aerobic Vs. anaerobic

I'm trying to lose 15 lbs my question is on aerobic Vs. anaerobic exercess for my cardio part of my rutine? It seems that for fat lose anaerobic exercess is preferd. When doing aerobic exercess my heart rate is much higher and I burn more calories so why should I slow my heart rate down what is the benifit of burning fewer calories?

oK let's get some definitions straight; I think your grammar might have led me to think you are confused:

AEROBIC: WITH OXYGEN, ie. exercise at moderate heart rate....anything from walking to a moderate jog.

ANAEROBIC: WITHOUT OXYGEN, ie. exercise that puts your heart rate generally above 80% of your max heart rate. This would be anything from jumping stairs, running sprints, or lifting heavy weights for a moderately high number of reps (thinking compound movements esp. squats)

Although aerobic exercise burns primarily fat, anaerobic burns more calories overall. To make the comparison simple, running may burn 200 calories from fat, and 150 calories from other sources. A sprint workout could burn 180 calories from fat, and 270 calories from other sources. The aerobic running burned 60% fat, while the sprinting burned 40% fat. However, the aerobic exercise burned only 350 calories, whereas the sprinting burned 450 calories. I know this isn't the clearest explanation, but it does some justice to making anaerobic exercise better than aerobic for fatloss and muscle building.

Also consider the metabolic effects of anaerobic exercise. It does a better job of elevating GH, Test, and other goodies, bt it also increases what is called "oxygen debt". This is where your body senses that it is not getting its optimal amount of oxygen, so it increases oxygen consumption every-so-slightly for about an hour or so following a workout. This is sometimes referred to as caloric-afterburn...you continue to burn calories following completion of anaerobic exercise. This is not so prevalent with aerobic exercise as it is with anaerobic exercise. So the takehome message:

Do some sprints after a hard weight-lifting workout to maximize fat loss. This will save you time and be better in the long run.

You could also go on and on about how distance running and other low-intensity exercises kill your lung capacity, while sprinting builds a healthy lung capacity and that low intensity exercise will convert FAST-TWITCH (muscle building) fibers into SLOW-TWITCH fibers (which are resistant to hypertrophy) and this process is irreversible. Just read the paragraph above and you will get my point. Good Luck.

Goldmember just curious is that your own words or a copy and paste?

if u wanna lose weight, its basically calories in vs calories out... eat less, burn more, lose fat faster...

eating 500 calories under your maintnance calories is a good start

Personally if I were you and trying to lose 15 lbs I would do a little of both. Cardio is a good way to get your heart rate going and you will burn more fat when resting if you stick with it. I would also do some lifitng to keep tone. Plus, if you are going to lose a lot of weight you will get a lot of loose skin if you don't tone while you are loseing weight.

prince Albert said:

Goldmember just curious is that your own words or a copy and paste?

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lol why is it that good? Yes, I have some background in kinesiology, biochemistry, and physiology.

drew21 said:

Personally if I were you and trying to lose 15 lbs I would do a little of both. Cardio is a good way to get your heart rate going and you will burn more fat when resting if you stick with it. I would also do some lifitng to keep tone. Plus, if you are going to lose a lot of weight you will get a lot of loose skin if you don't tone while you are loseing weight.

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Running sprints is still "cardio", just at a higher intensity. And NO, the body does not burn very much more at rest following low intensity aerobics...the caloric afterburn is due mostly to oxygen debt, which is your body making up for a deficit in oxygen by increasing consumption of it following the deficit. This oxygen debt is MUCH greater following high-intensity anaerobic training.

goldmember said:

lol why is it that good? Yes, I have some background in kinesiology, biochemistry, and physiology.

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lol,looked professionally written.

Yes low intensity training is basically useless. When doing cardio, you should make sure your heart rate is over 130.

drew21 said:

Yes low intensity training is basically useless. When doing cardio, you should make sure your heart rate is over 130.

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No its not,watch any training video of pro bb and they all do very low intensity cardio to cut,walking on a treadmill for 45-60mins might burn say 500cals,if you are eating below maintenance cals,then you are going to burn bodyfat.

Low intensity cardio might not be the most effective form of cardio to do but it still gets the job done.

I think pro bb mostly do this for cardiovascular conditioning, not to "lose fat" although i know bein in good cardiovascualr condition will help with losing fat when training. Lifting heavy weights is going to burn alot more fat than any kind of low intensity cardio.

hoffy200 said:

I think pro bb mostly do this for cardiovascular conditioning, not to "lose fat" although i know bein in good cardiovascualr condition will help with losing fat when training. Lifting heavy weights is going to burn alot more fat than any kind of low intensity cardio.

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Well, I hate to say it (actually I don't care) but pro bodybuilders are NOT in good cardiovascular shape. Most of them are on so much test that their blood lipid profiles are horrible. Also, by all the weight training they do in the 8-12 rep reange, they have mostly type IIa muscle fibers, opposed to type IIb or type I. The latter two have endurance energy, while the former is mostly for short bursts. Walking will give you very little "cardiovascular conditioning" and to tell you the truth, most of these steroid monsters can't even run a mile without huffing and puffing like the fat lady we all threw donuts at in the high school cafeteria.

But you are right about hard weight training: it will do more for you then will walking. I say do some weight training (and do it hard!) but also do some high-intensity cardio as well. Have you ever seen a scrawny olympic track star? How about a skinny marathon runner? You get the point.

hoffy200 said:

I think pro bb mostly do this for cardiovascular conditioning, not to "lose fat" although i know bein in good cardiovascualr condition will help with losing fat when training. Lifting heavy weights is going to burn alot more fat than any kind of low intensity cardio.

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Competitive bbs have shite cardiovascular conditioning in general,they do low intensity cardio 45mins-60mins often twice a day to get cut for a show.That is not my opinion but a well known fact.

Hey Draco, another thing to throw in the mix is this: You want to lose 15 lbs, and we all asume it's bodyfat you mean. Who wants to lose muscle or bone mass, huh? So you might want to do a little deeper research into body composition. It would be really easy to stay at your present WEIGHT while losing considerable amounts of FAT. Consider that you may lose those 15 lbs of fat while you put on 20 lbs of muscle; a net GAIN of 5 lbs...but a damn good gain of 5 lbs I would wager.
Don't focus so much on what the scale tells you, thats just a damn number that tells you how hard the Earth's tryin' to suck you down to the core. Look instead at what you're more and more physically capable of, how your clothes fit, how well you recover from exertion.

THanks for all the help guys

Goldmember
so would you find that doing 3-5 20 min HIGH intensity interval cardio/cycling/sprints
more effective in fat loss and muscle gain than doing 5-6 45 Min Medium intensity
cardio?

This belief is strongly believed by the Philips Brothers (Bill and Shawn)

I would say yes. I've trained for 2 years only, but heck, high intensity running gave me better results than medium ones. I use to say that if I am not nearly dead at the end, of a 20 mins run, then i didnt do it right...

That might be overkill, but that's how I like it :hammering: