Does Your Workout Regimen Burn Fat Or Build Muscle?

When we exercise we temporarily increase our metabolism, burning more calories. When our cells have oxygen available we can burn fat. This is referred to as aerobic exercise. But when the exercise workload exceeds the ability to deliver oxygen, our body makes energy anaerobically (without oxygen). This conserves fat, but builds muscle.

I’ve seen quite a few patients over the years who want to lose weight and exercise too hard to burn fat. Many have said, “But, I go to an aerobics class.” Unfortunately, this can be a little confusing because the class exercises can cause anaerobic or aerobic function depending upon how vigorously they’re performed.

The prototypical anaerobic exercise is weightlifting with heavy weights. This requires short bursts of energy of maximum output. The man pictured below is very, very strong but his body carries excess weight around the middle.



The prototypical aerobic exercise is marathon running which is a sub-maximal output for much longer periods of time.



The good news is that you can modify your exercise routine to shape your body. More to come....