Fat-Burning Tips Inside and Outside the Weight Room This Holiday Season

By Jim Carpentier, CSCS

Imagine attending an upcoming holiday party surrounded by tempting high-calorie appetizers, beverages and desserts while simultaneously watching a quarterback on TV scrambling amidst opposing linebackers.

Like the quarterback feeling pressure and getting sacked, athletes and non-athletes may find it hard dodging irresistible party fare and getting sacked with unwanted post-holiday pounds and additional body fat.

This article provides a fat-burning game plan (inside and outside the weight room) with tips even if you periodically overindulge.  And beware:  Additional pounds and body fat hinder health and sports performance, with excess body fat linked to heart disease, diabetes and cancer while also slowing you down on the field, court, or ice.

Fat-Blasting Workout Strategy

• Boost Metabolism with Higher- Intensity Workouts. Doug McGuff, M.D. and John Little, authors of Body by Science (2009, McGraw-Hill), say that “high-intensity exercise is invaluable in the fat-loss process by helping to control insulin levels in the body…In addition, high-intensity exercise burns a respectable amount of calories during a workout and continues to burn calories, at an elevated rate, for hours afterward.”1

Examples of intensifying workouts for building lean muscle and thereby burning more fat and expending calories:

• Switch from doing seated or supine exercises to performing more multi-joint standing movements which optimally require more energy and engage the core muscles (e.g. Deadlifts, Barbell Squats, Step-Ups, Bent-Over Rows, Upright Rows, and Lunges).
• Incorporate more challenging single-leg exercises (e.g. single-leg Squats, single-leg dumbbell Cross-Rows, Planks with one foot off floor) that also more actively stimulate core muscles. Bonus:  Single-leg movements improve balance for sports and daily activities.
• ‘No huddle’ fat-loss offense: Take shorter rests between sets or perform supersets to enhance training and raise metabolism (which also make workouts more time-efficient, productive and boost sports endurance).
• Perform more full-body exercises simultaneously involving the lower and upper body for adding more muscle and stripping excess fat (e.g. Squat and Overhead Press combo, Power Cleans, Upright Row and Lunge combo, Side Lunge and Med Ball Press-Out combo).
• Do isometric hold reps. On the last rep of each exercise, hold for several seconds (e.g. pulling yourself up to the top position of Inverted Rows and tensing the biceps while holding for 10 or more seconds; or lowering into the bottom position of Wall Squats and feel the leg muscles shake while holding for several seconds).
• Explosive reps. Instead of doing regular Push-Ups or bodyweight Squats, for example, raise your metabolism further by performing explosive Push-Ups, Jump Squats, Squat Thrusts, and Burpees.
• Negative reps. Change the standard rep tempo by implementing negative reps (e.g. taking 10-15 seconds to slowly descend into a Squat position; slowly lowering in 15 seconds from the top position of a Pull-Up to ground level).

Keeping the Fat-Burning Clock Running Outside the Weight Room

• Chill Out Exercising Outdoors. If the weight room is inaccessible during the holidays, here’s your option play: Head to a park or field and get double fat-blasting benefits working out outside in the great outdoors – especially in colder conditions and in sunlight.  Here’s why:  Sunlight provides testosterone muscle-building and fat-burning vitamin D.  A University of Minnesota study indicated that not only vitamin D helped fat loss throughout the body, but especially around the waistline (belly fat) since the vitamin works with calcium to lower the production of the stress hormone cortisol that contributes to storing fat around the stomach.  The study also showed that higher baseline vitamin D levels predicted greater loss of abdominal fat.2

     As for exercising in cold or cooler temperatures and burning fat, Takeshi Yoneshiro, a researcher at Japan’s Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, says that exposure to cold seems to increase the number and activity of so-called ‘brown’ fat cells, which burn energy, rather than store it as typical ‘white’ fat cells do.3

Experience a terrific bodyweight-only outdoor workout sprinting up and down stadium bleachers or steep hills; doing several sets of Pull-Ups on playground bars; or performing elevated Push-Ups off park benches or bleachers, for instance.

