Saturday, November 3, 2007

When Do We Enter "Fat-Burning Mode"?

A common question I hear being asked, how long does it take for the body to enter fat-burning mode when doing cardio. The common answers floating about are 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and I have seen 30 minutes. However, technically speaking, all those answers are wrong. Our bodies are always in a state of fat-burning.
For decades, it was thought that our fat stores were generally immobile, except in conditions of aerobic exercise or famine. But in 1935 the biochemist Schoenheimer using radioactive Hydrogen-2 tracers demonstrated our fat stores are highly mobile, undergoing constant turnover. This means we are always burning fat, that is good. However, it means much of our carbs and fats we eat are immediately converted to fat, which is bad. This actually made sense to me when I first read this report. Our 50 trillion cells constantly need energy, and it seemed to me that what we eat could not constantly supply the energy our cells need to function. I've gone as long as 36+ hours without eating, and still survived. But reading the results of Schoenheimer's research, now I see how. What we think of fat burning during cardio, then, is simply an existing process accellerated, triggered by chemical signals produced during extended cardio. Knowing this information, you can "tease" and trick your body to constantly burn off fat, but without feeling hungry, and without depriving yourself. Eat whole grains, lean meats, and raw leafy vegetables during the day, they have low density in calories. Right after a workout, you can eat more liberally.

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