I excerise religiously. Monday, Wednesday, Friday I do spinning for an hour...Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday I do an INTENSE muscle toning class (1 hr) and the elliptical machine for 30min. Saturday I do whatever I feel like (usually something outdoors like tennis).

ANYWAYY..while I was on the elliptical today, I was reading a magazine and it said high intensity workouts are good for your cardiovascular system, but not that great for fat loss. They make your body burn stored glycogen (muscle) and not fat. Then I noticed on th elliptical's heart rate monitor that there is a "weight loss" zone and a "cardiovascular" zone. I am always in the cardiovascular zone w/ a heart rate around 150. hmmm.

In trying to get a more intense workout, am I exercising less effectively? Should I do less intense workouts like walking or something even though that must burn less calories? I'm so confused!! lol

Most experts recommend moderate exercise for weight loss, i.e. breaking a sweat, but not sweating buckets. Different levels of exercise burn different things in the body. I'm not remembering too well what intensity burns what (too late for my brain), but I know moderate intensity is the best for actual weight loss. High intensity burns the energy from what you've eaten earlier and moderate will actually burn the unwanted stored fat, I believe. And I remember after working out intensely for a long period of time, you rcalorie burning actually stops for reasons I can't remember. I'm sorry, I'm tired, I can't remember!!! Maybe someone can be a bit more precise in explaining!!

I don't know about the theories behind everything, but I can tell you that I've been doing highly intensive exercise 4 days a week (~140 bpm for 1/2 hour, then "to failure or almost failure in 3 sets of 10" weight lifting for 45 min) and racquetball for 1 hour 2 days a week for the last few months, and I lost over 10 pounds in May. I also increased most of my weights, and there is a lot less "jiggle in my wiggle" then at the beginning of last month, so I really don't think that I've been burning muscle instead of fat.

In a way it doesn't make sense to me that higher intensity would burn muscle- would hunting animals actually thrive under conditions where they are losing muscle every time they had to run after prey?

Most people, however, are able to maintain low- or moderate-intensity workouts much longer, and are therefore more likely to continue their activities for the time recommended for weight loss. It could be that this is where a lot of the difference (if any) could come from?

What I do know, is that I'm not willing to tone down my exercise to experiment: my weight loss ain't broke, so I ain't goin' to try to fix it.

There are a couple of threads "stickied" above that have something that might help. Look at the Top 10 Myths and the Exercising and Gaining Weight. Also this thread from a few weeks ago http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85894

And congrats on the 20 lbs gone!

There is a lot of controversy about this and I have heard of people only losing weight doing low intensity and others only losing doing High intensity, for me I do a combination of both. If you have already lost 20 lbs it sounds like you are doing the right thing just make sure you don't work out super hard every single day.

i think it needs to be established as to what is a "low intensity" workout and a "high intensity" workout.

in fact, we probably even need to go back further and define what "intensity" is.

Intensity is the amount of physical effort that is put into an activity. notice, the way that i define it, that it does not include a statement about duration or volume (meaning, how long you are doing an activity or how many repetitions or sets you are doing).

so now let's look at a low and high intensity workout. a low intensity workout could be something like a low to moderate pace walk. if you are planning on walking for an extended period of time, you would not be able to put forward your full physical effort the entire time.

in high intensity situations, you are giving it near maximal physical effort, but will only be able to sustain that level for a shorter period of time. think of doing a sprint. you run 40 yards as quickly as possible, but, you wouldn't be able to keep at that pace for an extended period of time.

another example. lifting weights. if you are lifting weights using 3 sets of 15 reps (meaning you are lifting a weight you could only lift 15 times) for one exercise, that means you are using a light weight (low intensity) for a high volume (45 reps in total). if you are using 4 sets by 5 reps for one exercise (again meaning you are using more weight and a weight you could only lift 5 times), than you are using high weight (high intensity) for a low volume (20 reps total).

In the link that waterRat posted, i get into the rest of the explanation as to basically the myth that low intensity burns more fat than high intensity. but it's important to know how "low" and "high" are defined.

caution though, we all have our different high and low intensity levels. meaning, if you're just new to exercise, and have basically been sedentary before starting an exercise program, a high intensity activity may be something as simple as a 10 minute walk at a slow pace. don't think that if you HAVE to run a sprint or lift a heavy dumbbell in order to get to a high level of intensity. the level of intensity that you can sustain is based on your personal situation and will change as you continue to exercise and your body adapts to the new stimulus.

Michael Navin, CSCS

Very important point.

I like to mix it up. Sometimes I work at a low or moderate intensity; other times at a higher intensity. For me the important thing is to keep exercising. The best way I know how to do this is to mix it up and do a variety of things.

Glycogen is not muscle, it is a form of stored energy in the muscles and other organs.

In my book a calorie burned is a calorie burned. Don't sweat where it is coming from.

Whether you are burning calories from glycogen (energy stored in muscle) or fat (energy stored in fat cells), you're still burning calories. Lets say you did really intense exercise, and burned off all your glycogen. When you ate at your next meal, you'd replace the glycogen first, rather than storing the energy you ate as fat, and if you don't have enough calories eaten to replenish the glycogen, you're going to pull from your fat stores to replenish it, thus resulting in a "burn" of fat in any case, whether you burn it during your workout or after during glycogen replacement.

