CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Using Glucose and Fat to Fuel Exercise
===========================================
When you start an exercise session, your glucose requirements will increase. If your pace is too fast, you will over exercise and use up your glucose reserve quickly. When that happens, your muscles will consume all of your glucose, and you will become exhausted and feel hungry, tired, dizzy, or weak. You will begin to recover when enough glucose is provided for the brain, muscles, and nervous system. Over a period of time, your body will learn to store a larger glucose reserve for your daily activities including high intensity exercise.
If you keep the starting pace slow, your muscles will use some of your glucose reserves until your body can break down and deploy fat into the bloodstream. If you continue exercising at a slow, steady pace, after twenty minutes your body will have used up most of the glucose available in the bloodstream. When the exercise continues past twenty minutes, the body will shift to burning mostly fat for energy. This is the point where exercise causes your body to draw on your stored fat to satisfy its energy needs.
===========================================
This is the perfect time for the body to use a lot of stored fat. From this point, your body will continue to draw on and use stored body fat for your energy needs. Even at rest, 60 percent of your energy needs comes from fat. As long as you do not consume more fat than your body needs for the activities you are engaged at the time, your body will draw fat from storage and use it. This is the point in the metabolic process where weight loss takes place.
However, as soon as you eat a meal that contains fat, the fat burning conditions stop. When incoming fat from your stomach reaches the bloodstream, it begins to replace the fat that is coming from stored body fat. When the level of fat coming in from the stomach reaches the level the body needs for its activity level, the body stops deploying stored fat. When the level of incoming fat in the bloodstream exceeds the amount the body needs for its activity level, the excess fat goes directly from the bloodstream into the fat cells. It’s just that simple. This is where weight gain takes place.
===========================================
Glucose is important in anaerobic exercise, (high to extremely high activity), but stored fat is more important in aerobic exercise (slow to moderate activity). When you exercise at the higher intensity, you will be able to exercise for only a short period of time (eight seconds to three minutes) because the body can only produce so much glucose from stored glycogen during a certain period of time.
Your total glucose supply can be used up in about twenty minutes if the exercise is too intense. Untrained people will only be able to store a few minutes of glucose for exercise, but athletes will be able to store much more.
===========================================
When you exercise at a slower pace, you will use more fat for fuel while exercising. Since your body will be using fat, you could go on exercising for many hours and not worry about running out of fuel.
When you are involved in an extended activity at slow to moderate intensity, your muscles will use more fat after a twenty-minute warm-up. Constant signals will be sent to the brain telling the body to continue to release stored fat. The muscles will use their stored glycogen to help burn the once stored fat. This way you can keep going on stored body fat, while using the glucose in your muscles to help metabolize the fat. This is why long distance runners can eat so much and not gain weight.
===========================================
Since the body has the ability to produce some glycogen from protein (lactic acid and amino acids), you can survive with only a small glycogen reserve, which will help burn fat. The body can also change some fat into glucose, but you cannot starve yourself and expect to survive on stored body fat alone.
It is dangerous to try to burn only stored body fat because the body still needs outside nutrients. When trying to lose weight with exercise, keep a nutritional balance with enough carbohydrates for the energy you use. If you over exercise, your muscles will deny your brain the glucose it needs to function properly. This makes very high intensity exercise dangerous when you are not getting proper nourishment.
===========================================
Stored fat can be broken down for use as energy by aerobic metabolism. The conditions under which aerobic metabolism take place are present during aerobic exercise, during long periods of food deprivation, and while doing light activity. You can (to some extent) create this condition by skipping breakfast and lunch and eating a larger meal for dinner.
By skipping breakfast and lunch, you will be signaling deprivation and encouraging your body to burn more stored fat. By eating a large meal once a day, you will have the nutrients your body needs to function properly the next day. The complex carbohydrates you eat will help metabolize and burn your stored fat on the days you skip eating. Remember that many millions of people survive on only one meal a day. The one meal may consist of only a piece of bread.
