Burn More Fat

Metabolism slows after age 25, but there are ways to fight back.

A comedienne recently quipped, “You know you have teenagers in the house when you’ve run out of food and haven’t finished unloading the groceries from the car.”

Whether you have teenagers or you can remember that far back, eating like one after the age of 30 doesn’t come without a price. By the time you reach your 40s you’ll find yourself 30 to 50 pounds heavier and at risk for health problems, according to Pamela Peeke, M.D., author of “Fight Fat After Forty.”

There are several reasons for this. For one, after the age of 25, muscle mass takes a nosedive. Since muscle is metabolically active ­ a pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories of a pound of fat ­ this muscle loss creates a 5% decrease in basal metabolic rate (resting metabolism) per decade of life after 25. Less muscle means a slower metabolism, plain and simple.

In addition, making time to exercise becomes less important than family obligations. This combination of reduced metabolism and lack of exercise results in higher body fat and a greater risk for diabetes, heart disease and even some forms of cancer.

All is not lost, however. No matter what your age, there are ways to up the fat-burning ante if you know what to do.

Measuring body fat

To find your starting point, you’ll need more than your bathroom scale. The scale tells you only part of the story. “You can starve and get to 115 pounds, but that doesn’t mean you’re healthy,” Peeke said in a recent interview. A person can be thin but “over fat” and at a higher risk of disease. “A sedentary skinny woman with high body fat is at greater risk for breast cancer (than a fit woman who weighs more),” Peeke says.

Calculating body fat is not difficult, although some methods are more accurate than others.

Underwater or hydrostatic weighing produces one of the most accurate measures of body fat and serves as the control for judging the accuracy of other forms of testing. Unfortunately, it’s also the costliest and least comfortable. Using this method, the subject expels all the air in his lungs and is then submerged upside down. The volume of displaced water is then measured, and a formula calculates the person’s body fat.

Skin-fold testing measures subcutaneous fat or the 50% of total body fat that lies directly under the skin. Calipers measure by “pinching” one to seven body sites, depending on the formula used; a 3% to 4% margin of error exists compared to hydrostatic weighing. (Note that although some bathroom scales also measure body fat, they cannot show subtle changes in individual areas of the body as calipers would.)

For best results, have the same person perform follow-up measurements and focus on the relative changes of the individual numbers instead of the overall total.

Alternatively, bioelectrical impedance, a method used by some gyms and hospitals, works by sending a small, safe electrical signal throughout the body, carried by water and fluids. Fat creates impedance, while muscle offers little resistance to the electrical current. The quicker the signal travels, the less body fat. This number, in addition to body weight, body type, gender, age and fitness level, allows for an accurate measure of body fat. All is well and good if perfect conditions are met, which is rarely the case. But the numbers fluctuate depending on the person’s hydration level, caffeine or alcohol consumption, intensity of exercise or amount of food eaten prior to measuring, some prescription drugs and a host of other factors that may alter the results.

Big fat myth

If you’re up late enough, you’ve seen the infomercials for machines and supplements that promise fat loss. Many claims defy scientific research, making it difficult to know what to believe. “Spot reducing and the ‘fat-burning zone’ are the top two erroneous fat-burning beliefs,” says Richard Cotton, MA, chief exercise physiologist and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. “Spot reducing by trying to burn fat off your midsection with crunches just doesn’t work. We all have different body types, and you cannot selectively burn off fat.”

Where you tend to accumulate fat is largely hereditary, as demonstrated by the “apple” and “pear” shapes used to describe two basic body types. Apple shapes deposit fat around the midsection and are at a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes than pear shapes, whose fat makes its home around the hips and thighs. While exercise and diet help reduce total weight and body fat, blame your parents if that slice of chocolate cake goes right to your hips before showing up anywhere else.

