Hierarchies of Fat Loss

I came across this article by Alwyn Crosgrove who is a respected coach and speaker in the fitness industry. He has written many books including big titles like “New Rules of Lifting” and “Body Sculpting Bible for Women.” In short, he seems to know his stuff and I always find his information very interesting.

So, have you ever heard the question “I want to lose fat, but not muscle. How do I do that”

One of the first points he mentions regarding fat loss is this…

I think whenever we try to pursue two goals at once we tend to compromise results. This is usually because we have a limited resource: time. If our goal is to generate fat loss, then using a periodized training approach with a specific fat loss phase (e.g. four weeks, eight weeks, etc.) where we focus exclusively on fat loss will always yield better results in the long term than trying to juggle two goals at once.

In short, stick to one goal. Have that be fat loss. Don’t try to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It just doesn’t work that way. Pick one goal and stick to it for best results.

That being said, here’s a summary of the Hierachry of Fat Loss.

1. Correct Nutrition
   You simply can’t workout enough to compensate for a bad diet. Crosgrove says you must create a calorie deficit first through nutrition by getting enough protein and essential fats.
2. Activities that burn calories, maintain/promote muscle mass, and elevate metabolism
   The bulk of our calories burned is largely dependent on our resting metabolic rate. So, adding activities that will elevate  the metablic rate while promoting or maintain muscle mass is extremely important is the biggest part in your fat loss plan. This means doing resistance exercise.
3. Activities that burn calories and elevate metabolism
   These are activities that burn calories and increase your EPOC or Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption, which basically means, exercise that burns up calories even after you are done exercising. Think HIIT.

Activities that burn calories but don’t necessarily maintain muscle or elevate metabolism
This is your icing on the cake as Crosgrove refers it. This is activity that burns a little calorie but doesn’t increase your metabolism. Think light cardio, etc.

Let’s do a little recap…

1. The single most important type of exercise you can do while trying to lose fat is RESISTANCE EXERCISE. Ladies, don’t be afraid of lifting weights and becoming bulky. It simply doesn’t work that way for us ladies. According to a study, individuals were found to burn calories up to 38 hours after their resistance workout! CRAZY! So, lift ladies.
2. High Intensity Anaerobic Interval Training is the next tool in your arensal of fat loss weapons. In a study of people participating in endurance activity and others participated in HIIT, it was found that calorie for calorie the individuals who did HIIT burned NINE TIMES MORE FAT than their endurance counterparts. That’s not to say steady state is useless, because it isn’t. It has its place. But so does HIIT, so do it from time to time.
3. High Intensity Aerobic Interval Training is the next most important took in your fat loss plan. This is essentially a lower intesity aerobic interval workout.
4. Steady State High Intensity
   This is just simple steady state hard cardio. This is just to burn calories, not to increase your EPOC. Basically, the calories you burn doing this will eventually add up.
5. Steady State Low Intensity
   Lastly, this is just activity. Taking your dog for a walk, shopping at the mall, etc.

I’m sure the next question you have is…”Well, that’s great Lisa, but how the heck do I fit all that into my busy schedule?”

Here’s what Crosgrove suggests..

If you have 3 hours per week, use only #1 above: metabolic resistance training

This can be three, one-hour training sessions, or four 45-minute training sessions. It doesn’t seem to matter.

If you have 3-5 hours…

use #1 and # 2: weight training plus high intensity interval work

At this point, any additional work is usually in the form of high intensity interval training. I’m looking to burn up more calories and continue to elevate EPOC.

If you have 5-6 hours…

Aerobic intervals wins out at this point because it’s still higher intensity overall than steady state work so it burns more calories. There appears to be a fat oxidation benefit and will still be easier to recover from than additional anaerobic work.

If you have 6-8 hours…

Add # 4. If you’re not losing a lot of fat with six hours of training already, then I’d be taking a very close look at your diet.

That’s it ladies. Hope you found it to be a little bit interesting… I know I did. I have followed principles similiar to this over the past 3 years and have seen great results. I know that nutrition and fat loss and muscle gain can be so confusing, so hopefully this helps shed light to the situation.

In the end though, I think finding something you like and can STICK WITH is really the biggest key in fat loss and feeling good. If you absolutely hate lifting, then, well, you won’t ever do it and you won’t  lose fat that way.

To get more in-depth information on this article, go here. Plus, he has tons of other great articles on his site as well.

Source: http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/