===========================================
When you are resting, your body keeps a certain level of fat in your bloodstream. When you start exercising, the fat level falls because of usage. If the exercise continues for more than twenty minutes, the hormone epinephrine is released. This causes fat cells to begin rapidly breaking down their stored triglycerides and releasing fatty acids into the bloodstream. After about twenty minutes of exercise, the blood’s fatty acid level goes up way past the normal resting level.
After the fatty acid level increases, the body uses fat as its main energy source. By doing slow, low intensity exercises first, then switching to moderate exercise activity, you can exercise continuously on stored body fat. Athletes can lose more than 10 percent of their weight in a 24-hour period under these conditions. Doctors and health care professionals will not allow professional athletes to lose more than 10 percent of their body weight because it is considered unsafe.
===========================================
People who are not as physically fit as athletes should lose no more than 1 percent from their excess stored body fat during a 24-hour period. For example, if your ideal weight is 150 pounds and you weigh 200 pounds, you would have 50 pounds of excess stored body fat. One percent of 50 is 1/2 pound. You should lose no more than 1/2 pound per day.
For safety reasons, while using this weight loss program, never attempt to lose more than 1/2 pound in two days, whether you are trained or untrained. As your body and muscles become more conditioned, you will be able to lose more weight by keeping a consistent, steady approach to weight loss. By keeping a regular routine, you should be able to easily lose 50 pounds a year. Also, the body can be trained to use its stored fat more effectively as a fuel for moderate intensity exercises.
===========================================
Since the intensity of the exercise you do affects the type of energy the body burns, try to go from low to moderate intensity exercises during a session. Since fat makes less of a contribution to the fuel the body uses for energy with very high intensity exercises, your exercise intensity level should be low to moderate. However, the level of intensity is different for each person. For a trained person, the intensity level could be moderate. The same level could be extremely high for an untrained person. Therefore, you will have to determine your own moderate intensity level.
===========================================
The body needs more oxygen to metabolize fat for energy than it does to metabolize glucose for energy. Therefore, oxygen must be available for fat to act as fuel for exercise. When a person is physically fit, his or her conditioned heart and lungs will deliver enough oxygen to the muscles so the body can use its stored fat. To condition the heart and lungs, one should use aerobic exercise because it will help increase the amount of oxygen the lungs take in.
If you are breathing easily while exercising, your body will be getting the oxygen it needs for all areas. The easy breathing indicates that the muscles are getting enough oxygen to metabolize and use stored body fat for energy.
===========================================
If you are breathing rapidly while exercising, your body will be required to use more glucose because you will not be getting enough oxygen for your muscles to burn mostly fat. This oxygen shortage will force the muscles to use glucose. The incoming oxygen will be used for other areas, such as the brain, heart, and nervous system, rather than for processing fat. You must keep your pace slow and burn fat.
===========================================
How to Train Your Body to Burn Fat
===========================================
The only way to train your muscles to burn excess fat is to use exercise. Untrained muscles use more glucose for energy, even when the exercise is moderate. Muscles that have been toned and conditioned through exercise are more dependent on fat and less dependent on glucose for energy. The exercise you do one day will cause the body to draw on stored fat and place it in the muscles for more of the same type of exercise the next day.
You can train your muscles to use fat by working out regularly and using a variety of exercises at different intensities. After a while your muscles will adapt to the changes in energy and learn to store more fatty acids each day. After you have trained your muscles and conditioned your body, you will be able to exercise for longer periods of time at moderate intensity levels that were once considered high. This will allow you to burn more body fat
===========================================
How to Avoid Exhaustion
===========================================
If you continue an intense exercise activity long enough, the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver will become completely exhausted. When that happens, the liver will be able to produce only small amounts of glucose from lactic acid and certain amino acids. This action by the liver can provide enough glucose to keep you going. Other wise, you will be completely exhausted. You can prevent glycogen exhaustion by keeping a comfortable pace or resting before you become exhausted.
===========================================
Without proper training and nourishment, the supply of stored glucose might be completely used up after one or two hours of strenuous activity. When this happens, the nervous system stops functioning properly. Distance runners use the term “hitting the wall” to describe this condition. To prevent complete glucose depletion, do the following:
• Eat meals rich in complex carbohydrates.
• Do not consume meals prepared with added fat.
• Condition the muscles to store more glycogen.
