Q&A for: 22-Aug-05
401. Q:
how do i lose my man boobs
A:
Please read this.
402. Q:
I walk on a treadmill daily and for example, I burn about 300 calories and 90 fat calories in a 30 minute period. What is the difference in regular calories and fat calories? Or do I combine both numbers for total calories burned? Thanks for your help.
A:
I think most treadmills already count the 90 in the 300, so you only need to look at 300. BUT you should know that the 'fat calorie' count is completely meaningless and even the total calorie count is a two-edged sword.
The fat calorie count is supposed to show you how many calories are burned using the energy from your muscles' fat stores. Even assuming that number is correct, it's meaningless because your muscles' fat stores do not function in isolation from the rest of your body and most certainly do not have a direct one-to-one relationship to your body fat levels. If you use the energy from the fat stores, then you have more energy left in glycogen stores (i.e. 'carb' stores) so you have less incentive to burn fat in the future. Any claim that an exercise 'targets' only your fat or a only specific area of the body (such as waist) is false.
The best analogy I can offer is how your taxes are 'burned' to educate your kids. Does every school tax dollar you contribute goes towards educating ONLY your kids? No, of course not! The tax revenue distribution system is far more complicated than that. However in the end, your kids and all the other kids do get their fair (or not so fair :) chunk of the education money. Similarly, does every other calorie (or 90 out of 300 or whatever) burned directly decrease fat levels? No, absolutely not. Your fat levels may well decrease in the long run, but the reasons for that decrease are far more complicated than what your treadmill tries to tell you.
Now, why did I say the total calorie count is a two-edged sword. Again, because people fall into a mistake of assuming that every calorie burned comes from fat. This is also wrong and understanding why it's wrong should reinforce even more the ridiculousness of the 'fat calorie' estimation. If you are losing weight (and most people doing cardio are in fact trying to lose weight), then your body will burn BOTH your body fat and body muscle tissue for calories. Your body's fat is the natural energy store meant for this very situation -- o making up the energy that's missing in the food intake. However your muscles can ALSO be burned for energy and from your body's point of view muscles may be the more desirable fuel because by burning the active metabolic muscle tissue your body not only gets some energy right away but also LOWERS its future energy demands. This is because muscle tissue requires energy just to maintain itself. So, less muscle tissue means less energy needed to maintain the body means less food needed. This way your body responds to your cutting the food intake by cutting unessential energy consumer in muscle tissue.
Why is losing muscle tissue bad? Well, for one if your body burns muscle tissue for some number of calories it means it's not burning fat for those same calories. But a much worse problem is that your muscle tissue metabolism is BY FAR your best friend in losing fat. So as you burn muscle tissue for energy, you're losing more and more of your fat-burning potential. Furthermore you're lowering your metabolism which makes you more vulnerable to future fat gains. And on top of all that, you become weaker and lose muscle tone.
So now hopefully you see why all those calories burned during cardio may be a two-edged sword. Does it mean cardio is evil? NO! Cardio is absolutely great for your health! But it is not the great fat-burner it's advertised to be, especially if you don't have that much fat to lose in the first place. A much more effective approach is to focus on a good diet and a good weighttraining program and only supplement those with moderate amounts of cardio. You can read this article to learn how to put together a good complete fat-loss program.
405. Q:
In order to gain muscles to u need to eat a lot of meat?Cant u take the proteins u need from other foods?Iam a vegeterian.Does this mean i cannot get muscles?
A:
No, you can be a vegetarian and even vegan and still be quite successful in building muscle. The biggest trick will be getting enough protein as part of your diet (at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily).
If you eat dairy, you could add cottage cheese and/or whey protein powder (which is a by-product of cottage cheese manufaturing process). Both of them are very high-quality protein foods. Cottage cheese is between 60 and 80% pure protein (depending on its fat content) and whey powder is 80-90% pure protein.
If you eat eggs, you can have whole eggs (about 40/60 protein and fat, but egg fats are actually quite healthy when not deep-fried in oil) or egg whites which are pure protein.
Even if you're vegan, you can still make sure you get enough protein by eating lots of legumes -- beans, lentils, soy and soy products. Many leafy green veggies are quite high in protein as well (spinach, for example) but they're so light in calories overall that you'd need a ton of them to get enough protein from them alone. Nuts also have a good chunk of protein, but they are also extremely high in fats which means you can't rely on nuts alone for the protein -- you'd end up consuming far too much fat.
So you just need to be more selective about what you eat and make sure that you get enough protein in each meal whether it comes from whey powder, cottage cheese, eggs, lentils, beans, soy, or other foods. It can most certainly be done!
407. Q:
Q 402: A treadmill wont take into account the lean body mass of a person when calculating the number of calories burned/hour.
A:
That is also correct. The 'calories burned' number given to you by the treadmill is, at best, a very very rough estimate. And the 'fat calories burned' number is basically completely meaningless as I explained earlier.
408. Q:
DOES GREEN TEA HELP YOU LOSE BELLY FAT AND BULGES?
A:
Green tea is a very healthy soothing drink which is certainly hundred times better than soft drinks or juices or most other beverages. However by itself it will do next to nothing as far as helping you lose belly fat. Please read this article to learn the most effective way to lose belly fat.
409. Q:
iam thin but i have luv handles and a belly how do i get ride of it....
A:
Please read this article and Q&A #359 to learn what lean people can do get rid of the stubborn belly fat.
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