Burning Fat Instead of MuscleWhen you exercise, you do so in the hopes that you will burn calories and fat and lose weight. Whether your body stores fat in your waist, thighs, hips or rear - your goal when you work out is to chisel away that fat and expose the underlying muscle. But what if your work out causes you to burn muscle instead of fat? When you work out, your body has to get fuel in order to fulfill your brain's request to run, walk, swim or jog. Overweight people have stored glucose in the form of fat cells. When an overweight person exercises, the body goes first to the fuel in recently ingested food and then to these stored fat cells and converts them to energy. The body then uses this energy to complete the work out. This allows the exerciser to burn fat and lose weight. Following surgical weight loss, the amount of energy available from meals is reduced because the meals you eat are smaller. Sometimes your body reacts to this by thinking it is deprived of food and may start to look for another energy source such as lean muscle tissue so that it can conserve its fat stores. Now, instead of burning fat, you are burning muscle. To prevent your body going into 'starvation' mode and turning to muscle tissue for energy, you will need to increase the amount of protein in your diet following weight loss surgery and start your exercise program as soon as you can. Most weight loss surgery patients can begin walking the day after their procedure and then gradually work up to a more intense workout. Increasing your activity sends a message to your body that you are going to need lean muscle to exercise with. Adequate protein in the diet gives your body enough protein to maintain muscle mass and allow it to turn to fat burning for its energy requirements. |
SearchMost RecentCategoriesArchive |
|