Some Basic Information About Exercise
Any exercise or physical activity that you do is better than doing nothing at all. The goal of exercise is to increase your amount of body movement. Many people’s lifestyles do not provide enough opportunities to burn calories and fat, exercise muscles or get the heart rate going. Without enough body movement, we not only tend to gain weight, but our physical abilities begin to decline. Muscle mass shrinks. Heart and lung capacity decline. Flexibility suffers. There’s no need to let this happen, though.
How Are Calories Burned During Exercise?
By exercising we burn 3 types of calories: carbohydrate, protein and fat. This is also called “fuel utilization,” and it occurs in stages throughout the exercise process. The duration (time) and intensity (challenge) of an exercise program determines your fuel (calorie) utilization. Especially what you had for your last meal affects what fuel mix is circulates in your blood stream while you exercise.
Stage 1:Â 10 minutes of exercise:
Carbohydrate (sugar) is the main fuel for working muscles. Since carbohydrate is stored directly in the muscles, the demand to mobilize fat or sugar from storage located in other parts of the body is not yet required.
Stage 2: After 10 minutes of exercise:
Carbohydrate (sugar) in the exercising muscles begins to run low. Fat and carbohydrate from storage areas in the body begin to be released into the blood. Exercising muscles will increasingly draw from these circulating fuels as supplements. Breathing and heart rate start to increase in order to supply the muscles with more oxygen.
Stage 3: About 20 minutes of exercise:
Fat mobilization from storage increases. Carbohydrate stores from the liver become mobilized. Blood gets enriched with circulating fat, sugar and oxygen. Exercising muscles switch to an aerobic fuel system, which is required for fat burn.
Stage 4: Beyond 20 minutes of exercise:
Exercising muscles are now primarily running on the aerobic fuel system. As long as the oxygen supply is adequate, fat will be the primary fuel. Carbohydrate will become the preferred fuel if the exercise effort increases. Thereafter, protein will be used to supply carbohydrate if the exercise continues for more than 2 hours or becomes even difficult (at a heart rate of above 85% of maximum training heart rate).
What Does Resistance Or Weight Training Do?
Weight training does not burn much fat as a fuel source, but it does stimulate muscle growth. More muscle mass will increase calorie demand of the muscles, even after exercise and in your sleep. This is very helpful to increase metabolism. Weight training can also be very effective for bone mass maintenance and can help to prevent osteoporosis for both men and women as they get older. It is especially important for the spinal bones which don’t get as easily stimulated, even with regular exercise. Unfortunately, these bones are also the most susceptible to osteoporosis.
Do I Have to Exercise Until I Sweat?
Sweating during exercise is a good indicator that you are working hard enough to get some benefits out of your efforts. But it is not directly related to the desired health effects of your workout. The ability to sweat is the body’s cooling system. When sweat evaporates it cools us off. As we heat up internally, with or without exercise, we respond by sweating. Some people heat up more quickly, others do not. Body surface area (skin) relative to internal mass (both muscle mass and fat stores) relates to this. The more skin to body mass, the more cooling takes place.
Other factors which influence sweating include work intensity (strenuousness), environmental conditions (heat, wind, humidity), body water content (hydration) and clothing. Remember that water is lost when you sweat. The more water we lose, the less cooling the body can do. Overheating is a common reason for feeling fatigued from exercise. Always drink plenty of water during and after intense exercising. Some small amount of salt may also be helpful to replace salt loss from profuse sweating.
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