The Cardio Fat-Burning Zone: Get out of it!


Ariane,

I have heard somewhere that it is better to work out at lower intensity to stay in the fat burning zone. Is it better that I don’t work out that hard in the first month? – Ines

source: www.treadmillreviews.net

Ines, 

the ‘fat burning zone’ is a very outdated way of looking at exercising. Unfortunately there are still trainers out there that suggest you work out at low intensity in order to burn body fat rather than making your workout effective. Those trainers are probably the ones that still preach what they learned more than 10 years ago and haven’t caught up with the latest and most effective training methods.

The key takeaway is that the higher the intensity, the more calories you burn. It is true that at lower intensity you burn more calories from fat and less from carbs in terms of percentages, but what matters is how much you burned overall and also how much of an after-burn effect you create (it’s also called EPOC, which is the amount of energy used by your body even after your workout is over).

If you go for a walk for an hour you burn around 300 calories. Of those calories you burn about 40% from carbs, and 60% from body fat. If you run on the treadmill for an hour, you burn about 600-800 calories and about 60% from carbs and about 40% from fat (calorie burn depends on a lot of factors: your weight, your muscle mass, your level of fitness, your workout, whether you ate and what you ate before your workout, etc. That means you can’t rely on the calorie counter on exercise equipment. It’s usually off by 100-300 calories.) 

What you need to know is that overall, you burned a lot more on the higher intensity treadmill workout than with walking. Plus, you also will be burning calories after you’re done with your high intensity workout. During a strength training workout you’ll burn about 400-600 calories per hour – depending on how you train, and you’ll burn calories for at least 24 hours after you’re done because your body is repairing the microscopic damage you’ve created. Plus, the added muscle requires more calories just to stay on your body. That’s why strength training is more effective at changing your body in the long run – the results carry on, while cardio calories are burned only during the workout and not much afterwards. Plus, long and drawn-out cardio workouts promote muscle loss and a stress response by your body that promotes fat storage. 

The reason our Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp and Slim & Strong workout sessions bring about changes so fast is because they are high-intensity-interval-training based. We push ourselves for short cardio intervals, then lift weights or use our own body weight for resistance and then mix that up so that your heart rate is elevated throughout the entire hour. You promote the release of adrenaline, which forces your body to use body fat from underneath your skin. You also promote the release of growth hormone, which keeps you young and lean, and you stimulate the growth of muscle, which burns calories, increases your metabolism even at rest and makes you leaner. At the same time you are burning through the glycogen stored in your liver and muscles, which then forces your body to use body fat for energy. That means you’re losing fat! Also, you’re improving your insulin sensitivity, which is a sign of great health because your body can utilize the carbohydrates you eat better rather than having them get stored as body fat.

Are you ready to get into fat burning mode? Then push yourself in your workouts and make the best use of your time. If your trainer still suggests lower intensity, then you know his skills are a bit outdated.


Buy the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp DVD, an hour-long interval training workout that we shot on the Brooklyn Bridge. The good news is it’s challenging even after a few workouts and never quite lets you slack off. See a difference in 5 sessions. Order it here for $25. It comes with a set of long and short resistance bands, a booklet illustrating all exercises and a free workout on the Brooklyn Bridge. 





Here’s your daily 10-Minute Routine: A treadmill routine you won’t forget so fast!

What’s the best workout schedule for me?

Ariane,

I ran the NYC Half on the Sunday before my trip! My IT band got inflamed 2 miles in, but I finished the race – no way I could have managed if not for boot camp by the way!! 

Keep this in mind while reading through the million questions that follow:

 I weigh 115 lbs now, am 5’5″ tall and 33 yrs ancient. I was at 25-26% body fat and I need to be down to 20-21%. My actual weight in lbs doesn’t matter to me. 

