Burn more fat!
Let’s face it, the reason why we spend hours pedaling away on stationary bikes is to burn more fat. I can do five hours of cardio a week and still put two pounds on. This is because while I’m burning calories, usually 400-500 per session, I’m also taking in a certain amount of calories and also building muscle with my weight training regiment. The way to burn more calories than you take in is quite simple, don’t eat as much as you burn.
The problem a lot of us have is deciding exactly how many calories we need throughout the day. There are many different methods to help to help you do this. They range from simple formulas, such as multiplying your body weight by a fixed number, to complicated equations that take into account your height, weight, age, resting metabolic rate and body type ( endomorphic, ectomorphic ). Personally, I like to keep things simple. Multiply your target bodyweight by a fixed number that varies depending on how much exercise your doing. One of the key components to this method, is the amount of muscle you have does have an influence on your metabolic rate. One of the big myths about muscle and metabolism is the idea that for every pound of new muscle, your body will burn an extra 50-100 calories per day. You’ve probably read about how muscle burns calories even while you are sitting at your desk or even sleeping. This is all true! When you gain muscle, your resting metabolic rate ( the number of calories your body burns at rest) does go up, but this increase is a lot less than the 50-100 calorie figure you’ll often seen written.
Methods for measuring resting metabolic rate and body composition vary widely in their precision and accuracy. We don’t know for sure if any change in resting metabolism is because of extra muscle. In addition, other studies show an increase in resting metabolic rate even when gains in fat-free mass are taken into account.
If you’re confused, join the club. I’m here to make all this seem doable. If you were to lose two pounds of fat and replace it with two pounds of muscle, your resting metabolic rate will increase by less than 10 calories per day. In other words, the ideal goal is to build muscle while minimizing fat gain, or, lose fat while preserving muscle. If you are fortunate enough to gain a significant amount of muscle while you’re losing fat, the impact of the extra muscle on your resting metabolic rate will be small, and certainly won’t amount to 10,000 extra calories a month. The key to burning more fat is burn more calories than you take in. There are instruments like the Body Bug that measure the amount of calories you burn throughout the day and by logging in the amount of food you eat during the day, calculates the results. The key to any device is to be honest with every calorie you consume in a day. Soon you will see the difference in the mirror. Stay healthy!




