[Lisacat]

Greetings all! I joined lately. just saw that I can introduce myself here. I've done lot's of reading and working hard. Got questions and maybe some answers.

I posted lately on thread here but never got a reply. I wonder if I did anything wrong or am I missing something?
Will appreciate any advice.

Cheers,

Lisa

[bargoo]

Welcome and good luck. What are your questions that you want answered ?

[kelly315]

Sometimes threads just get overlooked, but people tend to get back to them later. It could have to do with the time of day you posted or the wording of your questions. If the question seems like a tough one, then maybe people avoided answering it vs. writing down bad advice? You can tell that's the case if you got a lot of "views" but few replies.

So what questions did you have?

[Lisacat]

Kelly and bargoo, your are great! make me smile again. Maybe my question was hard after all, but I think it's not something to take as obvious.

as I'm new here so I can't even give a link inside the forum... but the title was: Top Ten Exercise Myths

"3. You burn more fat by exercising longer at a lower intensity – the myth of the ’fat-burning zone’.
No, we burn a higher percentage of fat as a fuel source when working at lower intensities, but we burn more total calories when exercising at higher intensities. At the end of the day, it’s calories in versus calories out that matters."

This is very confusing for me. If we burn more fat percentage isn't it what we're looking for? I thought calories are food we just ate recently, but I want to burn excess fat! so maybe this sentence is correct only to some of us?

[Lovely]

Welcome to 3FC!

No. Calories are EVERYTHING.

Here's how it goes:

We eat food. If we eat too much food, our bodies grab it up and store it on our bodies as fat.

If we eat just enough food, we maintain the weight that we are at, including any fat that is stored on our bodies.

If we LOWER our calorie intake the body then starts to use up the stored fat as a fuel source.

So. It's calories in. Calories out. You simply eat less than you are expending and your body will burn through excess fat as a way to get the energy it needs.

No need to worry about that fat burning zone blah blah blah. Any exercise contributes to burning more calories.

[bargoo]

I like Lovelys explanation. Sometimes the simplest answer is best.

[Loli]

Trainers seem to differ on this topic. But, when it comes to weight loss, calories are everything.

However, when it comes to fat vs. muscle, it's a different story. You can lose weight, but you can also lose muscle while doing so.

If you're someone who doesn't want to lose weight, but wants to lose fat and gain muscle. I think that focusing on strength training and doing cardio that keeps you in your fat burning zone is a good way to go. I would also throw in a couple of HIIT 20 minute workouts, twice a week. This is also good for your heart. I would also keep my calories at a maintenance level.

It really depends on your primary goal. My primary goal is to lose weight but maintain the muscle I have. This is hard to do. So, I try to keep my cardio workouts in my fat burning zone and I do a lot of strength training while keeping an eye on my caloric and protein intake.

Most people on this board on focused on their weight. So, calorie counting works for everyone with this goal.

[Lisacat]

Lovely explanation indeed! but Loli, you seemed to capture what I was looking for and what I read in many places.
I train hard on muscles and doing long aerobic sessions. For that I need higher calorie intake, I tried to take off and felt no energies. Doing longer aerobic sessions helps me burn that fat but keeps my energies after the power training.

Lovely and Loli, thanks for making it clearer!

Lisa