I need to figure out a new regimen that involves some running in between the boot camp and heavy weight lifting days. Which of the following do you think will allow me to keep building muscle and not compromise the running too much? Half marathons are the longest races until November, so it is not really awful. 

a)

M   – AM boot camp

T    - AM boot camp + PM 2 – 5 mile run

W   – AM boot camp

Th  - Spin/speed work + lift heavy

F    - AM boot camp

S    - long, slow run or bridge workout

Sun-off or occasional race or lift heavy 

b) 

M   – AM boot camp + Hardcore PM boot camp

T    - AM boot camp or off day

W   – AM boot camp + 2-5 mile run

Th  - 30 min spin/30min speed work + lift heavy

F    - AM boot camp

S    - Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp

Sun – occasional race or lift heavy 

Thanks, K.

K.,

The issue you’re going to run into in trying to reduce your body fat while keeping your muscle is that you’re doing an awful lot of cardio and exercise. The problem is that you need to do several conflicting things and that’s where the challenge lies.

In order to fuel your long runs upwards of an hour, you need to eat a decent amount of carbs and calories. This will also keep your hunger at bay (running makes you hungry) and will prevent muscle loss (cutting calories severely makes you lose muscle).

However, eating too many carbs also stops fat burning, so they should be eaten in the 12-16 hours before your runs longer than an hour. That will allow you to fuel your runs without adding to fat storage. Rely on veggies and add extra carbs through oatmeal, brown rice and sweet potatoes (no need to eat more than 100 grams of carbs extra). If you work out for up to 60 minutes a day there’s no need to refuel with more carbs as you have plenty of energy stored and from food to make it through that hour.

However, you need to eat more protein given your heavy lifting and duration and frequency of exercise. Have at least 20 grams of protein with about 20-30 grams of carbs within the hour of ending your workout. Eat more carbs in the 2 meals before a longer run (more than 60 minutes). After the run take in the protein and carb combo to refuel your muscles and glycogen stores. 

I suggest you take 2 days off every week – not consecutive – to let your body rest and recover. Believe it or not, rest is essential to muscle growth, to avoid fatigue and exhaustion and to avoid muscle loss. Ideally, alternate a lifting day with cardio and boot camp and make the first workout after a rest day a heavy lifting day. That way your muscles are well rested and you have the power and energy to push hard. Then add a cardio day to let your muscles recover and repair and to loosen up if you’re sore. The only reason not to do a heavy lifting day before your running day would be if you’re training for speed and want to up your pace and leg power. In that case I’d do the running day before the heavy lifting day.

After your cardio day add an interval training day, which would be boot camp. Boot Camp will help you get your cardio up, strengthen your muscles – without overloading them as with heavy lifting days – and will train your agility, endurance and stimulate fat burning. Then start the cycle again with a rest day. 

Day 1: Rest

Day 2: Heavy lifting day – full body

Day 3: Cardio

Day 4: Boot Camp

Day 5: Rest

Day 6: Heavy lifting – full body

Day 7: Cardio

This schedule should give your body adequate stimulation to grow muscle, lose fat but prevent overuse, fatigue and muscle loss. 

Give it two weeks and see what you notice in terms of your strength during heavy lifting days, your endurance on running days and your energy on boot camp days. 


Picture credits:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1948208,00.html’
http://www.123rf.com/photo_5478240_woman-weightlifting-with-barbell.html

Preethi’s 6th Detox Day



So in my post where I mention the parameters for food on our Detox Challenge (‘Let the detox begin’), I forgot to mention one key thing: with this diet, we commit to at least 3 hours of exercise per week. Whatever we like, but it should include both strength and cardio. (Ariane actually gives each of us her Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp DVD as part of the Detox Challenge, so that’s a great option for working out at home.) 

I hadn’t quite started the exercise portion of all this. Had fallen off a bit last week, really – had not seriously worked out (I walked a lot, and I’m laughing at myself as I’m writing this because I know and hopefully you know by now as well, walking is NOT real exercise – unless you are in some way, shape or form physically incapacitated – and I always want to shake the people who claim they exercised when they really just went for a walk).

