Can Body Fat Turn Into Muscle?

By: Josh Henkin

The simple answer is NO!! This is also one of the most common fitness myths that refuses to go away. Somewhere an "expert" promoted the idea that muscle can turn into fat and vice versa, more than likely this individual was trying to sell a product. It is very easy to understand the body is only capable of a couple of cosmetic changes. The body can lose or gain body fat, and/or, gain or lose muscle.

I constantly recieve emails about guys who can not gain muscle mass and women who gain muscle at alarming rates. The truth is somewhere in the middle here. Eveyone has a genetic potential to gain a certain amount of muscle, contrary to popular belief very few of us even come close to ever reaching this top level. Some obviously gain muscle a lot easier than others and some can lose body fat a lot easier than others. In either case, it comes back to training consistently and wisely along with being on a well planned nutritional program.

While I constantly state this point, it is much easier said than done. What makes for a smart training program varies person to person and goal to goal. I wish I could list a program that would work for everyone, but if I ever tried such a thing I would be more than selling my soul. The truth is there is a combination of trying varying methods of training and understanding basic strength training science. Nutrition seems to be much easier though, while many will respond to food differently there are some common guidelines:

1. Eat frequent meals (approx. 5-7 a day)
2. Eat plenty of vegetables, the greener the better
3. Eat some fruits as they have many fiber and anti-oxidant benefits
4. Stay away from highly processed and fast foods as they offer little nutritional benefits.
5. Obtain good fats from quality oils and nuts.
6. Eat lean meat sources, some of the best are eggs!

Sometimes we make things far too complicated. Until we reach relatively elite levels, the very basic principles will make a great deal of difference in our path to achieving our goals. I like to use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method with many clients and sometimes need to remember the same ideas when it comes to myself.

10 Reasons Why Exercise is Important

by Taira Campbell, OTR/L
Kristen Gallup, OTR/L

We have all heard that exercise is important…but do you know why?  Exercise has all sorts of benefits.  As occupational therapists at Primary Children’s, we have come up with a list of our ten reasons why exercise will help you and your family live a happier and healthier life!

1. Exercise increases your energy level. Exercising delivers oxygen and nutrients to your whole body helping it to work more efficiently and boost your endurance.
2. Exercise and other physical activities are often great opportunities to socialize. Going to the playground, joining a sports team, or going to the local recreation center are all great ways to meet new people.
3. Being physically active will keep you healthy. Research says that engaging in 30 minutes of exercise a day is all you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
4. Exercise makes you happier! Physical activity releases chemicals in your brain called endorphins that are known to make you feel happier and more relaxed.
5. Regular physical activity has been proven to help prevent a wide variety of health problems.
6. Exercise can be fun! Often times exercise can be a part of some your favorite daily activities, such as walking the dog, going to the playground, or riding your bike.
7. Exercise helps you maintain a healthy weight.
8. Exercise is good for your heart! It helps maintain a healthy blood pressure and improves circulation.
9. Regular physical activity helps you sleep better. When you are active during the day, you typically fall asleep easier and stay asleep longer.
10. Exercise is good for your mind, body, and soul.

Now that we have given some reasons why exercise is so important, You need to think about what are you going to do to live a healthier and happier life?

Set a goal for yourself and pick one activity you are going to commit to this week.  We’d love to hear about what activities you and your family choose.

Why Exercise Is So Important for Your Mind, Mood, and Body

Most of us know by now that we should be exercising on a regular basis. But do you really know why exercise is so important? Not only does working out help you shed a few pounds, but there are also many other compelling reasons to include some regular activity in your routine. Read on to get motivated for exercise.

Exercise has many benefits. It reduces depression and instantly lifts mood due to the production of endorphins, the feel-good hormones. No matter how down you are feeling before you exercise, you will definitely feel a lot more upbeat by the end of your session.

Exercise also helps you sleep better. The actual physical activity will ensure that your body and mind are ready for a great night’s sleep.

Another benefit is decreasing stress levels. Worries tend to diminish in size while you are concentrating on working out. Combined with the production of endorphins, stress and anxiety will decrease.

