Exertion and Calorie burn?

E

Evie

Cathlete
Are the two co-related? I ask because whenever I do any of Cathe's regular cardio videos, I'm huffing and puffing and FEEL my workout. When I spin to one of the Cathe's video's, I never get as out of breath.

But - the calorie burn is much higher for spinning than for the other cardio routines?

How does this reconcile? I'm beginning to think that I'm going too anaerobic while doing a regular cardio routine, and I don't while spinning. Does this make sense to anyone else? And that makes me wonder if I'm working too hard for my age. I'm 52, pushing 53, and absolutely love Cathe's cardio routines - whatever routine I'm doing.

Thank you, anyone, who might be able to help me understand this.
 
Question

I tend to go with my perceived exertion, and if it "feels" easier, I'm probably "cheating it " somehow. Are you going by the calorie counts in the workout manager (which tend to be fairly accurate) or are you wearing a heart rate monitor (accurate to your true workout level)?
 
I've used both my heartrate monitor and the workout manager, and they are pretty much about the same.

When using Perceived exertion, I'm definitely far more exerted doing CAthe's regular cardio vs. spinning.
 
High calorie burners for me are circuit workouts, like Drill Max/Step Jump & Pump, and higher intensity step & interval workouts Intensity, Imax 2 (all the Imaxes) and Low Max. Plus tempo runs or intervals. I lost weight, but not body fat. Over 15 months of Cathe workouts, 35 pounds or so.

Highest fat burners, are low intensity, rebounding - Tracy Anderson Dance Cardio (I always did that on the rebounder), barre type Tracy Anderson, and Low Heart Rate Training running - Maffetone Method.

Tracy Anderson workouts & Low heart training running, by far, I lost the most weight & body fat together (I did those separately for about 3-4 months at a time, Tracy in 2011, LHR training running this year)

I pretty much had the same diet throughout, better through some seasons but calories were about the same.

So exertion, for me more = more calories burn, but not fat burn, or fat loss. Slower weight loss. That's not a bad thing. Too many anaerobic workouts spells weight gain for me.

Moderate to low intensity cardio or barre, i.e. more repetition = more fat loss & more weight loss, more inches lost, faster. It's just how it works out for me. I'm over 50, if that helps.
 
I'm totally confused with this. But it is definately an excellent question. Maybe Cathe can chime in on this!
 
I got a heart rate monitor for Christmas :D Polar FT60 - so this post is timely. I'm curious as to intensity v fat loss. I suspect I'm doing too many HiiT-type work outs and not enough long, low intensity ones.
I'm on an active recovery week, so I haven't worn my HRM for weights yet. I wonder what results STS will give for calorie / fat burn?
Justine
 
Interesting I would have thought, judging by the "science" that doing extremely long workouts and many of them at low intensity would cause me to eat more, and negate any weight or fat loss, this did not happen, my calories remained about the same. I can only surmise that the food part of the equation is not as critical as the type of exercise and it's effect on the nervous system.

The current science and trends do not support this so Cathe & I will have to agree to disagree on this. From her articles, I gather she promotes mostly heavy lifting, HIIT, and metabolic workouts...I thrive on low intensity, longer duration (aerobic), and moderate weights, or bodyweight workouts. The exception to that would be kettlebells, I lost inches with that extremely fast, however I didn't do them quite long enough or exclusively to come to any conclusions about Kettlebell workouts alone.

In Cathe's latest series, I find I fall mostly in the moderate aerobic zone, this set balances out for me with X10 for intensity, leg & glute work, kickboxing, and step. It is enough without being over the top, HIIT or weight wise. As a beginner though, I might have been intimidated by them, and they would have been pretty tough.

I do think your body adjusts to the number of calories you consume, and if you eat the same amount regularly, it will adjust quickly to that amount of fuel, regardless of the exercise you do.

One interesting part of the food equation is digestion, here, especially if you want to lose weight, I think it matters what you eat and how you eat, meaning mostly easily digestible plant based foods in combinations that promote good, efficient digestion. I'm not a scientist though, but this has worked for me, and a cleaner, healthier diet just makes you feel better.
 
Justinef said:
I got a heart rate monitor for Christmas :D Polar FT60 - so this post is timely. I'm curious as to intensity v fat loss. I suspect I'm doing too many HiiT-type work outs and not enough long, low intensity ones.
I'm on an active recovery week, so I haven't worn my HRM for weights yet. I wonder what results STS will give for calorie / fat burn?
Justine
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I tracked a lot of my workouts, first with a simple Mio HRM then a Garmin. It's not perfectly accurate, but over time, you can see trends, especially if you follow programs or types of exercise for extended periods of time. Depending on your age and past history with exercise & diet, your results could be totally different. Keeping a log though is great, you can go back and see what has happened over time. ;)

I also tracked measurements & BF with an Omron BF monitor, not perfectly accurate but does show trends.