Anyway, I went to boot camp this morning with my husband in tow. Five minutes into it, and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I plodded through what seemed like the rest of the hour but when I looked up at the clock, only 9 minutes had gone by. Usually the first time I look up, it’s at least 20 minutes past start. I looked over at Joe. He had stopped and was kneeling on the ground looking ready for execution. We were Mr. and Mrs. Pathetic this morning. But seriously, I felt exhausted and nauseous.

Here’s what went through my head:
Wow – I didn’t know I was this out of shape. Well I can’t be out of shape in just a week. Can I? But I can’t do this. Maybe it’s time to just sit this one out. More sumos? What’s gotten into this woman? This can’t be normal. How is everyone else doing this? Anne Marie always does the best sumos. Hm, why wasn’t she in class last week? I can’t do any more sumos. Ok. I can do it. I can do it. Jesus! I can’t do it. Help! Help! Maybe I’m just done with boot camp. Is the air-conditioning on? This is just not for me. This is too much. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to live like this. Oh wow – I can really feel my obliques. This is a great exercise for obliques. I should do this all the time. What? More push-ups? Crazy lady. Why aren’t we doing donkey kicks? Oh good – donkey kicks! 3-2-1. Hold it? No, you hold it, Super Woman. Stretch! Woohoo! Done and done. Is Joe alive?


How sad is this for someone who has been going at boot camp for TWO years now? I could barely walk after this class. Really had the wind knocked out of me. Ariane said my body is just going into fat-burning mode. I’ve felt something vaguely similar when I’m doing the Quickie Blubber Burn - it’s the point where your body has gone through the energy stored in your muscles and starts burning your actual fat for energy (which is good stuff!). But this felt impossible. Of course, I’ve never been on detox before. And my body may just be reacting slower to all this detoxing than everyone else’s is. 

My detox hero, Monica, said she has been looking at my food diary on Pinterest and that I haven’t been eating enough. Which Ariane confirmed as well. (Hence the extra green stuff in my lunch today, pictured on top). I felt dizzy at one point during the day today and just generally unwell. Turns out I need more veggies in my diet – not getting enough veggies means I’m not getting enough carbs since veggies are now my main source of them (until we add back the grains, which will happen in Week #2). 

I’m sooooo tired of chewing those vegetables, though. I look at broccoli and not only do I feel bored to tears, but I feel plain lazy to put it in my mouth for all the chomping I’ll have to do to swallow it. My co-worker, Danielle, suggested juicing it all which is a great idea. That will make it a lot easier for me to get all my veggies in. This is really opening my eyes as to how few vegetables I make it a point to add to my daily diet. That can’t be good. That’s one concerted effort I’m going to make even when off this detox. Much easier for me to do when they are cooked and flavored with Indian spices, though. Will have to start gathering some new recipes. 

That’s what I guess this process is about. Learning what you need to do keep yourself eating healthy. My name is Preethi and I need to eat more vegetables. I’m realizing as far as this goes, I do better if I’ve cooked them myself. I can’t stand plain steamed vegetables. It’s like eating cardboard for me. And my cooking cannot be dependent on having time – I need to make the time. 

Ok. That’s all for today. Going to throw some vegetables in with the spicy chicken on the stove. I think this post is the most I have ever written, said or thought about ‘vegetables’ in my whole entire life. 

The Slim & Strong Detox Challenge is conducted by Ariane Hundt of my favorite Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp. You can visit her site for more info. I should be bitching about it plenty over the next 3 weeks as well.

A Happening Weekend

The past weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday morning I taught a boot camp class in the Lululemon Store in Union Square. We had a packed house and the class was an intense sweat fest. Thanks to everyone for coming!

On Sunday it was finally time to compete in the stair climb for the MS Society of New York. Our team “Butt Kickers” did amazingly well climbing 66 flights of stairs to the Top of the Rock. It was pure agony and truly uncomfortable but so worth the effort because the view was amazing. Plus, we raised a ton of money for a good cause. Here we are. Proud and happy to be done. 

The Top of the Rock. 66 flights of Hell. :-)
By the way, if you still haven’t started to incorporate stair climbing into your workouts to get stronger, leaner and more powerful legs, it’s time you get going. Watch this video where I show you the ropes (and a stairwell).