Weight Loss and Health Secrets with Jason Christoff

There are 5 basic pillars of health. Those 5 pillars are food quality, proper sleep, clean water, exercise and proper rest. I have already reviewed proper sleep and food quality. If you would like a copy of those previous articles please e-mail me personally at [email protected]

In regards to exercise, it’s hard to know where to start. Lets tackle a primary myth regarding exercise. The largest exercise myth going is how steady state cardio exercise is good for long-term weight stability or fat loss. The truth is that steady state cardio exercise can prime the body for fat gain and long-term weight instability. Steady state cardio exercise is any exercise where you hold the same speed of execution for 3 minutes or more.

That means if you want to keep your weight loss permanent and if you want to make sure your weight doesn’t “yo-yo”, stay away from exercise options like steady state walking or jogging. Steady state walking or jogging are good for many things (relaxing, friendship building, appreciating nature etc) but fat loss is not one of them.

As a side note, interval based cardio training that combines walking with sprinting or resting with sprinting is very good for toning, fat loss and weight stability. In order to get fit and not waste your time you need to understand the difference between interval based exercise and steady state exercise.

Many North Americans get into big trouble listening to scientists who are obsessed with what happens first during a scientific experiment. If you conducted a scientific study of steady state walkers or joggers you would find that in 100% of cases, the exercisers do burn fat. Yes, fat burning does occur at the beginning of the steady state cardio experiment but what happens after that? How does the body start to adapt to being exposed to steady state walking or jogging over time?

What happens second is that the body starts to sync into the exercise frequency and understand that the owner of the body requires more fat to burn during the walking or jogging. The body adapts by starting to produce more fat to ensure the owner of the body never runs out. The body is an adaptive organism and the adaptation it makes, in regards to being exposed to steady state jogging and walking, is to increase fat production. Your body cherishes fat and your body needs fat so when it sees all that fat being burnt away during the steady state jogging or walking, it gets nervous and does everything it can to put the brakes on. Not only does the body start to produce more fat, so the owner of the body doesn’t run out of fat during the jogging or walking, the body starts to store more fat from the same or smaller meals plus the body starts to conserve what fat stores it already has.

In short, steady state walking and jogging produces a class of hormones that will do 2 things in the human body. Those hormones increase fat storage from the same or lesser amounts of food and those hormones make sure one molecule of fat lasts as long as possible during the steady state walking or jogging, (otherwise known as fat conservation/ or a slowing of the metabolism).

Now if you can’t believe how odd this story is getting, there’s more! Those fat storing adaptive hormones can have lingering effects for weeks or even months after the jogging or walking is stopped. That means the steady state jogger or walker may stop exercising (their main source of burning away the extra fat they’re now producing) but will still have the massive fat storing hormones circulating in their body. That means weight gain can occur in a dramatic way when the walking or jogging stops. In many cases this may force the person to start walking or jogging again, in an effort to slow the mysterious weight gain and this ofcourse just makes the problem much worse. This cycle can produce some severe exercise addictions.

You would also be surprised to know that long-term steady state jogging and walking actually decreases cardiac efficiency. A varying heart rate is what increases heart health but steady state jogging or walking doesn’t do that.

The solution is easy. Avoid steady state jogging or walking for fat burning and focus on interval based weight and cardio training. You can investigate Dr. Al Sears’ PACE Program or Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training. Seaway Valley Cross Fit opens at Summit Fitness Feb. 15 and Jenn-Fit is also offered as of Jan 31st at Physical Limits Fitness. (www.jennfit.ca) Both programs focus strictly on fat burning and toning interval based exercise techniques.

Next week I will continue with reviewing proper exercise techniques. Hope you are having a great 2011.