Aerobic Exercise and Natural Weight Loss

Aerobic exercise is another VERY important tool I use for weight loss. The problem is that people not know how to tell if the exercise they are doing is aerobic or not.

A good way to tell if your exercise is aerobic is just by using Exercise to Lose Weight. There are more specific ways to determine this such as the Lactate Threshold Test. But for the purposes of weight loss, this test is too intensive and also requires a relatively high athletic level in the first place and it also expensive.

Aerobic Exercise and Energy Creation

It will be a good idea to go over "Energy Balance" to unerstand how your body creates, stores and releases its potential energy. It has a great deal to do with weight loss.

There are two ways the body creates usable energy. Technically it is said there are two “Pathways” to energy creation. One uses only sugar (or glucose) and the other uses fat, protein and carbohydrates.

Oxygen is the determining factor as to which pathway is used. When oxygen is present in the energy creation process fat, protein and carbohydrates are use to replenish energy stores. It is a longer process but there is about 1600% more energy created.

Aerobic Exercise: Types

So actions like brisk walking, light jogging, rebounding, etc. are (generally speaking) aerobic in nature. They are generally not so intense that you are gasping for air when you do them. You can do them for longer periods of time and also feel pretty refreshed during and afterwards.

During this period of time, the amount of oxygen content in the body is elevated. When this occurs, the body uses oxygen to combine with fat, protein and carbs to produce energy molecules. This happens consistently.

Aerobic Exercise: Matter of Conditioning

Endurance athletes are athletes that train their bodies to use oxygen very efficiently. Triathletes, marathoners, ultra-marathoners, elite special forces military are conditioned to become very fit and very efficient and effective at maximizing their use of oxygen.

NAVY seals even carry viles of 2000 calories worth of olive oil to sip when there is no other food for them to eat. Their bodies are so efficient at using oxygen that they can literally LIVE on a vile of fat for days at a time.^[1]

They have conditioned their bodies through thousands of hours and miles of aerobic exercise to be able to do this.

Mistaken Exercise

The problem with most people who exercise and cannot lose weight is that they are mainly doing anaerobic exercise. They think they are doing aerobic because the class they go to is CALLED aerobics class or the video they are using is called aerobic workout or cardio-vascular workout. They are using a definition of aerobic workout or aerobic exercise that is incomplete if not wrong.

Here is a quote:

“The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as ‘any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature.’"^[2]

It does not include in its definition the use of oxygen. Oxygen is THE primary component that determines whether an activity is aerobic or anaerobic.

Aerobic Exercise: Heart Rate Zone Myth

There is also the commonly held idea that there are these heart rate “Zones” that tell you whether you are in an aerobic state or not. This zone is also called the “fat burning zone”. They are usually based on a formula devised by Dr. William Haskell and Dr. Samuel Fox^[3]. It is 220 minus your age and the result is your Max heart rate and there are zones within this that determine the “aerobic-ness” or “anaerobic-ness” of your exercise. There are now modified formulas but they all contain the same flaw for someone like you. They are based on a bell curve created with a large sample population.

The flaw in applying these formulas is that you can fall anywhere on that bell curve.

Your Aerobic Exercise is Dependent on Your Fitness Level

The fact is for you to lose weight and lose fat you have to determine YOUR aerobic level. And since you are most likely not an elite athlete you will not need a very high level of precision anyway. You just need a good determination of whether your exercise is truly using oxygen or not.

Here is a much better definition from wikipedia.com.

“Aerobic exercise refers to exercise that involves or improves oxygen consumption by the body. ^[4] Aerobic means ‘with oxygen’, and refers to the use of oxygen in the body's metabolic or energy-generating process.”^[5]

So a person can be doing what they think is an aerobic workout in a class or some new Extreme Workout and by using the Best Exercise to Lose Weight Guidelines, they are actually spending an hour or more, reducing oxygen and lowering their body pH causing excess acidity. This is also going to result in cortisol and weight gain.

You can do as much true aerobic exercise as you want. Over time you will find that your energy expenditure will increase during your aerobic workout.

Let’s say when you run at 5 mph your heart rate is at 120. Over time, with proper rest and recuperation and nutrition, you will find that to maintain an mph of 120 you will have to run at 8 mph. Then 10. What is happening is that your body is getting conditioned to do more work with less exertion. The heart rate measures the exertion level you are at. As you get conditioned, you will be having to run faster to keep the same level of cardio-vascular exertion.

In almost every case aerobic exercise is mandatory for natural weight loss for my clients. Especially if the person has belly fat, has weakened adrenals, drinks a lot of coffee and has a long history of high sugar consumption.

The only time aerobic exercise does not directly contribute to natural weight loss is when the excess weight is due to a poorly functioning thyroid or a condition called hypothyroidism. In this case, you can still do aerobic for all the other benefits it gives you.

But anaerobic and intense exercise done per best exercise to lose weight together with a nutrition program that will heal the thyroid is the exercise that will contribute to the reduction of fat.