, interval intensity training is much better if you want to develop muscles, spike the resting metabolic rate, and convert any foods you eat in the window after you work out to replenishing glyocgen supplies and protein synthesis.

And no, you can't gauge fat loss with those machines. They don't actually tell you how much energy you're burning, they are a guess. They also don't tell you that the calculation factors in your resting metabolic rate, so if it says you burned 225 you probably burned 150 or so above what you would burn sitting down doing nothing.

**CowPimp** · 07-16-2006, 07:49 PM

Listen to DD. Good advice there. I think a combination of resistance training and some cardio is best for overall health, as it seems like that is part of what you are getting into exercise for. 2-3 days of resistance training coupled with 2-3 days of cardiovascular exercise (Not necessarily aerobic) is a good way of doing things. Like DD said, don't go overboard with aerobic exercise. I think aerobic exercise is typically abused, and more people should delve into higher intensity modalities.

2 and 2 is a good place to start until you improve your work capacity. Just jumping into things balls to the wall is kind of setting you up for failure unless you have a lot of intrinsic motivation and are positive you will adhere to it. Starting out slower also gives you another way to progress.

Check out the stickies we have on designing a resistance training program. I recommend a full body program for now, though splits are totally valid. However, to get proper motor patterns down quicker and get your conditioning up, full body programs are a good place to start. The diet & nutrition section also has a lot of good information on designing a sound diet.

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