Friday Q&A Fat Facts

Happy Saturday
I am behind as usual but here is your Friday Q&A on FATS!

Here is an excellent snippit from a fantastic professor and presentor Dr. Len Kravitz about common weight loss questions...
Kudos to Dr. Kravitz: http://www.drlenkravitz.com/Articles/fatfactsdlk.html

It all Begins with Energy Balance Basics.
A kilocalorie (expressed as calorie throughout the rest of the article) is
a unit of energy, and since energy is neither created nor destroyed (First Law of Thermodynamics), the calories we eat will either be stored somewhere in the body or expended for fuel in metabolism (all reactions of the cell for life) for daily activities, occupational tasks and/or exercise.

This basic caloric theory fundamentally specifies that if a person consumes more energy then what s/he is expending, it will lead to a positive energy balance and weight gain. When energy expenditure exceeds energy intake, a negative energy balance exists and weight loss will occur. However, due to individual differences in our body’s neurological, hormonal and metabolic regulatory systems, this caloric balance concept does not work precisely that same in all persons.

When a person is in a negative energy balance, the weight loss may come from three body sources: water, adipose tissue, and muscle tissue.
Under most circumstances, body water will remain relatively normal as long as regular hydration is followed. Consequently, the goal of the weight loss plan is to lose fat while preserving muscle mass.

Is Low Intensity Exercise Better for FatBurning?
We’ve all heard a number of ‘fitness claims’ that the best type of aerobic
training to burn fat is lower intensity exercise, referred to as the ‘fat
burning zone’. Thompson and colleagues (1998) have confirmed that at lower intensities (50% VO2max) there is a greater ‘percentage’ of energy from fat than at higher intensities (70% VO2max).

However, at the higher training intensity the TOTAL energy
expenditure will be greater, and a person will almost always burn the
same amount (or more) fat calories as s/he would exercising at the lower intensities, providing the workouts are the same length in time. Another way of stating this is, the selective use of fat as fuel, such as in low intensity exercise, does not translate into greater fat loss. More importantly for weight loss plans, fitness professionals should focus on the exercise regime that yields the greater total volume of calories expended from the exercise bout.

For those clients and students who are sedentary and/or perhaps at
orthopedic, cardiac or health risk, high intensity exercise may be
contraindicated. For their weight loss exercise plan, lower-intensity exercise, for a progressively longer duration would be recommended. In fact, since most people can’t do ‘high intensity’ exercise on a daily basis due to potential overtraining and over use concerns, perhaps the best strategy is to integrate and balance the long duration workouts with the high intensity workouts for optimal calorie (fat) burning.

Thanks for clearing that up Len!
SS