As mandalinn said - when you exercise you burn calories - this is what is really important for fat loss when you exercise, sooooo

If you do 1 hour of high intensity exercise... and burn 800kcals, or do 1 hour of "moderate" intensity and burn 600kcals - which do you think will be best for fat loss?

It doesn't really matter quite which fuel your body uses for your exercise, the glycogen that is burned during high intensity exercise is rapidly replenished by your post-workout snack.

And I would say, that your current exercise regime looks PERFECT! If it's working, then why change?

"Do whatever works, whatever is useful. Formulas and systems are helpful to provide structure and action plans. But if they become sacred cows and are followed even after they stop working, the system inhibits creativity and guarantees mediocrity. Do what works for you. Getting results is more important than loyalty to a “system” or “guru.”

Find out what works, and then keep doing more of it. If what you’re doing is not working – do something else! If what you’re doing is working, don’t second guess yourself – stay your course and do more of whatever is working - regardless of what anyone else tells you.

"The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity." If you follow the herd, you’re going to have to step through a lot of manure. Have the strength and courage to trust in yourself and follow your own path."

Some little quotes from Tom Venuto for you. Keep doing what your doing if it's getting the results you want

I’m going to disagree.

Muscle glycogen is the storing of glucose, not the storing of fat that is converted to muscle glycogen. Fat is broken down by lipolysis and then through the beta oxidation phase of the Krebs cycle that can then be broken down further to the end product of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the energy that you use for all movement. So if you don’t get enough glucose to replenish your muscle glycogen stores, you will simply be with less muscle glycogen than before the exercise session.

The burning of calories have more to do with putting your body back in balance then it is about replenishing muscle glycogen (although, replenishing those stores are a part of it).

An example. You do a low intense (in relative terms) exercise session. You then head home, and relax, or cook dinner, etc. The intensity of the session was not that high, so your body doesn’t have to use much energy to get it into the pre-workout state again. Therefore, there’s not much of an after-workout-calorie burn (or Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC)).

Now you do a high intensity workout. Meaning, getting your heart rate up around or even above 85% max at short durations. Afterwards, your body needs to use energy to bring your core temperature back down to normal (so you stop sweating), the nervous system needs repair, your muscle fibers (the fast twitch ones at that) need repair, as well as other functions need to be brought back into balance. Also, after high intensity exercise various hormones are released to help in this repair, one of them being human growth hormone (HGH). This is important (especially for women who tend to release more of it than men do) because HGH is involved in the breakdown of body fat.

So in the end, you may burn around the same amount of calories during both a low and a high intensity exercise session (even though the duration of the sessions will be different), but, with high intensity sessions, you’re going to burn more AFTER the session is over than with low intensity sessions, which in the end is going to result in more net calories burned.

Michael Navin, CSCS

Everyone's bodies are so different that what works for one, won't work for another. I found using a heart rate monitor is what has made a big difference to me. I did intense workouts for 6 days a week and it was too much - I never lost any weight and no one looking at me would be able to tell that I lifted weights. After I had a hysterectomy and had to slowly get back into exercising, I found that I coudn't and didn't want to go back to that same schedule. It was recommended to me that I get an HRM to make sure I was in the fat burning zone - here those six day workouts, I was working out at a higher rate so I wasn't burning fat - hence, the no weight loss. I do think doing one or two interval training workouts during the week is a great thing no matter what type of body you have. I will never go back to the old way again. But that is just my body. I have also found that my body is responding to resistance bands better then it ever did to free weights - although I still do a workout during the week using the weights. I would say if you are NOT losing weight, I would drop the intensity down (it took me months and months though before I saw a difference) and see what happens. Or maybe have lower intensity for half of the workouts and higher the other half. Or mostly lower with one higher intensity. Experiment but give it time.

Rachelle

I thought any exercise was good for you? Everyone is different, i would recommend talking to a trainer at your gym and getting their advice. Cardio is great and essential but if you are looking to tone specific parts of your body maybe you need different exercises from the one you are currently doing. Hope you get the advice you need!

okay ... totally am confused now or maybe I am not

As far as exercise, my given routine is 30 min cardio on treadmil and i usually burn 530 cals after doing that. Since my weight loss in my eyes have been realtively slow I wanted to up it and run for 45 min to 1 hour. Along with that add 30 min of tae bo or 45 min taebo ... If i do this at three different times (three workout session during the day) is that better than doing it in one work session? ...

Love, I think the most important thing is that you find an exercise plan that you will be able to stick to and enjoy. If you enjoy getting it all done at once and have this block of time AND this will not be hard to keep up DO IT. If on the other hand you'd rather break it up because you want to or because it fits your schedule better, DO IT. Sometimes I prefer to do a workout in the morning and then another in the evening. Other times I want to get it over all at once since the cool down and shower experience also takes quite a bit of time. Do what will work for you and be enjoyable. My $0.02.