Comeback & share your results, that would be very interesting.
 
One of my resolutions for next year is to keep a log of diet / exercise etc.
The one thing that the heart rate monitors can't tell you about is the afterburn effect (or can they?) I know that Metabolic workouts are the ones that work best for me in terms of leaning out - but they make me hungry!
I'll be sure to share any findings. :D
Justine
 
Justinef said:
One of my resolutions for next year is to keep a log of diet / exercise etc.
The one thing that the heart rate monitors can't tell you about is the afterburn effect (or can they?) I know that Metabolic workouts are the ones that work best for me in terms of leaning out - but they make me hungry!
I'll be sure to share any findings. :D
Justine
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While afterburn, in theory sounds like a good thing for calorie burn and weight/fat loss, I think the jury is still out for me. I don't know if having an elevated heart rate for an extended period of time is necessarily a good thing, not all the time or every workout. I think there needs to be a balance. My records indicate aerobic workouts overall give the most balanced results, for longer periods of time.

Furthermore, I have looked into it but have not found out the effects metabolic, HIIT, and heavy lifting have on the nervous & circulatory systems, especially when done regularly with the exclusion of other, less intense, aerobic workouts. It is a main area of interest for me.
 
Justinef said:
I got a heart rate monitor for Christmas :D Polar FT60 - so this post is timely. I'm curious as to intensity v fat loss. I suspect I'm doing too many HiiT-type work outs and not enough long, low intensity ones.
I'm on an active recovery week, so I haven't worn my HRM for weights yet. I wonder what results STS will give for calorie / fat burn?
Justine
Click to expand...

Do you find the chest strap uncomfortable? I have been wondering if I should get one but I don't think I would like the strap. I'm also wanting to keep better track of my cal. intake. I just don't know if I should use Cathe's nutrition or something else like weight watchers. I wonder what the difference is? I just want to make sure I'm taking in enough cals. but I have to be careful because too many for me and it works against me because of my long term steroid use for medical reasons. I guess I better make a decision soon.

Thanks and Happy New Year
Kim
 
Hi Kim - the strap is surprisingly comfortable - it sits where my sports bra strap is, and feels the same. In fact the watch annoys me more - I have narrow wrists and it gets in the way during push ups and burpees (another reason to hate them!). So far, however, I'm delighted with it - and it's showing up some unexpected results.

As for nutrition monitoring, I've never used anything, but I'm thinking about it. For me, it's trying to get my macronutrients right. I can see that steroids would make it useful to track calories etc. Let me know if you decide on which tracker to use.

All the best,
Justine
 
I cannot live without my Polar RS400! The ProPolar software has been the heart of my training for years. When I go back months, even year to year tracking my weight, its the long endurance rides of the summer into fall where I drop the most fat. Fat...that stuff...not muscle weight.

I think the flavor of the past couple of years has been the HIIT workouts and the research behind it, but I'm reminded of when I was told to eat every 2 hours and that was a big flop for me. It took me several years to realize my body didn't remember what hunger was. I eat only when I'm hungry now or if I'm fueling for an event. (I always have a scoop of whey protein after lifting weights, but that's not eating.)

Anyway, back to Hiit versus long endurance. Long workouts supposedly incur the debt of cortisol on our bodies, which creates a rolling stone of muscle cannibalism and other stress related maladies. (Wanting to insert a blinky face...) For me I need both types of cardio, the longer endurance workouts (for me that's a 2 to 4 hour mountainbike ride or xc ski) and the HIIT workout that lasts about 40-45 minutes. Added to those are the lifting sessions several times a week to keep my muscles.

How do I know this, my Polar calendar can't lie. I'm leanest when I'm doing the long riding epics of the summer and fall. Its the same story every year and I'm aware that winter has its nuances of lack of sunshine, etc., but I'm still riding in the winter on a fat bike in the snow and xc skiing, just the weather dictates how long I can stay out in single digits or negatives. So why do I gain weight in the winter? I'm up 5 pounds, is that my winter fat that nature bestows on us northerners? Or is it the inability to partake in the long endurance rides. I did do a 4 hour one today, we were nearly balmy today.

112toGuru...I'm with you on your theory and Justinef that Polar FT60 has a really nice training diary you can download to Polar. I bought this watch for my husband along with the Flowlink. Its not like the RS400 which is its own computer program, but it has so many key benefits to track everything. You'll get the hang of it really fast.

And the strap doesn't bother me at all, in fact I'm always touching my breast bone to make sure its there. I'm obsessed....
 
I'll have to look at the Polar, I do most of my logging with the Garmin Training Center offline, it gives me most of what I want. to compare workouts and track miles, supplemented with a paper log. Does Polar have any offline desktop software?