Exercise improves focus and mental clarity. Research has shown that those who participate in regular exercise have less chance of suffering from Alzheimer’s and senility.

It promotes better energy levels. It may sound unlikely, but the more you exercise, the more energy you will have. Feeling lethargic? Go for a brisk walk.

Improved strength and stamina are common with regular exercise. Those bothersome chores will feel much easier, and you will be able to do more for longer.

Exercise increases muscle tone, leaving you looking more defined. The extra muscle mass will also help to increase your resting metabolism.

It can improve self-esteem and self-confidence. Once you start toning up, you will look better and feel better. The extra energy, stamina, and endorphins will spill over into other areas of your life. You will feel more in control of yourself and your life.

Exercise can improve balance and coordination, as well as cardiovascular fitness, helping reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Aerobic activity will improve both the health and efficiency of your heart and lungs. The improved circulation results in a glowing complexion and improved transportation of oxygen around the body.

With regular exercise, there is a decreased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Exercise increases bone strength, helping to alleviate the painful condition known as osteoporosis (loss of calcium in bones).

Regular exercise also promotes a healthy immune system.

Getting Started

Thirty minutes every day is ideal. If 30 minutes is too big a call, try to break it up into smaller intervals. Go for a walk at lunchtime, or use the stairs at the office instead of the elevator. Use your car less and make an effort to ride a bike or walk. It all adds up.

Types of beneficial exercise include brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming and aqua-aerobics, tennis, skating and rollerblading, skiing, yard work, walking the dog, dancing, resistance work, fitness classes, sports, cycling, skipping rope, and just running around and playing with the kids.

Try to find activities that you are good at and enjoy. If you have fun while you are working out, you will want to keep going, and your sense of well-being will be heightened. If you don’t enjoy your workout, swap to something else.

Once you have incorporated a regular workout into you daily routine, you will quickly notice the difference when you skip a session. Having less energy and feeling more stressed and anxious are some of the most obvious symptoms that quickly return.

Once you have started exercising regularly, you will wonder how you ever managed without it. Your body and health will reward you as well.

When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

by Kevin Richardson

Everyone has their preferences and ideas as to when is the best time to exercise. Some like training first thing in the morning and starting the day with a good workout, others squeeze in their training sessions around lunchtime while most tend to train after work in the late evening or at night. The question remains however when is the best time to train and does the time that you train really matter in the first place?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as clear cut as one might expect as there is no real best time to exercise per se- only times that may be ideal based on your individual training habits. While the science of how our body works indicates that late afternoon workouts are usually best for optimum performance, the adaptive nature of our bodies are such that we can learn to operate at peak efficiencies at almost any time of the day by training ourselves to do so. In this article we will take a hard look at the pros and cons to training at different times of the day and hopefully it provide some insight into the best training times for you.

When Is The Best Time To Exercise- A Look At How Our Body Works

Your body works in accordance with what are called circadian rhythms which are in a sense very much like an internal clock that operate on a cycle of just about twenty four hours.[1] Fluctuations in our core body temperature occur in conjunction with the passage of the day- rising and falling between approximately 97.5 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit- (that’s 36.5 to 37.5 degrees Celsius for those of us on the metric system).

Our inner body clock is designed in such a way that it resets itself every day using light as a major frame of reference. It synchronizes both our moods and energy levels in a cyclical pattern based on what the time of day it is- a phenomenon that we all can easily relate to in our everyday life . for example, when you wake up your mental performance isn’t quite as sharp as it is after you have been awake for a couple of hours- regardless of how much coffee you drink!

 It takes time for us to ‘warm up’ and it is a process that happens gradually over time as we get sharper and sharper as the hours go by. This increase in mental acuity continues up to the early evening, at which point our ability to concentrate begins to decline. This pattern holds true not just for our mental capacities but for everything from peak muscular performance, anaerobic power output and our overall motivation to exercise in the first place.

So When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

From a strictly statistical perspective the human body under normal circumstances is at its physical best from 4 pm to 7 pm.

