Ask the Doctors | May 2005

Ask the Doctors
By Drs. Jeff, Craig and Marissa

Question: I've heard conflicting information with respect to which form of exercise is the best for fat burning. Do you have an answer?

Answer: We are glad that you asked this question. It is a well known fact that the weight loss industry has highly promoted aerobic exercise as the best way to lose weight. Their theory is that the harder and longer you work aerobically, the more fat you'll burn. This is absolutely wrong!

Yes, aerobic exercise is great for your cardiovascular system. However, moderate to high intensity aerobic exercises like running, rowing, cycling, and aerobics classes can cause the stripping of muscles, almost as much as they contribute to the stripping of fat (Dr. M. Colgan, Chronicles,1995). Hopefully, you've already learned from our past articles that muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in your body; in fact, one pound of muscle has the capability of burning 50 calories at rest! Muscle is the engine in which body fat is burned!

By far, our best recommendation for fat burning is high-repetition resistance training. The key is to work on building every muscle throughout the body, to improve the efficiency of that fat burning engine. According to the Medical Science Sports Exercise Journal, in 1985 (17: 466-471) Pavlou provided conclusive evidence that resistance exercise yields an increase in fat burning, by not only maintaining muscle mass, but actually increasing muscle, thereby providing more muscle cells in which fat will be burned. Over the last 20 years, numerous studies have shown that resistance exercise raises your metabolic rate, not only while you are exercising, but for up to 18 hours afterwards (Brit J Clin Pract 1987; 41:684-688).

With all this said, the key to maximize fat burning is to include in your workout regimen a high-repetition resistance training program. Furthermore, research has found that to optimize your fat-burning potential, the repetitions should be greater then 20 reps, which will build more muscle and burn more fat!

Guess what? The Curves program provides exactly what you need to maximize weight loss and fat burning! So keep up the good work!