I do many workouts, and have done many workouts in the proverbial "fat burning zone" and that is what it is. Many will try to debunk that but, like you Dirt Diva, the proof is in my log. My sample size of workouts isn't as extensive as yours, but I do track what I do.
 
Interesting to hear everyone's results. I always seemed to get the best results from metabolic weight training, although not necessarily the greatest fat loss.

Yesterday I did X77 - took 85minutes (I did an extra stretch after warm-up and I paused the dvd twice for a drink ;)), I burned 671 calories, 19% from fat ie 127cal of fat.

Today I walked the dogs for an hour and a half, burning 574 cals, 32% from fat ie 183 cal of fat.

I guess some calories burned are glycogen stores - will there be some muscle catabolism? Which is more important - overall calorie burn, or that from fat? What effect has EPOC? If I'm trying to maintain weight, but lose fat (ie get 'cut') what's best?

I wonder what results STS will give me when I start Meso#2 tomorrow?

Justine
 
Fats Burn in a Carbohydrate Flame

I love this evidence based blog entry: Cathe Friedrich - Hormonal Response to High-Intensity Training: Why It Burns More Fat, and it supports an old favorite mantra of mine.

I have always "enjoyed" the feelings I get when doing higher intensity workouts, and these days I'm loving the time sparing aspect of Cathe's metabolic workouts. When I'm tapping near the anaerobic threshold I repeat "fats burn in a carbohydrate flame" over in my mind, and I think of my sweat as fat melting.
 
Soxy said:
I love this evidence based blog entry: Cathe Friedrich - Hormonal Response to High-Intensity Training: Why It Burns More Fat, and it supports an old favorite mantra of mine.

I have always "enjoyed" the feelings I get when doing higher intensity workouts, and these days I'm loving the time sparing aspect of Cathe's metabolic workouts. When I'm tapping near the anaerobic threshold I repeat "fats burn in a carbohydrate flame" over in my mind, and I think of my sweat as fat melting.
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I too love this evidence so much. I'm actually a living proof that Hiit is the way to go. It's not a phase nor is it a trend promoted by magazines! Interval training has been I place for decades, commonly used by mainly professional boxer and they hold the most muscular and lean body. Sprinters train intervals and explosives cardio and their body are lean with nice definitions.

I am so glad cathe share such important and valuable information by keeping up with various researches.

It's more than high time people open up to a change , get out of their square mind by holding onto this old school "fat burning zone".

I have been in personal development fitness instructors work during which this fat burning zone is being promoted as the best method". No reference of Hiit.!!!
 
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Evie - sorry, I managed to get off topic and hijack your thread. Apologies. :confused:

I wonder if it makes a difference if you're starting from 'lean' and trying to get very lean? (Rather than overweight, trying to get to 'correct' weight - sorry I hate those terms, but I can't think how to phrase it).

Figure competitors tend to go in for lots of cardio in the final few weeks before a competition:

Want the Body of a Fitness Model? Find Out What it Really Takes | SparkPeople

I rather like the look of this girl in her middle photo, though!!!!

Justine
 
Evie said:
Are the two co-related? I ask because whenever I do any of Cathe's regular cardio videos, I'm huffing and puffing and FEEL my workout. When I spin to one of the Cathe's video's, I never get as out of breath.

But - the calorie burn is much higher for spinning than for the other cardio routines?

How does this reconcile? I'm beginning to think that I'm going too anaerobic while doing a regular cardio routine, and I don't while spinning. Does this make sense to anyone else? And that makes me wonder if I'm working too hard for my age. I'm 52, pushing 53, and absolutely love Cathe's cardio routines - whatever routine I'm doing.

Thank you, anyone, who might be able to help me understand this.
Click to expand...

Hi Evie,

To reply to your question. The huffing and puffing which is the the perceived exertion is simply a unit measure of the effort you put in your workout. The calorie burnt is a combination of more factor than intensity put in
It depend on the length of the workout, type...

Example a 30 minutes weight lifting just by the nature result in less calorie expenditure, subject ive to the intensity compared to 30 minutes timed interval.

Just to add highly intense is the workout, high the perceived exertion is which is your heart rate.

Hope this reply your question
 
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Justinef said:
Hi Kim - the strap is surprisingly comfortable - it sits where my sports bra strap is, and feels the same. In fact the watch annoys me more - I have narrow wrists and it gets in the way during push ups and burpees (another reason to hate them!). So far, however, I'm delighted with it - and it's showing up some unexpected results.

As for nutrition monitoring, I've never used anything, but I'm thinking about it. For me, it's trying to get my macronutrients right. I can see that steroids would make it useful to track calories etc. Let me know if you decide on which tracker to use.

All the best,
Justine
Click to expand...

Justine, Thanks for the feed back. I just bought a polar from amazon. Happy New Year to me!!! Now I just need to decide what to do for the nutrition tracking part.
 
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