If you’ve ever had a period of time where you felt like you had no energy, you know the feeling. You may feel depleted for a few days and need to start over. Sometimes, we all need to do this, but if we don’t, we can end up feeling more sluggish and unproductive in the long run.
The good news is that this feeling usually passes right along. Like when you start sweating immediately after a workout, you’re not actually burning any extra calories. When your body just isn’t making use of all the energy you’ve put into it, you’re using the energy you just wasted to power your muscles through a workout.
When you start sweating it’s a good sign that you’re eating more. If you start sweating after a workout and don’t eat it, it’s probably a good sign that you’re eating more calories than you would normally.
You might be thinking “but if youre using all of your energy to power your muscles through a workout, you cant really lose any weight”, but you absolutely can. It all comes down to the calorie expenditure and the type of exercise you do. For example, cardio-only workouts burn fat, but strength training burns muscle and fat. Strength training doesn’t burn fat, so it uses up all your energy, and you cant really lose any fat from it.
Strength training is one of the most effective ways to shed fat. Even if youre not lifting weights, strength training burns more calories than cardio. Thats because it involves more muscle contraction and therefore more total energy expenditure (which means that you can burn more energy on your muscles even though youre on the elliptical or walking with a friend).
Strength training burns more calories than anything else. But you might be surprised to realize that it actually burns more fat than cardio. Strength training actually makes you produce more “muscle” than cardio does. Your body has to use a lot of energy just to pull a muscle. But the more muscle, the more fat you gain. Strength training will help you lose a little fat, but it will not make you lose any fat.
My body can’t handle the fact that if you do a lot of the work that you did, the muscles in your body will probably be dead, so you’re going to have to keep it going. However, this is a big no-no for me as I am pretty much the biggest fat guy in the room.
While youre doing that, you should also do 30 minutes of cardio like jogging or walking. 30 minutes on the treadmill is the best way to burn that fat I’ve found (if youre not careful). Once you have burned a little bit of fat, you can start doing weight lifting to build muscle. If you do a lot of cardio, you will probably be in the best shape of your life.
While I think cardio is the best way to burn fat, it is important to note that all exercises should be done with a light heart. Doing too much too fast can be extremely taxing on your heart, and could cause you to have chest pain and blood clot problems in your muscles. So I recommend doing cardio only if you are in good shape and you have the time to do it.
Most exercises should only be done with a light heart. Even if you are in good shape, you will want to have a light heart to minimize the risks of heart attack and other cardiovascular conditions. When in doubt, do cardio.
