The best way to train for fat loss
So - you’ve decided that you want to go into a fat loss phase – YAY! Exciting! You know that you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat (or if you don’t, go back to my homepage and get the free resource “Fundamentals of Fatloss”). Now you’ve worked out your daily deficit calories, you’re ready and raring to start meal prepping!
But what type of workout will give you the biggest bang for your fat loss buck? Let’s dive in…
A LITTLE BIT OF RELEVANT SCIENCE – THE WAY OUR BODY BURNS CALORIES:
BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate: This is our metabolism. Our BMR is how many calories our body burns just to perform its most basic functions. This is how many calories your body burns if you were to lay in bed all day not moving. This usually equals 60% of all calories burnt.
NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis: This is all activity other than sleeping and exercise. Think movements like walking, using our arms & legs, blinking etc. This usually makes up 30% of all calories burnt.
EAT – Exercise Activity Thermogenesis: Your planned exercise time. This typically is 10% of all calories burnt.
SO HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?
We can’t do a lot about our BMR in the short term. A long-term method to increase how many calories our BMR burns is to increase how much muscle mass we carry on our bodies, which comes from long term strength training and a calorie surplus. But that is a LOOOONG process, so, for now, let’s just focus on NEAT & EAT.
I recommend to ALL of my clients to increase their NEAT during a fat loss phase. The easiest way to increase your NEAT is to increase how many steps you are doing each day. I recommend no less than 8,000 steps 7 days per week, which you can easily track with an activity tracker watch (you don’t need a fancy one, just a basic one to track steps is definitely enough). Also, be aware that the longer we stay in a calorie deficit, the more our body will downregulate how much NEAT we subconsciously do. So staying focused on staying active during times outside of our workouts will be vital to successful fat loss.
Next, we need to increase our EAT or calories burnt during our exercise sessions. Did you know that resistance/weight training has been found to burn a similar number of calories in-session as a cardio session of the same duration? AND due to the EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) effect, our bodies continue to burn calories for 24-48hrs post session?
SO WHAT’S GOING TO GET YOU THE BEST RESULTS FOR FAT LOSS IF COMBINED WITH A REASONABLE & CONSISTENT CALORIE DEFICIT?
During a fat loss phase, for best results I’d recommend:
4 days strength training per week comprising of either 4 full body days or 2 lower-body focused days and 1 upper body day and 1 full body day.
Each session has at least 6-8 movements comprising of 70% compound movements (compound movements are those which engage more than 1 muscle group - think the numerous variations of each of these movements: squats, deadlifts, chest press/bench press, shoulder press, lunges, dips, pushups, pull-ups etc)
3-5 sets per exercise with moderate-high reps per set (12-20 reps per set)
Short rest periods (no more than 45 seconds)
Always challenging ourselves to lift as heavy as we can while maintaining excellent form
Increasing our NEAT – at least 8,000 steps per day (every day, 7 days per week)
An OPTIONAL 1 day per week “Conditioning” HIIT style workout, if your body is fatigued from lifting but you still want to workout 5 days per week.
So there you have it. Consistent calorie deficit + strength training + walking more = GREAT fat loss results!
Do you need some help creating a personalised fat loss plan for YOU and YOUR life/schedule/family life, feel free to email me kate@katelambertfitness.com
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram
and join my FREE Lifted Ladies Facebook group