• Sleep away fat. Regularly getting the recommended 8 to 9 hours of quality sleep each night not only aids recovery from sports practices and workouts, but also promotes fat loss by preserving lean muscle.  According to the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers compared a group that averaged 8.5 hours of nightly sleep and another group averaging 5.5 hours nightly.  “After two weeks, the people who slept more lost more fat than the group who slept less…the folks who slept less lost more muscle…those three hours of lost sleep caused a shift in metabolism that made the body want to preserve fat at the expense of muscle.”4
• Walk it off. A multi-course holiday meal can take hours to digest and thereby retard fat-burning metabolism.  Clutch play:  Stand up between courses and walk around rather than sit for long periods.  And continue moving about after the last course to elevate metabolism.

The Nutritional Fat-Burning Route

• Avoid holiday punch and soda and sip cold water instead. Besides its key hydrating role, water – specifically cold water – is a powerful fat-melting player.  Ellington Darden, PhD, author of The Body Fat Breakthrough (2014, Rodale Inc.), says “When you drink chilled water (about 40 degrees F), your system has to heat the fluid to a core body temperature of 98.6 degrees F.  This process requires almost 1 calorie to warm each ounce of cold water to body temperature.”  Darden recommends consuming a gallon (128 ounces) of ice-cold water daily for hydration and fat-burning.5   Consuming cold water throughout the day also helps keep you fuller so you’re less likely to overeat.
• Don’t skip breakfast! Your body’s in a fasting state overnight so the best way to rev up fat-blasting metabolism for the day ahead is starting with a nutrient-dense breakfast (e.g. a few glasses of cold water, fruit, eggs, milk or yogurt, and whole grain cereal).
• Don’t ‘save your appetite’ for the big holiday meal! Starving yourself for hours before the holiday meal is like being stopped at the line of scrimmage for no gain.   Your body’s fat-burning metabolism and optimal blood sugar level for maintaining mental and physical energy, and recovering from sports and exercise and building muscle/losing fat are contingent on the consumption of small and frequent nutritious meals (comprising protein and carbohydrates such as nuts and fruit) and beverages (cold water) every 2-3 hours throughout the day.  Saving your appetite for several hours and skipping meals means you’ll be more likely to overeat later in the day.    Heed what registered dietitian Susan M. Kleiner, PhD, RD, author of Powerfood Nutrition Plan (2005, Rodale, Inc.), says:  “The successful athletes I’ve worked with never go anywhere without taking some food along with them…These athletes pay attention to what they eat and when they eat, and they never risk missing a meal.  That meal, they know, may be the one that makes the difference between recovering adequately between workouts or not recovering at all.”6
• Portion control. Fill your plate with small portions rather than mounds of meat, potatoes or pasta, for example.  And take your time eating by thoroughly chewing food.  Rest 5 or 10 minutes and then if you want seconds, opt for water-based and less-caloric veggies or fruit in addition to a few slices of lean meat, fish or poultry, for example.

References

1. Doug McGuff, M.D. and John Little. Body by Science.  2009, McGraw-Hill.  195-196.
2. Science Daily. June 12, 2009. “Successful Weight Loss With Dieting Is Linked To Vitamin D Levels.”
3. Journal of Clinical Investigation. August 1, 2013.  “Recruited Brown Adipose Tissue As An Antiobesity Agent In Humans.”
4. Annals of Internal Medicine. October 1, 2010.  “Insufficient Sleep Undermines Dietary Efforts to Reduce Adiposity.”
5. Ellington Darden, PhD. The Body Fat Breakthrough.”  2014, Rodale Inc.  189, 191.
6. Susan M. Kleiner, PhD, R.D. Powerfood Nutrition Plan.  2005, Rodale Inc.  187.

Jim Carpentier, CSCS, is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, New Jersey-licensed massage therapist, and a health/fitness writer.  He currently serves as associate health and wellness director at the Greater Morristown YMCA in Cedar Knolls, N.J.