• Do not consume concentrated sweets such as candy, cake, or soda while training or after an event.
• Improve your cardiovascular fitness so your muscles receive the oxygen they need to burn fat.
===========================================
If you keep the starting pace slow, your muscles will use some of your glucose reserves until your body can break down and deploy fat into the bloodstream. If you continue exercising at a slow, steady pace, after twenty minutes your body will have used up most of the glucose available in the bloodstream. When the exercise continues past twenty minutes, the body will shift to burning mostly fat for energy. This is the point where exercise causes your body to draw on your stored fat to satisfy its energy needs.
===========================================
This is the perfect time for the body to use a lot of stored fat. From this point, your body will continue to draw on and use stored body fat for your energy needs. Even at rest, 60 percent of your energy needs comes from fat. As long as you do not consume more fat than your body needs for the activities you are engaged at the time, your body will draw fat from storage and use it. This is the point in the metabolic process where weight loss takes place.
However, as soon as you eat a meal that contains fat, the fat burning conditions stop. When incoming fat from your stomach reaches the bloodstream, it begins to replace the fat that is coming from stored body fat. When the level of fat coming in from the stomach reaches the level the body needs for its activity level, the body stops deploying stored fat. When the level of incoming fat in the bloodstream exceeds the amount the body needs for its activity level, the excess fat goes directly from the bloodstream into the fat cells. It’s just that simple. This is where weight gain takes place.
===========================================
Use Stored Fat for Distance
===========================================Glucose is important in anaerobic exercise, (high to extremely high activity), but stored fat is more important in aerobic exercise (slow to moderate activity). When you exercise at the higher intensity, you will be able to exercise for only a short period of time (eight seconds to three minutes) because the body can only produce so much glucose from stored glycogen during a certain period of time.
Your total glucose supply can be used up in about twenty minutes if the exercise is too intense. Untrained people will only be able to store a few minutes of glucose for exercise, but athletes will be able to store much more.
===========================================
When you exercise at a slower pace, you will use more fat for fuel while exercising. Since your body will be using fat, you could go on exercising for many hours and not worry about running out of fuel.
When you are involved in an extended activity at slow to moderate intensity, your muscles will use more fat after a twenty-minute warm-up. Constant signals will be sent to the brain telling the body to continue to release stored fat. The muscles will use their stored glycogen to help burn the once stored fat. This way you can keep going on stored body fat, while using the glucose in your muscles to help metabolize the fat. This is why long distance runners can eat so much and not gain weight.
===========================================
Since the body has the ability to produce some glycogen from protein (lactic acid and amino acids), you can survive with only a small glycogen reserve, which will help burn fat. The body can also change some fat into glucose, but you cannot starve yourself and expect to survive on stored body fat alone.
It is dangerous to try to burn only stored body fat because the body still needs outside nutrients. When trying to lose weight with exercise, keep a nutritional balance with enough carbohydrates for the energy you use. If you over exercise, your muscles will deny your brain the glucose it needs to function properly. This makes very high intensity exercise dangerous when you are not getting proper nourishment.
===========================================
Stored fat can be broken down for use as energy by aerobic metabolism. The conditions under which aerobic metabolism take place are present during aerobic exercise, during long periods of food deprivation, and while doing light activity. You can (to some extent) create this condition by skipping breakfast and lunch and eating a larger meal for dinner.
By skipping breakfast and lunch, you will be signaling deprivation and encouraging your body to burn more stored fat. By eating a large meal once a day, you will have the nutrients your body needs to function properly the next day. The complex carbohydrates you eat will help metabolize and burn your stored fat on the days you skip eating. Remember that many millions of people survive on only one meal a day. The one meal may consist of only a piece of bread.
===========================================
When you are resting, your body keeps a certain level of fat in your bloodstream. When you start exercising, the fat level falls because of usage. If the exercise continues for more than twenty minutes, the hormone epinephrine is released. This causes fat cells to begin rapidly breaking down their stored triglycerides and releasing fatty acids into the bloodstream. After about twenty minutes of exercise, the blood’s fatty acid level goes up way past the normal resting level.