This may sound like a very clear cut answer to the question of when is the best time to exercise- but it isn’t. While it is true that our hormone levels peak in late afternoon thus giving our muscles peak potential in terms of flexibility and power output, the increase in performance in a real world setting is very slight. You see, being the ever adaptive beings that we are, you can train yourself to perform at your best at any time.

Several studies have found that when individuals are made to train only in the morning or only in the early evening (our theoretical peak time)  those that trained in the morning did better as a whole on physical performance tests early in the day while the evening trainers did better on their tests in the evening.[2] The same pattern applies to athletes as well as studies have shown that changes in time zones and time of performance significantly affects the outcomes of sporting events.[3,4]

When Is The Best Time To Exercise? Anytime!

Exercise, like light and change in environmental temperature seems to also have a powerful effect on synchronizing our internal clock.[5] So how does this apply to your training? Well if you have an event that will require you to be at your best, it would make sense that you time your training to coincide with the time of the event several weeks beforehand. Other than that, even though research shows that the ideal time to exercise is in the late afternoon, the advantages are slight and at the end of the day you will adapt anyway to whatever time you train.

From personal experience, I have trained both on morning and in the evenings (I do my leg workouts on Sunday mornings and the rest of my body during the week at around 6:30 pm or so as I have for the past ten years or so). Do I see any noticeable difference? Not at all, and with the poundages that I lift and the degree of intensity with which I train, any drop in performance would be very easy to detect! The same applies for the hundreds of people I have trained over the years as well- although well over 95% of them do prefer to train in the evening.

Is there a difference in the amount of body fat lost from training in the morning versus training in the evening? Again, my experience working with a large number of  clients hasn’t shown any difference nor is there any real science behind the idea of the morning being the best time to exercise in terms of losing body fat.

Practicality has to be taken into consideration before anything else so if you are only able to train on mornings, then that’s when you should train- if you find it more convenient to train on evenings- then that’s your ideal time to exercise. The key to success in any athletic endeavor or fitness program is consistency- so find a time to exercise that fits into your life in such a way that you can stick with it and you’ll always be successful!

References:

1. Charles A. Czeisler MD, PhD (1999). “Human Biological Clock Set Back an Hour”. Harvard Gazette 1999

2.  Atkinson G, Reilly T. Circadian variation in sports performance.Sports Med. 1996 Apr;21(4):292-312.

3. Smith RS, Guilleminault C, Efron B. Circadian rhythms and enhanced athletic performance in the National Football League. Sleep. 1997

4. Winter WC, Hammond WR, Green NH, Zhang Z, Bliwise DL. Measuring circadian advantage in Major League Baseball: a 10-year retrospective study. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2009

5. Reilly T. Human circadian rhythms and exercise. Crit Rev Biomed Eng. 1990

How to Burn Fat Without Losing Muscle

To burn fat without losing muscle there are two options when it comes to cardio and they’re at extreme opposite ends of the spectrum.

You can either do very high intensity cardio (sprint).

Or you can very low intensity cardio (walk).

It’s the midrange stuff that presents a problem for most people.

When you hop on a machine and go at it with moderate-high intensity for 30-40 minutes you will get all of the negative effects associated with cardio (increased cortisol, muscle loss, overuse injuries, decreased power output- meaning you’ll be less explosive, etc.).

Why I Hate “Interval Training”

Many people know that traditional cardio sucks so they recommend intervals.

I personally hate intervals.

On a bike, stair climber, ski machine thingy and whatever else they stock Bally’s and Gold’s with these days…

Especially the rowing machine. Thirty minutes of repeated spinal flexion sounds fun but I think I’ll pass.

According to typical interval training prescriptions you’re supposed to push as hard as you can for 30 seconds followed by a lower intensity period of 90 seconds, or something along those lines.

No matter what anyone says that will also sap your power production because the lactic acid buildup is massive.

Lactic acid is the arch enemy of fast twitch muscle fibers.

Sprint to Lose Fat & Keep Your Muscle

A better option for intervals would be to rage against the machines and get outside and sprint.

