Comments on: switchin’ to fat burning

By: Lei

Lei — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:09:49 +0000

Mark,

Thanks for your reply. What you say (point 1) is interesting, i.e. that low-intensity exercise favours fat loss, and high-intensity exercise favours muscle loss. But what about (as an extreme example) fasting for a day and doing no exercise? Essentially, that’s very-low-intensity exercise that lasts for a long time. Yet we all know that fasting is a brilliant way of losing muscle tone. So I’m not sure that fat-burning is due to exercise intensity.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:02:33 +0000

I’m a morning runner too . . . but a slow one.

I’m doing some videos this week of me running . . . I’ll send them along soon for your professional analysis.

By: jank

jank — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:41:59 +0000

Ah, long and slow. It’s what I should do, as I’m trying another weight loss year, since there was NO progress last year. No gain, but no loss.

It’s just that running FAST is soo much fun!

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:50:59 +0000

I hate early starts too. Good luck with adapting to the switch.

By: Bella

Bella — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:09:06 +0000

I luv morning runs, but can’t always seem to drag myself out of bed. I’m going to have soon b/c I don’t like putting up with the heat blast too.

By: 21stCenturyMom

21stCenturyMom — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:48:28 +0000

I like to workout in the morning because if I don’t something else in the day is sure to take my time. If I run or swim or cycle first thing I win!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:03:16 +0000

Lei,

I think that certainly can happen. However, there are two strategies you
can use to reduce/eliminate the possibility.

1. run slow. when you run at a low heart rate, your body automatically
moves into fat-burning mode. If you run too fast for your level of
fitness, you will burn off protein – i.e. metabolize protein (which comes
from muscles).

2. adopt the strategy slowly and increase low/no fuel mileage slowly. You
can do a couple of things around this. One thing you can do is alternate
between fueling days and non-fueling days so your body learns to burn fat.
Another thing you can do is gradually reduce the fueling you do. And
third, you can start with low mileage and no fuel and gradually increase
the distance.

Does that help?

By: Lei

Lei — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:59:25 +0000

I also run first thing in the morning, for convenience. However I’m also interested in losing fat. What concerns me is, I’ve heard that muscle is lost too when you ‘run on empty’. What’s your take on this?