While visceral fat burns easily with anaerobic exercise, aerobic exercise doesn’t seem to have much effect on it at all.

Aerobic Has Little Effect on Losing Visceral Fat

When it comes to weight loss and how our clothes fit, most of us are concerned with belly fat – you know, that “muffin top”, “beer belly”, or “jelly belly”.

You know by now that what we eat and drink, how much we eat, and how often we eat, are the primary factors in determining fat loss and fat gain, but exercise does matter.

But when we think of exercise it’s most often aerobic exercise that we have in mind.

Did you know that your weight loss will be more successful if you do anaerobic exercise ( Interval training ) rather than aerobic exercise?

Aerobic exercise is when you exercise at a moderate rate for a sustained period of time (like jogging, cardio machines, running, cross country skiing, and spinning). And Aerobic exercise has little effect on visceral fat.

Our bodies are composed of subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.

Visceral fat or Belly Fat is what we want you to be losing here at BonVie Weight Loss, and that visceral fat gets burned most effectively with anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic (sometimes called glycolic or glycogen-depleting) happens with alternating short bursts of intense exercise with longer stretches of milder exercise.

In fact, studies comparing the two types of exercise have found that interval training increases the presence of fat-burning enzymes and can boost fat loss by up to nine times compared to Aerobic exercise.

How do you do interval training?

It’s easy! If you’re already walking, jogging or biking simply include short intervals of high-intensity effort. For example, instead of walking at the same pace for 30 minutes (aerobic), try walking at your normal pace for 5 -6 minutes, then do an aggressive speed for 2½ to 3 minutes, then back to the normal pace and repeat. The high-intensity phase should last about half as long as the slower “resting” phase.

Research shows the proof

One study with a group of 30 untreated individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes was divided into three groups. The control group didn’t perform any targeted exercise. The second group walked at a continuous pace for one hour five times a week, and the final group walked briskly for three minutes then slowly for three minutes and repeated that process for one hour five times a week. The study lasted four months.

The interval walkers had a 20 percent improvement in control of blood sugar, and both their hemoglobin A1C levels and cholesterol levels dropped. The steady-paced walkers saw no improvement at all.

In fact, studies have found that Interval training increases the presence of fat-burning enzymes and can boost fat loss by up to nine times compared to Aerobic exercise.

When exercise intensity increases, muscles begin to produce energy through anaerobic metabolism. Sugar, stored as glycogen in muscles, is burned as energy. Anaerobic exercise also triggers the release of growth hormone and produces waste molecules and lactic acid that progressively impair muscle contraction and reduce blood pH, resulting in fatigue. Although training can improve your body’s ability to deal with higher levels of lactic acid, anaerobic exercise can only be performed for short periods of time, compared to aerobic exercise.

"Sumo Style"

We think of Sumo wrestlers as FAT right? But typically, they have very little visceral fat. Almost all their fat is subcutaneous. They also have a lot of muscle mass. They maintain this large total-fat to visceral-fat ratio by:

1. intense anaerobic exercise alternated with periods of rest (that’s interval training)

2. they consume calorie-dense foods, and

3. they exercise in a fasted state in the mornings prior to eating a large breakfast. Morning exercise prior to eating makes their bodies quickly deplete any carbohydrate reserves, and then start converting glycogen stores, then fatty tissue, into energy.

These training and eating habits allow Sumo wrestlers to consume high amounts of carbohydrates, yet have low levels of visceral fat and typically no problems with high blood sugar, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease.

Since most of you are not Sumo Wrestlers, at BonVie we want you to eat first thing in the morning to break the “fasting” mode that can slow metabolism. And, we want that to be protein so that you can use fat as your primary fuel during exertion.

As far as exercise goes, if you want to target visceral fat, go for Interval Training.

Fat Loss not Wrestling

Since most of you are not Sumo Wrestlers, at BonVie we want you to eat first thing in the morning to break the “fasting” mode that can slow metabolism. And, we want that first meal to have some protein so that you can use fat as your primary fuel during exertion.

As far as exercise goes, if you want to target visceral fat, go for Interval Training.