But who do you know personally that can sprint for thirty seconds straight? That would be over 200 yards! Talk about an injury waiting to happen.

Yet that’s what interval training enthusiasts regularly advise their normal 40 year old office worker client to do.

To sprint for 30 seconds, followed by a 90 second rest period, over and over for 10-20 minutes straight is nearly impossible for most non-Olympians. And risky as hell.

If you want to sprint like a sprinter.

Not a nitwit.

Start Slowly

Start with short distances and slowly work your way up over time. Take adequate rest periods and slowly decrease them as you get in better shape.

If you’re an average dude it will take you in the neighborhood of 6-7 seconds to run a 40 yard sprint. And that would be a very far distance for your first time sprinting.

I’d recommend sticking with 20’s your first few weeks.

So instead of the silly recommendation of sprinting for 30 seconds straight I advise you to sprint for two or three seconds straight.

HUGE difference.

It’s funny that intelligent strength coaches who work with high level football players rarely let their athletes sprint at balls out intensity, 40 yards or more during the off season (because the risk of injury is too high), yet fitness trainers recommend that the average lay person head right out to the track and start running 100’s from day one.

People have got to be more responsible than that. It’ll take months to work up to that distance.

Assuming you are sprinting proper distances and taking care to be safe the next question is how long should you rest?

The truthful, nonspecific answer is… as long as you need to.

Keep track of it and try to improve over time. Everyone’s different.

That’s why when people ask me about specific guidelines for hill sprints I tell them I don’t know. I don’t know what kind of shape you are in and what hills you have available to you. Because you’re really limited by the hills you have.

If I told you that you should be sprinting for 15 seconds yet you could make it up the only hill in your neighborhood in eight seconds would you not sprint up the hill?

Don’t Over-Complicate It

You can’t always be a slave to exact prescriptions; sometimes you need to just man up and do work… son.

Your sets, reps, intervals, whatever, are based on your hill and your fitness level.

Now, eventually you may work your way up to being able to sprint your hill for 30 seconds, followed by a 90 second break and repeat that for 20 minutes straight.

So I guess you could say you’re doing intervals at that point. But who cares?

I call them hill sprints. Like Walter Payton did. If you’re sprinting on a football field or a track just say you’re sprinting.

Don’t actually say to anyone that you’re “doing intervals.” That’s so 2004 and so not cool.

If you had absolutely no other option, for whatever reason, than to do intervals on a bike I’d keep the sprints very short and the rest periods as long as necessary, removing almost all tension from the bike while cruising.

You really want to avoid that extreme lactic acid buildup if you want to maintain your power.

A Better Way to Do Interval Training

The best way to come close to traditional interval prescriptions is achieved by performing a variety of exercises such as swings, burpees, med ball slams, battling ropes, mountain climbers, etc. in a circuit.

Mixing it up prevents the massive accumulation of lactic acid in any one area and is far more beneficial than be locked into the versa climber for twenty minutes.

For athletic purposes I prefer to keep the intervals or work times/set duration lower than 30 seconds. Ten to twenty seconds would be a better idea for power athletes.

This type of “interval training” is often associated with the training of combat athletes.

Low Intensity Cardio

As far as the low intensity stuff goes you can walk with a sled, a light weighted vest, walk up hill, walk through the woods or trails or just walk the streets like Omar from The Wire.

Be sure to whistle The Farmer and the Dell to let the suckas know you’re coming.

The best time to do it is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

Try to keep your heart rate at around 65% of max for 30 minutes.

The nice thing about this is there is no negative effect at all. No cortisol, no muscle loss, nothing. And you start your day with some nice fresh air which is great for your health and your mind.

This should be done three times per week, minimum. This will help keep you lean while you’re in the process of trying to gain size and will also help you recover more efficiently.

The old days of bulking and cutting are dead.

A smarter approach is to include some high and low intensity cardio methods year round, skip the traditional cardio machines and never let yourself become an out of shape.

Does Exercise Affect Resting Metabolism?

Can you really boost calorie burning at rest?

by Chris Melby, Dr.P.H.

