Continued from Maximum Fat Loss.

The Best Routine for Burning Fat

A very simple step can be taken that’s effective and fits easily into the daily schedule.

It’s a trick used by professional weight trainers, celebrity trainers and successful dieters.

Maximal fat loss can be achieved without suffering the catabolic muscle loss associated with high-intensity, long-duration aerobic exercise.

The only sacrifice required is getting up a little earlier and walking on a treadmill for 45 minutes.

A recent article published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism describes how and why moderate, early morning cardio is the best routine to adopt for burning stored fat and getting in shape without affecting resistance training.

Cells burn sugars, fatty acids and amino acids for energy, though the relative amount of energy derived from each nutrient group varies based on metabolic demand and hormonal conditions.

For instance, it’s known that eating a low-fat diet reduces lipolysis and fat oxidation in skeletal muscle.

Amino acids (the building blocks of protein) don’t provide a significant energy source in most circumstances, so for the sake of simplicity, this discussion will focus on the balance between sugars and fatty acids for ATP (energy) production.

Scientists can measure how much energy is being provided by fatty acids in comparison to sugars by analyzing the air breathed in and out. Sugar molecules contain oxygen, whereas fatty acids do not.

Both sugars and fatty acids are oxidized when burned for energy, but since sugar already contains oxygen, it takes less oxygen from the air to completely oxidize sugars.

By attaching a breathing mask on a subject, scientists can calculate the ratio of oxygen consumed compared to carbon dioxide that’s exhaled, and estimate the relative amount of fatty acids being burned. This is called the respiratory exchange ratio (oxygen exchanged for carbon dioxide).

Ideally, for the guy looking to drop body fat, the greatest percentage of calories possible from fat would be utilized during cardio, preserving muscle stores of sugar (glycogen) for resistance training when explosive energy is needed.

In order to do this, it is vital that the exercise intensity be moderate, so that the lactate threshold is not exceeded. The lactate threshold is the point when the level of intensity requires energy faster than can be produced using the more efficient, but slower, aerobic process.

Certainly, running will burn more total fat calories than walking, but it will also eat into glycogen (stored sugar) and even break down muscle to release amino acids for energy.

Thus, the ideal rate is a level of intensity high enough to maximize fatty acid oxidation, but preserve muscle mass and glycogen stores.

This level is roughly equivalent to moderate treadmill running or fast walking on a slight incline. One study concluded that it can be reliably predicted to occur at a pulse 25 beats per minute above your heart rate during a light warm-up.

Note: To be continued…