Is Intensity the key??

c montgomery

Looking to lose a few pounds at the moment so i have upped my cardio sessions.
What i currently do is 3 x 45 minute runs a week covering 15miles in total. This is at a leisurely pace and i dont kill myself.
In terms of losing weight would i be better off doing high intensity training for a shorter period of time???

Cheers

Dovers

c montgomery wrote: »

Looking to lose a few pounds at the moment so i have upped my cardio sessions.
What i currently do is 3 x 45 minute runs a week covering 15miles in total. This is at a leisurely pace and i dont kill myself.
In terms of losing weight would i be better off doing high intensity training for a shorter period of time???

Cheers

The key is to workout at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate for as long as possible. If this is achieved in your 45 min run then you're in your fat burning zone. If your not getting into this but keep up the consistency then you will likely see results albeit over a longer time period. There is a way of calculating maximum heart rate not sure what it is perhaps another poster can advise. This all assumes a healthy diet also which must compliment the excercise to facillitate fat loss

Patto

There are many ways to skin a cat in terms of exercise choice and losing a bit of weight.

The greatest bearing on weight loss is your diet.

3x45min over 15 miles depending how heavy you are adds up to about 1500-2000 calories. Say half of that energy comes from body fat (750-1000cal), that is only 85-100g of fat loss a week. Not to be sniffed at but it is what it is.

Just to put things in perspective you could easily, while still do the running or not running at all, create that type of deficit every two days with a strict calorie controlled diet.

slicus ricus

The key in my opinion would be to make sure your nutrition is up to scratch. Making sure you eat carbs only when your body needs them is very important for cutting weight, as are other parts of nutrition. If you're interested is attaining advice on this side of things, let us know.

On the original question, intensity of your cardio is important - as i've mentioned above, i don't think it's the most important thing for cutting body fat. You need to make sure you're going at a level that is challenging. I personally wouldn't recommend doing cardio in your comfort zone. A, this will give you more incentive to continue doing cardio as it will be a challenge to you. B, you are more likely to cut body fat. It might be worth mixing it up in your next session - set the treadmill at a higher speed or incline and see how your endurance lasts.

ApeXaviour

Dovers wrote: »

If this is achieved in your 45 min run then you're in your fat burning zone.

Fat burning zone is a bunch of poo tbh eg. It's rather more simple than that. You burn calories when you exercise, higher intensity means faster rate of calories expended.

Higher intensity training will lead to hypertrophy, which will increase your metabolism.

But as others have said, diet is the main thing. If you haven't already, cut out the sweet stuff: sweet drinks, chocolate, cakes. Also cut down on the potatoes, bread, rice, pasta etc.

rubadub

Dovers wrote: »

The key is to workout at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate for as long as possible. If this is achieved in your 45 min run then you're in your fat burning zone.

If you are limiting yourself to 45minutes then you should just run as fast as possible, this will burn more fat & calories than remaining in the "optimum fat burning zone". Your "fat burning zone" is when you burn most calories for your calorie expenditure. e.g. in a car you probably burn more petrol PER MILE at a speed of 2mph. So if you were to drive 100miles and want to burn the most petrol then drive at 2mph for 100miles. But if you only get to drive 45mins then just drive at the highest speed, which will burn far more petrol than driving at 2mph for 45mins.

If you want to lose fat I would take up weight/resistance training.

c montgomery

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Just to fill in the gaps in my workouts and diet.
I run 3 days a week as i have said, 5 miles a day over 45-50 minutes.
3 days a week i do weight training, 3x12 reps maxing out at my top weight. I weight train on my own and as a result dont really get spotters to help me so my weight training is not based on breaking down my muscle everyday.
My diet is getting much better but my gf's is very bad and this tends to have an influence on me as when something is in front of you all the time its very hard to avoid it. This results in me breaking out most nights with a bar of some sort with a cup of tea about an hour before bed.

Diet is as follows.
Get up at 9
Smoothie at 10
Chicken Wrap at 12:30
Bananna on white bread at 16:30
gym/weight training at 18:00
Dinner at 19:30 Usually chicken/pasta Mince/pasta potatoes/pork/beef/veg Rice/stirfry
Cup of tea/bar at 22:00
Bed at 01:00

I usually cook for 2 so its hard to please the 2 of us.
Any advice/criticism welcome.

corkcomp

I would second rubadubs advice on getting maximum bang for your buck - if you can set aside 45 minutes for your run then you should run as hard as you can (within reason, you dont want to be lying on the ground in a heap afterwards) - you could always do 25 minutes at your current pace and intervals for another 20 minutes etc etc ..