It is rare these days to pick up a health or fitness magazine from a grocery store shelf without our attention being drawn to an article proclaiming to have the latest information on the best way to exercise in order to boost metabolism. With the high risk for obesity in America, it would seem foolish to pass up reading an expose on newly discovered secrets about how to change our metabolism from a “warm glow” to a “raging fire.” Unfortunately, we are often exposed to considerable misinformation that can leave us frustrated when our implementation of these latest “secrets” falls short of all the metabolic benefits promised.

Components of Energy Expenditure 
Metabolism is a word that, for our purposes, describes the burning of calories necessary to supply the body with the energy it needs to function. There are three major ways we burn calories during the day:

• Resting metabolic rate (RMR),
• The thermic effect of food (TEF),
• Physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE).

RMR is the number of calories we burn to maintain our vital body processes in a resting state. It is usually determined by measuring your body’s oxygen utilization (which is closely tied to calorie burning) while you lay or sit quietly in the early morning before breakfast after a restful night’ssleep. RMR typically accounts for about 65-75 percent of your total daily calorie expenditure.

The TEF results from eating food, and is the increase in energy expended above your RMR that results from digestion, absorption, and storage of the food you eat. It typically accounts for about 5-10 percent of the total calories you burn in a day.

The last component, PAEE, accounts for the remainder of your daily energy expenditure, and, as the name suggests, is the increase in our calorie burning above RMR resulting from any physical activity. Included in PAEE is the energy expended in exercise, the activities of daily living, and even fidgeting. PAEE can vary considerably depending on how much you move throughout the day. For example, your PAEE would be high on a day that you participate in several hours of vigorous sports competition or exercise, while the calories you burn in physical activity would be quite low the next day if you choose to rest and recover.

Your total daily energy expenditure is the sum of these three components— if it is less than your energy intake, you will store most of the surplus energy, especially as body fat. If it is more than your energy intake, you will burn some body stores of energy to provide the needed energy not available from your food.

Is My Metabolic Rate Elevated Following Exercise? 
Your calorie expenditure obviously increases above your resting rate when you exercise, with the magnitude of this increase dependent on how long and hard you exercise. One frequently asked question is “Do we continue to burn “extra” calories after we finish exercising?” In other words, does our energy expenditure remain elevated above RMR for a period of time after we stop the exercise, and if so, does it contribute significantly to our total energy expenditure on the day we exercise? Research has clearly shown that energy expenditure does not return to pre-exercise resting baseline levels immediately following exercise. The amount of this post-exercise elevation of energy expenditure depends primarily on how hard you exercise (i.e., intensity) and to a lesser degree on how long you exercise (i.e., duration).

Endurance Exercise: Exercise of the intensity and duration commonly performed by recreational exercisers (e.g., walking for 30- 60 minutes or jogging at a pace of 8-10 minutes per mile for 20-30 minutes) typically results in a return to baseline of energy expenditure well within the first hour of recovery. The post-exercise calorie bonus for this type of exercise probably accounts for only about 10-30 additional calories burned beyond the exercise bout itself. In athletes performing high intensity, long duration exercise, the post-exercise energy expenditure may remain elevated for a longer period and could contribute significantly to total daily calorie burning. Ironically, such athletes are typically less concerned about this “extra” calorie burning and its implications for body weight regulation than are the recreational exercisers. The average person who does considerably less strenuous exercise will likely experience little meaningful contribution of this post-exercise bonus to their total daily calorie expenditure.

Weight Lifting Exercise: A number of recent studies suggest that vigorous weight lifting exercise may elevate calorie burning above usual resting values for several hours after exercise. However, the average person at the gym who rests for several minutes between sets of exercise will likely not experience a prolonged elevation of postexercise energy expenditure.

Does Exercise Training Increase My RMR?

