Dumbells - Yeah, I'm Talking To You

Today it is time to start thinking about exercise. (Did you hear that, I think it was a collective groan). For most of us the thought of exercise is not appealing – at all - in any form – what-so-ever. So, for me at least, it makes sense to understand why you are doing it and to understand what kinds are the most effective. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to exercise, I want to be sure I'm getting everything out of it that I can. I'd be less than pleased to find out I was having no, negative or very little impact on my weight loss because of how I was exercising.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are going to consider two basic types of exercise: aerobic and anaerobic. The difference between the two has to do with the amount of oxygen being delivered to your muscles (of particular concern are the enzymes we talked about yesterday). Just as their name's suggest, aerobic means enough air and anaerobic mean not enough.

Now, right off the top, thinking about yesterday's post, you may say, “OK, great, just tell me what exercises are anaerobic and I'll avoid them like the plague.” After all, who wants the pain that can sometimes go with it and, as we learned yesterday, who wants to be breaking down all those wonderful enzymes that eat carbohydrate, fat, and protein without also building the enzymes back up? Seems counter productive.

Well, don't jump so fast. While those somewhat negative qualities of anaerobic exercise are true, anaerobic exercise (weight lifting, sprinting) also has some big (and I mean BIG) up sides. For starters, it burns more calories than aerobic exercise (at least short-term). It also builds muscles and like I said yesterday, muscles are FANTASTIC fat burners. More muscles will also help you do aerobic exercise for longer periods of time thus enable you to burn more calories for even longer periods of time. It also gets the old metabolism cranking and it stays running at elevated levels for longer than anything else will do for you.

Aerobic exercise (running, swimming, biking, tennis) allows you to burn calories constantly over a longer period of time and if you are doing it at the right level your body will be breaking down fat, carbs and proteins and at the same time rebuilding enzymes (enzyme biosynthesis), so you can keep burning them away!

What does all this mean? Well, do them both. Early in my weight loss, I like to alternate the two. One day building muscles and getting that metabolism to ramp-up for longer periods. The next day I ride my bike or some other aerobic exercise (need to keep changing what you do, more on that in another post) in order to burn more calories over time (it also makes more red blood cells, which care more oxygen, which we know is used in burning carbs, fat and protein as well as helps in enzyme biosynthesis – so we can exercise longer over time and born more calories – sweet!).

Once I am in a little better shape, I like to combine the two. Sometimes this means speed walking with weights and every 10 minutes or so I do as many curls as I can. Or when riding my bike I start every mile with a sprint. You get the picture.

So, get out there and exercise – mix it up – and before you know it, the old metabolism will be working with you, not against you.

I'm taking a day off on the weigh in. But numbers will be posted tomorrow.

Keep at it and let me hear from you!

Break It Down or It's All Geek To Me

Metabolism. It is still just as important in today's post as it was in yesterday's. But today we are adding the consideration of two big .50 cent words, which (when put together) are a key to weight loss as well as a key to staying fit. They are enzyme and biosynthesis. Together they make enzyme biosynthesis.

The great news is that as speciously science-geeky as it sounds, we've already talked about some of the key parts of enzyme biosynthesis. (See now, it gets less scary every time we say it! Say it with me again, “enzyme biosythesis”).

I went out on my first bike ride in 6 months yesterday. I was moving along at about 12 mph (not blazing fast, but probably not the best speed for an overweight guy who hadn't been on a bike for 6 months). About 20 minutes in, my right calf cramped like mad. I stretch and repositioned it over and over trying to get it to stop...but, being determined, I continued to petal away. Then my left calf followed suit. They were awful by the time I made it home, but in minutes after stopping they were completely normal.

Was it lack of muscle fitness that caused my pain? Well, if it were, it probably wouldn't have stop when I stopped. My pain was caused by pushing my body too far too fast.

Back to the science-geek stuff. Metabolism is ramped up by enzyme biosynthesis. In order to make energy (a direct benefit of metabolism) your body has to breaking down molecules (carbs, fats and protiens). In order to do it, it uses enzymes (delicate little tools made by DNA from protein). That process of making enzymes is called.... (you guessed it) enzyme biosynthesis.

Why is it so important? Well, you need enzymes to break down carbs, fats and proteins. But, as I said, enzymes are both PROTIEN and DELICATE! So, it turns out that not only do they break down (as proteins), but they breakdown faster than the others (they are delicate). So, in order to build a body that burns calories well (if you weren't gifted with genes that do it for you), you have to constantly encourage your body to be in the process of enzyme biosynthesis. It is KEY to raising you metabolism.

How do you do it? Eating right and exercise (more importantly the right kinds and amounts of exercise). Which brings us back to my bike ride. My pain was caused by the build up of acid in my muscles. There's a long nerdy explanation that is really needed here which involves pyruvic acid, lactic acid, conversion of oxygen and a few other very uninteresting biological concepts, but it is sufficient to say – I over did it - and while my muscles could keep up, my lungs and heart could not, so I didn't get enough oxygen to my muscle cells. Enzymes need oxygen to do their work. Too little exercise and you don't encourage them enough to do their work – they will let you know about this by not breaking down the fat in your body and you'll find yourself buying bigger and bigger pants. Too intense of exercise and you won't be able to give them enough oxygen to do their work – they will let you know about this by sharp pain and probably a reduced ability to lose weight.

For me, my over doing it (even though I was on target with my calories and protein yesterday) meant that I seriously impeded my body's ability to burn carbs, fat and protein – all the while I was building muscle as I exercised which of course is heavier than fat. Net result, weigh in today – 263. I lost 1 lb. (of course that's the equivalent of 3500 calories, so nothing to complain about).

Tomorrow, more on the exercise\oxygen relationship – aerobic vs. anaerobic exercise. And...let me hear from you! It's easier when we are all in this together!