Regarding the diet - slow release carbs are definately good esp in the mornings .. I would advice having porridge with the smoothie and hae wholegrain bread instead of the wrap - same goes for the afternoon snack .. white bread is total junk IMO and id eat a kit kat any day before a few slices of while bread, at least yo might get SOME protein from that ...

aye

c montgomery wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Just to fill in the gaps in my workouts and diet.
I run 3 days a week as i have said, 5 miles a day over 45-50 minutes.
3 days a week i do weight training, 3x12 reps maxing out at my top weight. I weight train on my own and as a result dont really get spotters to help me so my weight training is not based on breaking down my muscle everyday.

I;d second what has been said on training with a higher intensity.
as regards your weight training, mix it up.

do heavier weigths and lower reps, try 3 x 8 reps instead.
or do one day 4 x 6 reps, next day 3 x 8 reps and next day 3 x 12 reps.

bring in supersets, drop sets, pre-exhaustion sets, giant sets, pyramids, reverse pyramids, negatives (if possible) etc.

slicus ricus

corkcomp wrote: »

Regarding the diet - slow release carbs are definately good esp in the mornings .. I would advice having porridge with the smoothie and hae wholegrain bread instead of the wrap - same goes for the afternoon snack .. white bread is total junk IMO and id eat a kit kat any day before a few slices of while bread, at least yo might get SOME protein from that ...

Spot on there corkcomp. I would also strongly recommend a bowl of porridge first thing in the mornings and maybe a yogurt - skipping breakfast is really not a good idea. Get rid of the white bread also, complete waste of time.

Regarding the wrap, i think it's grand once a day because of the convenience factor - it holds a full chicken fillet, whereas its pretty hard to fit one in between 2 slices of wholemeal bread.

Also, why not have a chicken salad at 4.30 instead of the white bread? It's easy to prepare and can be brought into work in tupperware.

One last thing, is it absolutely necessary to go to bed so late? It makes it a lot harder to get up for breakfast in the mornings. Unless of course, you work at nights?

c montgomery

slicus ricus wrote: »

Spot on there corkcomp. I would also strongly recommend a bowl of porridge first thing in the mornings and maybe a yogurt - skipping breakfast is really not a good idea. Get rid of the white bread also, complete waste of time.

Regarding the wrap, i think it's grand once a day because of the convenience factor - it holds a full chicken fillet, whereas its pretty hard to fit one in between 2 slices of wholemeal bread.

Also, why not have a chicken salad at 4.30 instead of the white bread? It's easy to prepare and can be brought into work in tupperware.

One last thing, is it absolutely necessary to go to bed so late? It makes it a lot harder to get up for breakfast in the mornings. Unless of course, you work at nights?

Thanks a mil for the advice. Ill take as much of it as i can get at the moment.
With regards going to be late i think its only late if you are used to going to bed early or have to get up early. I get up at 8:30 - 9 so going to bed at 1-1:30 is ok for me.
The white bread is going in the bin the minute i get home today. Watch for pat the bakers share price dropping like a lead balloon when the news hits:)

I have to admit to being a bit of a carb junkie, love potatoes, bread, pasta, cakes and all that.
Dont eat many cakes at all but i find i need pasta/rice/potatoes in the evening with dinner just to give me energy for the rest of the night.

I guess ill just have to change a lot of habits that i have built up over decades:(

slicus ricus

c montgomery wrote: »

Thanks a mil for the advice. Ill take as much of it as i can get at the moment.
With regards going to be late i think its only late if you are used to going to bed early or have to get up early. I get up at 8:30 - 9 so going to bed at 1-1:30 is ok for me.(

It has an effect on breakfast. From what I can tell, you don't eat a breakfast first thing in the morning. It would probably mean you have to get up a half an hour earlier to get in a good breakfast. In that case, I assume you would need to go to sleep an extra half hour earlier. That's more or less what I was getting at.

injured365

Max heart rate is 220-age. Intensity is the key when you want results now rather than next year. Diet is far more important. If you have a high calorie excess in relation to your calorie expenditure, losing weight can be quite difficult.