Your body obeys the laws of thermodynamics. You can't create or destroy energy, it's just transferred from one form into another.
The harder you work the more energy you use.
Through the use of technology, it's possible to approximate the amount of energy you expend during a period of time.It's also possible to calculate the amount of fat utilized during a session.
The most accurate method is by direct air analysis, performed in a laboratory. This analyzes the air you inhale and exhale and looks at the difference in composition to determine both the amount of energy and the energy source you are using. However this is cumbersome, expensive and impractical on an ongoing basis.
In the gym we can use a heart rate monitor to get much the same result.
By using special monitors, it's possible to determine both the amount of energy you've used in a session and the percentage of that energy that has been derived from fat sources.
Many people mistakenly believe that the harder they work the more fat they use. This is not neccessaily the case. The harder you work the more energy you will use. (Another Law of thermodynamics!)
Primarily the body uses a mixture of carbohydrate and fat through which to derive energy. This mixture changes according to the demands placed on it, and is influenced by your fitness, the difficulty and duration of the exercise and many other direct and indirect factors.
Your body will always use a mix of both carbohydrate and fat sources. Different demands effect the amount of energy being derived from these sources.
At higher exercise intensities your body tends to use a greater proportion of carbohydrate.
At lower exercise intensities your body tends to use a higher proportion of fat.
The amount of fat you use is calculated by multiplying the energy used by the percentage of that energy derived from fat.
From our example. there was a 41% difference in the amount of fat used.
But from the example, the session that used less energy used the most fat!
Remember, in calculating fat use, it's not the total amount of energy used, but the product (multiplication) of energy used and the amount derived from fat sources.
Unfortunately, the total fat used in a particular session is not usually great (Laws of thermodynamics again!) so we need to accumulate fat loss over a significant period to lose amounts of fat that are noticable.
***For more posts relating to fat loss see fat loss articles)***
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Regards Kym
