Aidan
00:00:06 – 00:00:41
Hello and welcome back to the ideal nutrition podcast. This is Episode 26 today myself and my co host, Leah, are going to be talking about why fat burning does not equal fat loss, why they are separate things and why you should really care about that. And I suppose the simplest way of thinking about why you should care about this is because if you ever hear somebody talking about fat burning, it’s important to differentiate between the two particularly.
Aidan
00:00:41 – 00:01:25
It’s like a supplement, etc. If you’re paying for something or whatever it is, it is kind of useful to know that they are separate concepts, so most people will think about them as being interchangeable. They’ll think fat burning is interchangeable with fat loss, to be quite specific about what they are. Fat loss is the loss of fat on your body. It is a reduction in the amount of body fat you have. That’s pretty simple to understand. Fat burning is fat oxidation. To be more specific, it’s referring to the use of fat as a fuel source by the body. So I suppose, well, I’ll get you to talk about like what exactly that means, Like, how can they be separate? Because they can’t. They sound kind of similar, even with the definition that I’ve just given them.
Leah
00:01:25 – 00:01:33
Yeah, I think the best way to put this into context is definitely like the low carb approach. And what a lot of advocates of the low carb approach more fat burn more fat, which they’re not.
Leah
00:01:35 – 00:02:13
I mean, technically, when you have more fat available in your system, you will. Your body will prefer that as a fuel source. And, you know, that’s the calories it has available. So, yeah, of course you’re going to Oxidise or burn more fat the more you have access to. It doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that it’s going to lead to reduction in your actual fat stores. So we know that when you have a lot more fat in your diet like this is a bit of an oversimplification. But when you have more fat in your diet, yes, you’re burning more as a fuel source, but you’re also storing more fat away.
Leah
00:02:14 – 00:02:32
So you’re using the fat that you have there as a fuel source, but you’re storing it as well, unless you’re in a calorie deficit. So if you’re just eating at maintenance calories and you’re on a low carb diet, you are not going to lose body fat. You’ll be burning it. You won’t be losing it. And it’s like that really important distinction between the two.
Aidan
00:02:32 – 00:03:14
I think the easiest way I can think it through and explain it is an extreme example. If you ate 9000 calories of fat, so you just ate a tonne of that like an obscene amount of fat. I think it’s quite easy to then understand that you’re not going to burn 9000 calories of fat in a day. So when you think about that, it’s like, Okay, you’ve consumed 9000 calories of fat. You’re burning less than that amount. Some is going to get stored. That would be a day where you have this obscene amount of fat burning because you have so much available to burn. It’s your main fuel source because there’s so much available. But you would be gaining fat that day, even though you’re burning more than ever.
Leah
00:03:14 – 00:03:23
Yeah, you can be burning all the fat, but if you’re having in a calorie surplus, you’re also going to be storing more than you’re burning and therefore be gaining.
Aidan
00:03:24 – 00:03:41
Yeah, and that’s an unrealistic example. But you kind of just apply that logic back to smaller amounts, like the maintenance example and everything like that. And that’s why it’s like, kind of a. It is an oversimplification to think about it in terms of being like you’re storing more fat and burning more fat at the same time.
Leah
00:03:41 – 00:03:51
Because what if you are in a calorie deficit? Then that’s a different story, then you’re definitely you will be losing that.
Aidan
00:03:51 – 00:04:04
The same concept kind of applies A. It’s like this net balance where it’s like if you did a calorie deficit on a high fat diet, you are still burning more fat than if you are a higher carb diet. But the balance could still come out the same.
Aidan
00:04:05 – 00:04:39
The next concept I’m going to talk through is fasted cardio, So I want you to bear with me because this this explanation could get longer than I’d like, because I’m mostly doing this off the cuff. But it is something that I think it’s important thing to think through when you do fasted cardio, you are quite literally burning more fat. This is why a lot of coaches talk about it. They talk about this concept of doing fasted cardio because you have less glycogen available to burn because you haven’t just eaten. You haven’t got this glucose source coming in, so you’re going straight to your body’s fat stores.
Aidan
00:04:40 – 00:05:00
We know from a research perspective very clearly so whether you disagree with the mechanisms or anything about to put out there, we just know from the research as a factual statement. If you match your calories and macros for the day, so you eat the same amount of calories in the same amount of protein, no matter what, and you do the same amount of cardio and burn the same amount of calories in the cardio.
Aidan
00:05:00 – 00:05:42
The difference between doing fasted, cardio or fed cardio, as in doing cardio after eating, come out the same from body composition perspective. So we know the results come out the same, so we know faster. Cardio is not superior from that perspective, but something that kind of shook me when somebody asked me like two years ago. They’re like, Why does that happen? Why does that come out? Now I’m going to figure out the best explanation for why this happens. And the best explanation I’ve got for that right now or the simplest way I can think through is imagine. You do eat a certain amount of calories in both scenarios and the fed cardio and faster cardio scenario. So saying the fasted cardio, you’re burning more. As I said, you haven’t eaten yet.
