 By David Otto
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Cardiovascular Exercise: What Is It Really As It Relates To Fat Loss???When I bring up this question to people seeking fat loss the usual response is "that thing you do in the class with the step" or "it's what you do on a cardio machine." You know what, they're absolutely right but those are extreme over generalizations for something that millions of people unfortunately have a very small understanding of and in this day and age how to incorporate it into a synergistic fat loss program.
Before you hop on that treadmill, bicycle, elliptical or perform any other type of cardiovascular exercise there's a few things you need to know and a couple misconceptions that need some clearing up so that you wont wind up frustrated when the body you want to get into fails to smile back at you in the mirror.
I think it's fair to say that most of us know what the word "cardiovascular" means but first we need to clarify another related term and that's the word "aerobic." Again, another term most people associate with "that thing you do in the class" but all it simply means is with oxygen. Simple right? So when your body is in an aerobic physiological state it is simply meeting the oxygen demand of the working muscles, organs and other bodily functions. Here's a simple example: jogging for an extended period of time. When you begin jogging the working muscles call up to the heart and lungs and say "hey guys, send some more oxygen down here so we can keep going." The heart begins to beat faster and your breathing rate increases so it can meet the oxygen demand of the working muscles so you're able to keep going for an extended period of time. Are you with me still? Good.
Here's the first important part: when your body is in an aerobic state it's capable of burning two sources of fuel; sugar and/ or fat. Too many people view aerobic exercise (a.k.a. cardio) as "fat burning exercise" and that leads many people down a broken path which I'll get to later. The fact of the matter is that aerobic exercise merely has "the potential" to burn fat pending you've put your body in a state to do so through Supportive Nutrition. Let's go ahead and re-adjust your thinking and view aerobic/ cardiovascular exercise as a means to strengthen the heart and lungs with the added benefit of "potentially" burning fat. With a more efficient circulatory system the body is now better at moving released body fat through the blood stream and then to the muscles to be burned. I know, I know, it doesn't sound quite as flashy as "melt a ton of fat by doing this hot cardio routine" but a few important variables such as stabilizing blood sugar must be in place to maximize aerobic exercise's fat burning potential.
Here's the truth: you are capable of burning fat anytime you are in an aerobic physiological state like right now while sitting at your computer reading this. So right now your body is meeting the demand for oxygen. One of the main keys to fat burning is putting your body in state to through the right nutrition. Aerobic exercise is only a piece of the puzzle albeit a necessary piece. That necessary piece could have you doing anything you like that will allow you to move major muscle groups in a rhythmic fashion and elevate the heart rate for an extended period of time. It's really that simple.
When you are performing aerobic exercise the body can use many sources of fuel within that realm of sugar and/ or fat I mentioned earlier. Let's say you have a meal one to two hours prior to exercising and you decide that you are only going to perform aerobic exercise with the goal being fat loss. Your body can burn glucose in the blood stream that is present from the recent meal you ate. It can burn dietary fat or anything that is in the digestive tract from the previous meal, and stored glycogen before it may even get to stored body fat. Another source of fuel the body can go to is muscle protein in which it will break apart muscle tissue so that it can make glucose to feed the working muscles. Muscle protein is what you definitely DO NOT want the body to burn because muscle is what can be called "the fat burning furnace." If you lose muscle you are slowly crippling your body's ability to release and burn fat effectively. If you do aerobic exercise beyond your body's momentary willingness to supply fuel from those sources I mentioned above and the exercise places demands on your body that are not nutritionally supported (i.e. dieting) then your body will feed off of muscle tissue. It does this by deriving the branched chain amino acids (BCAA's) which can be used by the body to make glucose which can further fuel the body. THIS IS WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT!
I could easily go on and on but the purpose of this article was to give you a brief understanding of what aerobic/ cardiovascular exercise is as it pertains to how it can play an integral role in fat loss, not "how much" or "what to do" at this point. There first has to be a "why" before you can find the "how" and that my friend leads to empowerment and control over the way you look and feel. Disclaimer:
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