After the fatty acid level increases, the body uses fat as its main energy source. By doing slow, low intensity exercises first, then switching to moderate exercise activity, you can exercise continuously on stored body fat. Athletes can lose more than 10 percent of their weight in a 24-hour period under these conditions. Doctors and health care professionals will not allow professional athletes to lose more than 10 percent of their body weight because it is considered unsafe.
===========================================
People who are not as physically fit as athletes should lose no more than 1 percent from their excess stored body fat during a 24-hour period. For example, if your ideal weight is 150 pounds and you weigh 200 pounds, you would have 50 pounds of excess stored body fat. One percent of 50 is 1/2 pound. You should lose no more than 1/2 pound per day.
For safety reasons, while using this weight loss program, never attempt to lose more than 1/2 pound in two days, whether you are trained or untrained. As your body and muscles become more conditioned, you will be able to lose more weight by keeping a consistent, steady approach to weight loss. By keeping a regular routine, you should be able to easily lose 50 pounds a year. Also, the body can be trained to use its stored fat more effectively as a fuel for moderate intensity exercises.
===========================================
Since the intensity of the exercise you do affects the type of energy the body burns, try to go from low to moderate intensity exercises during a session. Since fat makes less of a contribution to the fuel the body uses for energy with very high intensity exercises, your exercise intensity level should be low to moderate. However, the level of intensity is different for each person. For a trained person, the intensity level could be moderate. The same level could be extremely high for an untrained person. Therefore, you will have to determine your own moderate intensity level.
===========================================
Exercise to Get in Shape
===========================================The body needs more oxygen to metabolize fat for energy than it does to metabolize glucose for energy. Therefore, oxygen must be available for fat to act as fuel for exercise. When a person is physically fit, his or her conditioned heart and lungs will deliver enough oxygen to the muscles so the body can use its stored fat. To condition the heart and lungs, one should use aerobic exercise because it will help increase the amount of oxygen the lungs take in.
If you are breathing easily while exercising, your body will be getting the oxygen it needs for all areas. The easy breathing indicates that the muscles are getting enough oxygen to metabolize and use stored body fat for energy.
===========================================
If you are breathing rapidly while exercising, your body will be required to use more glucose because you will not be getting enough oxygen for your muscles to burn mostly fat. This oxygen shortage will force the muscles to use glucose. The incoming oxygen will be used for other areas, such as the brain, heart, and nervous system, rather than for processing fat. You must keep your pace slow and burn fat.
===========================================
How to Train Your Body to Burn Fat
===========================================
The only way to train your muscles to burn excess fat is to use exercise. Untrained muscles use more glucose for energy, even when the exercise is moderate. Muscles that have been toned and conditioned through exercise are more dependent on fat and less dependent on glucose for energy. The exercise you do one day will cause the body to draw on stored fat and place it in the muscles for more of the same type of exercise the next day.
You can train your muscles to use fat by working out regularly and using a variety of exercises at different intensities. After a while your muscles will adapt to the changes in energy and learn to store more fatty acids each day. After you have trained your muscles and conditioned your body, you will be able to exercise for longer periods of time at moderate intensity levels that were once considered high. This will allow you to burn more body fat
===========================================
How to Avoid Exhaustion
===========================================
If you continue an intense exercise activity long enough, the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver will become completely exhausted. When that happens, the liver will be able to produce only small amounts of glucose from lactic acid and certain amino acids. This action by the liver can provide enough glucose to keep you going. Other wise, you will be completely exhausted. You can prevent glycogen exhaustion by keeping a comfortable pace or resting before you become exhausted.
===========================================
Without proper training and nourishment, the supply of stored glucose might be completely used up after one or two hours of strenuous activity. When this happens, the nervous system stops functioning properly. Distance runners use the term “hitting the wall” to describe this condition. To prevent complete glucose depletion, do the following:
• Eat meals rich in complex carbohydrates.
• Do not consume meals prepared with added fat.
• Condition the muscles to store more glycogen.
• Do not consume concentrated sweets such as candy, cake, or soda while training or after an event.
• Improve your cardiovascular fitness so your muscles receive the oxygen they need to burn fat.
===========================================