HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss. Tip No.8– Exercise; Part 3

The number of exercise sessions you perform per week is essential. It’s been shown time and time again that the frequency of your exercise is a major factor in fat loss. One representative study observed that exercising five times per week stimulated three times the fat loss than a three times per week protocol, even though the total time was more in the three times per week group. The group that exercised only once per week lost no fat at all.

For fat loss, five weekly workouts of 30 minutes per day is superior to three sessions of 60 minutes, even though the three session protocol in total is half an hour longer.

One of the reasons it works is this. Exercise alters your physiological state hugely, so that food taken in after exercise is processed and partitioned more advantageously, than if exercise had not been performed.

A simple way to think of it is as follows. When you wake up your metabolism is going at a snails pace. If you do no exercise, your metabolism will stay low throughout the day and you’ll essentially be on maximum calorie retention for anything you eat. If however, upon waking, you perform a basic exercise session, your metabolism is elevated almost immediately, and will stay this way for most of the day. You will then be on minimal calorie retention from the food you eat.

Frequent exercise is key.

‘Get your motor running, head out on the highway. Looking for adventure in whatever comes our way.’ ~ Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild (1969)