Endurance Exercise: A number of studies have found endurance-trained athletes to exhibit higher RMR than non-athletes. It appears likely that the combination of high exercise energy expenditure and high energy intake in these athletes can temporarily, but not permanently, elevate their RMR when measured the next morning after exercise. However, there is little evidence that the amount of physical activity performed by recreational exercisers for the purpose of weight control and health promotion will produce any increases in RMR, with the possible exception of such exercise in older individuals. It is clear that for both athletes and non-athletes, young and old, the major impact of exercise on total daily energy expenditure occurs during the activity itself, and not from increases in RMR.

Weight Lifting Exercise: Some fitness enthusiasts have promoted the idea that because regular weight lifting can increase skeletal muscle mass, such exercise will dramatically increase RMR. However, it is estimated that each pound of muscle burns about five-10 calories per day while at rest, so you would have to bulk up quite a bit to increase your RMR. Most people who lift weights for health rather than for body building will not increase their muscle mass enough to have a major effect on RMR.

Summary 
Regular exercise has many benefits and plays an important role in increasing our daily energy expenditure. However, despite what we may read in many popular magazines, the increase in energy expenditure from exercise occurs primarily while we are exercising, rather than due to any sizeable exercise- induced elevations in our resting energy expenditure.

Copywrite belongs to American College of Sports Medicine, ACSM Fit Society® Page, Summer 2004, p. 4-5.

How do I know when I'm exercising hard enough to burn fat?

from Michael G. Kurilla

Actually, you're almost always burning fat at one rate or another, but you burn most when your body is in its aerobic range. A good rule of thumb is that after 20 minutes in your aerobic zone, you will be burning more fat than carbos. Covert Bailey, in Smart Exercise, states that you will be burning fat after only twelve minutes of aerobic exercise. If you can increase your aerobic activity to 30 minutes or longer, you will be burning a larger percentage of calories from fat.

 There is still some disagreement as to which is better - longer duration at lower intensity, or shorter duration at higher intensity. If you are limited in time, then the higher intensity will maximize your aerobic benefits in a shorter amount of time. If you can work for a longer duration at a lower intensity, you will decrease your chance of injury. The object is to burn more calories than you take in. 3,500 calories equals l pound of fat. Your muscles will continue to burn fat after both aerobic and anaerobic (muscle training) exercise.

This is perhaps the most common question raised by individuals exercising for the purpose of either weight loss or simply weight control. This stems from the recognition that aerobic exercise is a significant adjunct to any weight loss program, that is diet plus aerobic exercise produces more weight loss than diet alone. In addition, the weight lost with exercise tends to be a higher percentage of fat.

Exercise can be grouped into three broad levels of intensity, mild, moderate, and high. Mild intensity is a comfortable walking pace and can be sustained almost indefinitely, moderate intensity is equal to an average cardiovascular conditioning workout (able to talk, but not sing) and can be sustained (in a trained individual) for upwards of 3 - 4 hours, and high intensity is not able to talk and can only be sustained for 30 - 45 minutes.

Based on recent and very detailed research studies, in terms of absolute fat burning, a moderate intensity workout burns the most fat. At a heart rate equal to about 75% of max, fat burning will approach 0.5 grams - 1.0 grams of fat per minute. There is a weight dependence with the lower end referring to a 100 pound individual and the upper end to a 200 pound person. As the duration continues (greater than 1 hour), fat burning can increase slightly (another 10%).

At a mild intensity, the majority of calories expended (85 - 90%) are fat calories, but the absolute level is only about 60% of the moderate intensity. At high intensity levels, fat burning declines to a level of about 65% of the moderate pace, as sugar burning supplies the rest. The high rate of sugar burning exhausts the limited sugar supply in muscles and causes muscular failure.

The only caveats for the above burn rates are that these numbers are derived from individuals who were already aerobically trained and were conducted in the AM before breakfast. Less fit individuals are known to burn less fat and more sugar (part of aerobic conditioning is greater reliance on fat burning for energy). Exercising after a meal will tend to promote more sugar burning. Consumption of sugar during an exercise session will also tend to retard fat burning in favor of the sugar. These numbers were derived from cycling and so the absolute numbers can be increased if exercises that involve more muscle groups are utilized (running, rowing, etc.). From peak energy production rates for various exercises, rowers might reach about 40% higher.