Article 17: The Truth About Fat Burning Through Exercise and Post-Exercise Eating Principles

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You need to exercise for more than 40 minutes to burn fat.

Every movement you make will burn fat and sugar.

Some people say that running initially burns sugar, and it's only after 40 minutes, when the sugar is depleted, that it starts burning fat.

Therefore, you need to exercise for more than 40 minutes to lose weight.

This is a huge misconception, whether for exercise or weight loss.

This kind of statement completely mechanizes the human body.

It's like treating the human body like a car that can run on both gasoline and electricity-use up the electricity first, and then use gasoline when the electricity runs out.

But the human body is more like a hybrid vehicle, where oil and electricity work together to provide energy. Every time you make a movement, you burn fat and sugar at the same time.

However, the intensity of exercise determines whether you burn more fat or more sugar.

Generally speaking, the greater the intensity of exercise, the higher the proportion of sugar consumed, because sugar is converted more efficiently, so it is often used to support activities that require explosive power.

In low-intensity exercise, more fat is burned to provide energy.

Therefore, for people who want to lose fat, low-to-moderate intensity aerobic exercise is the best choice, such as jogging, swimming, cycling, brisk walking, etc.

However, for the same weight, fat provides 2.25 times the energy of sugar. Therefore, if you want to burn more fat, you need to exercise for a longer period of time; otherwise, you won't achieve the amount of fat loss you desire.

So, how long should you exercise specifically? According to the American College of Sports Medicine, 300 minutes of exercise per week can better help people lose fat.

A simple average suggests that choosing 5 days a week, 1 hour a day, for moderate to low intensity exercise is a suitable option.

Of course, as time goes on, I suggest you extend your exercise time a little or change the type of exercise.

Because scientific research data shows that after a person has mastered a sport, the energy consumed when doing the same amount of exercise for the same duration is only 50% of what it was at the beginning.

In other words, if you jog for 1 hour, you will feel very tired when you first start, and you can burn 500 calories each time. After 6 months, you will become more skilled and feel that jogging for 1 hour is very easy, but at this time you will only burn 250 calories.

Proficiency is one aspect, but as weight decreases, the same exercise will burn fewer calories.

Therefore, weight loss is like the last leg of a journey; the further you go, the slower the progress becomes.

Returning to the issue of the ratio of sugar to fat consumption, the book "Exercise Physiology" mentions a point:

During the first 20 to 30 minutes of exercise, sugar accounts for a higher proportion of energy; after that, the body will consume more fat for energy.

But whether it's the first half or the second half of an exercise, the body will burn fat.

To burn more fat, you can extend your exercise time, but saying that you don't burn fat if you exercise for less than 40 minutes is nonsense.

For many people without a sports background, exercising for too long at the beginning may cause their bodies to become unaccustomed or even cause injuries due to muscle fatigue.

In this case, you can gradually increase the intensity and duration of your exercise; there's no need to exercise for more than 40 minutes right from the start.

Don't worry, even 10 minutes of exercise will burn fat.

Besides, weight loss is not entirely achieved through exercise.

According to the principles mentioned above, the energy consumed by exercise each day should not exceed 20% of the body's total energy consumption.

The most important thing for weight loss is to properly plan your diet and nutrition. After all, to make a horse run, you need to feed it grass, and to exercise, you need to ensure your body has enough nutrition.

Therefore, I usually recommend that you don't exercise and focus on diet management for the first month of your weight loss journey.

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Eating after exercise will cause weight gain.

A proper diet before and after exercise will prevent weight gain.

Many people have a love-hate relationship with exercise.

I love it because everyone says that you have to exercise to lose weight, and it really does feel good to work up a sweat after exercising; I hate it because I easily get hungry after exercising, my appetite increases, and I'm afraid of gaining weight after eating, which is very frustrating.

In fact, most people have many misconceptions about exercise.

Regarding whether exercise can help with weight loss, I have already explained this in my previous articles. In short, there are the following points:

1. Exercise plays a supporting role in weight loss; that is, weight loss does not necessarily require exercise, and the key is diet management.

2. Exercise can help with body shaping, but it requires a significant time commitment.

3. Similarly, building muscle through exercise is also a difficult and long-term process.

Everyone can make their own choice based on their own circumstances.

So, whether you can eat after exercising, and whether eating will cause you to gain weight, depends on two things:

1. What sport do you do?

2. What did you eat?

If you're only doing low-to-moderate intensity exercise like jogging or swimming for about half an hour, then you don't actually need to eat anything.

If you are doing strength training, which consumes a lot of energy, then you need to be more particular about your nutrition.

It is generally recommended that you eat foods containing sugar (usually complex carbohydrates), such as whole-wheat bread, an hour before exercise to increase blood sugar levels and improve exercise endurance.

At the same time, after exercise, it is also necessary to replenish carbohydrates (legumes, grains), water (water or sports drinks), trace elements such as potassium and calcium (fruits and vegetables such as bananas, oranges, and tomatoes), and protein (egg whites, protein powder) to help muscles recover and regenerate and relieve physical fatigue.

It's important to note that if your goal is to lose weight, these supplementary foods should be deducted from your regular meals.

In other words, according to the basal metabolic rate diet, regardless of whether you exercise or what kind of exercise you do, you should maintain a daily energy intake equal to your basal metabolic rate. You can only adjust the timing of your meals, but the total calories should remain the same.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are choices to make after exercise, rather than eating whatever you want. Otherwise, the value of exercise for weight loss will be greatly reduced, and it will only be used for physical exercise.

After exercise, you should absolutely avoid eating high-fat and high-sugar foods (such as cookies, pancakes, barbecue, cakes, etc.). High-fat and high-sugar diets will only make you fat and will also hinder your rest after exercise.

If your goal is to build muscle, then in addition to resistance training, you need to appropriately increase the proportion of protein in your diet while reducing the proportion of fat.

This dietary pattern is what is commonly referred to as a fat-burning diet-a combination of "low fat + high protein + high-quality carbohydrates".

Of course, it is important to note that rest after exercise is crucial.

Because the general rhythm of human exercise is: training --- nutrition replenishment --- rest --- recovery.

Rest directly affects your recovery and your next workout.

If you are in a state of poor rest after exercise for a long time, you will not be able to continue exercising, and your physical functions may even be damaged.

My personal studio once hosted a man who was obsessed with fitness for a period of time, exercising for several hours every day, sometimes even until midnight.

After a period of time, he found himself suffering from severe insomnia, and his body became very weak and tired.

At my suggestion, he reduced his exercise, and I treated him with traditional Chinese medicine several times before he was able to sleep again, and his fatigue gradually disappeared.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that everyone, whether you are trying to lose weight or shape your body, pay attention to sleep.

Humans spend one-third of their time sleeping, making sleep arguably one of the most important things in life. If your exercise plan is affecting your sleep, I suggest you change it or even cancel it.