Fitness Minutes 10: Burning Fat (Part 2 of 3)

During my early days in the fitness industry, I was caught up in the gym culture of ‘No Pain No Gain’. I often put my clients in a sugar burning state through hard and fast workouts that produced quick results. The negative long-term effects of such intensed workouts have been discussed in the previous Fitness Minutes. It still disturbs me today, that I must have turned off many who sought exercise as a means to manage stress and to feel vibrant.

How you set up your training sessions, what you eat and what goes through your mind plays a big part on whether your body gets its energy from fats or sugar. These two issues of Fitness Minutes will focus on how we can burn more fat instead of sugar by making adjustments to how we train, think and eat.

Here are some useful tips that you can follow:

Warming Up and Cooling Down

Warm up slowly instead of jumping straight into the activity itself i.e. Take a slow walk before breaking into a jog. This allows your body to prepare itself to burn fats instead of sugar. Similarly, make sure you warm down by slowly decreasing the intensity of your exercise to avoid cravings for carbohydrate rich foods after your workout.  

Perception

Shift focus from the outcome to being in the present i.e. Instead of being one-dimensional and focusing only on completing your workout, focus on how you feel instead-Take in all the scenery and images in front of you. How does the world or gym look? How many different colours can you see? Listen for music and sounds nearby and faraway. Allow your thoughts to drift and wonder.

Breathing

Avoid any forced expulsion of air and breathing by expanding your chest. Breathe low comfortably i.e. feel your belly expand as you inhale and exhale slowly.

Go Slow

Can you speak out loud as you are exercising? If you are panting too heavily to do so, you are probably training in your sugar-burning zone where sugar becomes the primary source of fuel. You need to bring your heart rate down to the fat burning zone. If you are running, that may mean having to slow down to a brisk walk instead.

I used to be pretty embarrassed with the idea of walking especially when middle-aged women and seniors are running past me! But I remind myself that exercise should not be about how much pain one can take or to boost my own ego, it should be about creating more energy and to simply move comfortably!

I’m running and doing other exercises more slowly than before but it’s fine because I am looking forward to every opportunity to move. Also, that doesn’t mean that I can’t go fast when I need to. In fact, my timing for my 2.4km run is once again sub 10minutes! The last time I clocked such times was during my NS days! I can now speed up without working any harder.

For the next issue of Fitness Minutes, I will be sharing tips on how to make food choices that help to burn fats. Meanwhile, go slow and have fun!

Health and Energy
 
Hansen Bay
Coach (Health & Wellness)
BA P.E.(S,pore)
Dip Hypnotheraphy (USA) NGH,IMDHA,IACT
M (65) 97939745
F  (65) 65828922
www.vitagefitness.com
"The First Wealth is Health"-Ralph Waldo Emerson