Aidan
00:05:43 – 00:06:02
So and then later, on the end of the day, you have to eat the same amount of calories as you would have in the other scenario. And you’ve still only burned the same amount of calories in that cardio session. Going back to that thing we just kind of talked about. You would be gaining more fat later on or burning less fat later on and burning more carbs later on because you get more food, etc.
Aidan
00:06:03 – 00:06:44
You would have burned more earlier on, and it balances out in comparison to the other version where you would have burned more carbs in the session. But you’re also eating less carbs later, on as well. So later on the day when you’re not doing this card or whatever you based mobile great still going you are still burning, burning calories or any other movement or whatever you’re doing is still burning calories. You will be burning more fat later on, and it balances out in both those scenarios. It’s a complex thing to think about, but that is how it balances out. It just works out the same through those narrows. And once again, as I said, even if you don’t like that explanation, it doesn’t necessarily matter, because that is what the research shows happens in terms of outcomes.
Aidan
00:06:44 – 00:06:52
We’re very outcome driven people. That’s all we really care about, that’s all we kind of really need to know. Basically, the faster cardio comes out the same as cardio.
Leah
00:06:52 – 00:07:11
Yeah, and I like that. You say that we’re outcome focus, because when we were talking before filming, this was like, this is actually really hard thing to explain the physiology of, and I don’t even know if I completely, completely understand the exact physiology of everything. Um, but at the end of the day, it’s outcomes that matter, you know, the outcomes.
Aidan
00:07:11 – 00:07:17
And that’s the thing with the physiology. It’s like if I’m never wrong on something, but I’ve got outcomes, right? I’m like, I just changed my opinion.
Leah
00:07:17 – 00:07:23
Okay, so my what I’m doing doesn’t change, but the reasoning or the physiology, that’s fine.
Leah
00:07:24 – 00:07:31
Um and the same logic applies to the next thing we’re going to talk about. And that is the fat burning zone.
Aidan
00:07:31 – 00:07:57
Did this ever get you? So, like, I remember when I was when I first stepped foot in a gym like this is why I care about this topic. So I first stepped foot in a gym. I just want to get jacked, obviously. And I care about sports as well. So that was a big thing for me. So I always done cardio because I care about sports and being fit and stuff like that. And I remember hopping on a treadmill and had these modes that had, like, the Cardio zone and the Fat burning zone. And I was kind of like, Well, I care about sports. I want to be fair.
Aidan
00:07:57 – 00:08:22
But then I saw the fat burning zone. I was like, I do want to be shredded, too, though, so I’d hop on and walk at a slow pace because that’s what you going to do for the fat burning zone. Because if you do lower intensity exercise, it’s burning less carbohydrates, and it’s burning a larger percentage of fat. In hindsight, I look back at the house, too, for that. But because I personally did that, I now understand why other people will say that.
Leah
00:08:22 – 00:08:39
Yeah, I totally understand why people when you say it like when you say, If you, uh, exercising at a lower intensity than your body is using that as its preferred fuel source, you’re burning more fat. That sounds great. That sounds great. And also you don’t have to work.
Leah
00:08:40 – 00:09:10
I don’t know. It just seems like a really appealing concept. But unfortunately, because of the concepts we’ve talked about, fat burning doesn’t equal fat loss. Then it really does fall apart. It really doesn’t work that way. Yeah, so no matter what your fuel sources like, if it’s fat or if it’s glycogen, you’re still going to be burning calories. And at the end of the day, that’s what we care about. If you’re looking for fat loss, and you’re wanting to do exercise to facilitate that we care about the overall calories burnt not what fuel source they’re coming from.
Aidan
00:09:10 – 00:09:43
Yeah, 100 percent. I find it funny because, like whenever I’m talking about exercise, I’ve never been like we’re doing this for the calorie burn or whatever, but like when we are thinking about it through this lens, it’s quite literally is calories burned or what we call because it doesn’t really matter if it’s coming from fat or glycogen or whatever. It balances out over time. Because if you burn more glycogen during that session for the same amount of calories is still going to work out because you’ll be burning more fat later on when there’s less glycogen available, for example, versus if you burn more factoring that session but less glycogen, you’d be using more of that collection later on for your other daily activities or whatever throughout the day to.
Leah
00:09:44 – 00:10:04
So, in summary, low carb approaches fasted cardio, the fat burning zone. They’re all not going to facilitate fat loss more than another approach in which are using a calorie deficit, they’re not going to add an additional benefit, and fat burning doesn’t equal fat loss. But we just need to keep that in mind.
Aidan
00:10:05 – 00:10:35
You can still do these approaches, like if you like faster cardio because it’s more convenient or whatever you schedule. That’s fine. If you if you like doing the lower intensity stuff because you don’t know if whatever, isn’t it because you like it more or because you feel like it allows you to longer or whatever it is, you can do that, too. They aren’t necessarily detrimental or anything like that. We’re just saying that they’re not helping you lose additional body fat, which is what you might believe if you focus just on the fat, burning or fat observation aspect of this equation.
Leah
00:10:35 – 00:10:41
This has been Episode 26 of the ideal nutrition podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll be back next week.