A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories; therefore, in order to lose a pound, you must eat less and exercise more to create a 3,500-calorie deficit. No amount of food combining, eating schedules or special pills can debunk this simple physiological principle, no matter what the ads tell you. Water weight loss may fluctuate more dramatically, but true fat loss follows this rule.

For example, if a 25-year old woman walks for a half an hour at low intensity, she burns 50% of her 220 calories as fat. The next day, she exercises for half an hour at a higher intensity and burns just 33 percent of her 332 calories as fat. Although the percentage of calories burned is less the second day, she’s burned the same number (110) calories of fat during both workouts ­ yet has expended about 50 percent more total calories for the same time. Those extra calories during her more vigorous workout will add up more quickly to create the 3,500-calorie deficit she needs to lose a pound of fat.

Interval training burns more fat

In addition to upping your overall workout intensity, “Interval training is still the best way to go if you want to burn fat,” Cotton says. Interval training involves alternate bouts of intense exercise with recovery periods. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, these short, intense bouts burn more calories than working at the same intensity for the same amount of time. The recovery periods allow for greater intensity during the work periods, and, subsequently, more calories are burned. Although interval training components can be adapted for various fitness levels, it is generally not recommended for beginning exercisers.

Many treadmills have interval training routines programmed into them, but it’s easy enough to design one on your own. Keep in mind the following four variables:

• Intensity of the work interval (i.e. speed) Duration of the work interval (i.e. distance or time)

• Duration of the rest/recovery interval

• Number of repetition or repeat intervals

As a point of interest, the military uses a form or interval training called the Fartlek Maneuver. In this drill participants run at a slow-moderate pace for a minute or two, and then sprint for 15-30 seconds, depending upon the drill instructor.

Lift to lose The addition of weight training to a cardiovascular program kicks up fat burning another notch. Resistance training helps your body regain muscle lost through the aging process and, subsequently, helps to bolster your metabolism. Research done at John Hopkins University showed an increase in fat burning for up to two hours after a weight training workout was over. The intensity of the workout determines how many additional calories you will burn and the amount of time after the workout this “after burn” remains in effect. Here’s another bonus to weight training: fat takes up five times the space of muscle, so the more muscle you build, the thinner you’ll look.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, a successful weight training program is characterized by:

1. Overloading: The weight must be a challenge to the muscles for changes in strength or tone to occur. The last three repetitions in a 12 to 15 rep set should be difficult to perform.

2. Progression: Increased weight or repetitions to create a continuous challenge as your muscles adapt

To target every muscle group in the least amount of time, a single set of 10 to 15 repetitions of squats, bench step-ups, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups and crunches covers all bases.

All together now

Cardiovascular training and weight training are both effective ways to burn fat; however, combining the two incinerates the highest number of stubborn fat cells. Circuit training does just that by combining strength-training exercises with endurance exercises done in sequence. Workout “stations” are created and set up around a gym, although a modified version can be adapted for an in-home workout.

A maximum rest period of 30 seconds between exercises must be followed, or you risk losing the aerobic benefits. Rest only after each complete circuit. Here are suggestions for creating your own circuit training routine:

1. Warm up for five to 10 minutes on a treadmill or bicycle, or jog in place. 2. Alternate upper- and lower- body exercises with an aerobic component. 3. Set a minimum number of repetitions or time (30 or 60 seconds) to perform each set. 4. Allow only five to 10 seconds between each exercise (if you try this at a gym, you’ll have to avoid busy times). 5. A simple circuit may be:

• As many body-weight squats you can do in 30 seconds

• As many push-ups (regular or modified) you can do in 30 seconds

• One minute of jogging in place or stationary cycling Rest 45 seconds and repeat.

Summary

It takes time to lose body fat, so plan on at least eight to 12 weeks to see changes in your measurements if you do everything right. Eat clean (whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and lean protein), perform a minimum of 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three to six times a week, weight train two to three times a week, and you’ll keep the muscle as you lose body fat. You may not look like a teenager, but you’ll feel like one.