Weight Loss & Management Facts and Strategies for Cyclists, Triathletes, and Endurance Athletes
by Ken Mierke of Fitness Concepts Facts:
1. Over time, metabolic rate adjusts upward with increased consumption of protein and carbohydrate, but not fat consumption.
2. When protein and carbohydrate are stored as fat, the conversion process uses more than 25% of the calories.
Strategy: Reduce fat consumption to moderately low level.
Facts:
3. Over time, metabolic rate adjusts downward, almost calorie-for-calorie, to decreased fat consumption.
4. Metabolic rate adjusts downward in response to low calorie diets and returns to normal levels very slowly, if at all after calorie intake returns to normal.
5. Muscle is burned during periods of low calorie intake, resulting in huge decreases in metabolic rate.
Strategy: Avoid extended periods of significant calorie reduction.
Facts:
6. Low intensity exercise burns fat, while high intensity exercise burns carbohydrate.
7. Fat-burning aerobic exercise at the appropriate intensity increases the percentage of fat burned at rest.
8. High intensity aerobic exercise stimulates the metabolic rate.
Strategy: Balance low intensity and high intensity exercise optimally through each week to increase total metabolic rate and the percentage of fat burned.
Facts:
9. Heat stress increases metabolic rate dramatically and reduces appetite.
10. Carbohydrate calories consumed immediately following intense exercise are more likely to be stored as glycogen in the muscles than as fat.
11. Exercise reduces appetite (increased core body temperature, free fatty acids in blood, and decreased blood pH).
12. Over-consumption at the evening meal contributes greatly to most weight problems.
Strategy: Use exercise and heat-stress before the evening meal to stimulate metabolism and trigger feelings of satiety (decrease appetite).
Facts:
13. Muscle is the only tissue in the body that can burn fat and accounts for about 95% of the total calories expended.
Strategy: Use resistance exercise to increase muscle mass and increase metabolic rate.
Facts:
14. People generally consume a very consistent weight and volume of food each day.
15. Fiber and water add significantly to the weight and volume of foods, without adding any calories.
Strategy: Reduce the caloric density of foods by emphasizing foods high in both fiber and water.
Facts:
16. Eating increases metabolic rate significantly for several hours after a meal.
17. Small meals increase metabolic rate almost as much as large meals.
18. Extended periods without eating (4 hours or more) activate lipogenetic enzymes which store calories in fat cells.
19. After a few hours without food, the body reduces metabolic rate and may burn muscle.
Strategy: Eat more frequent, but smaller meals spaced relatively evenly throughout the day.
Facts:
20. For approximately the first 20 minutes of exercise (even at the optimal fat-burning intensity), the primary source of energy is carbohydrate.
21. Approximately one hour into exercise at fat-burning intensity, the body secretes greater levels of cortisol. This increases fat-burning dramatically.
Strategy: Make sure that fat-burning exercise sessions last well beyond 20 minutes.
Strategy: Increase endurance to allow increased exercise duration. Consider eventually extending one workout per week well beyond an hour.
Facts:
22. When carbohydrates are consumed without protein or fat, an insulin response stores fat, increases hunger, and decreases energy level.
Strategy: Combine protein, fat, and carbohydrate in each meal to prevent the insulin response and maintain blood sugar level.
Strategy: Choose carbohydrate sources that are lower on the glycemic index.
Facts:
23. Exercise increases the body's ability to store calories as carbohydrate.
24. Repeated periods without food (4+ hours) increase the body's tendency to store calories as soon as they are consumed.
25. Frequent binging increases the body's ability to store calories as fat.
Strategy: Develop a "safety net" against occasional splurges by increasing carbohydrate storage through exercise.
Strategy: Decrease the body's tendency to store calories at all with frequent meals and rarely binging. Don't "train" the body to store fat efficiently.
Facts:
26. Many people eat for psychological or social reasons, including stress, loneliness, joy, fear, habit, boredom, etc.
Strategy: Be forthright in questionnaires and journals to discover non-physiological eating triggers and implement replacement behaviors