Myths Under The Microscope: Part 1

There continues to be much confusion in regards to the best cardio protocols for incinerating fat. We have addressed this topic several times on Catapult Fitness Blog, but it is one that is well worth revisiting.

I've reached out to Alan Aragon who has given me permission to post a 3-part series that he wrote on this topic a few years back. I'm personally a big fan of Alan's and have been a subscriber to his Research Review for some time.

Parts 1 and 2 of this series are heavily research based. In Part 3 Alan does a great job of breaking it all down in to layman's terms.

The Low Intensity Fat Burning Zone:

The "Fat Burning Zone" On Trial

Origin of the myth

Dietary variables aside, the body's proportional use of fat for fuel during exercise is dependent upon training intensity. The lower the intensity, the greater the proportion of stored fat is used for fuel. The higher the intensity, the greater the proportional use of the glycogen and/or the phosphagen system. But this is where the misunderstanding begins.

Although I'm burning a greater proportion of stored fat typing this sentence, getting up and sprinting would have a greater impact on fat reduction despite its lesser proportional use of fat to power the increased intensity. Alas, sufficient investigation of the intensity threshold of maximal net fat oxidation has been done.

In what's perhaps the best designed trial of its kind, Achten & Jeukendrup found peak fat oxidation to occur during exercise at 63% VO2 max. This peak level got progressively less beyond that point, and was minimal at 82% VO2 max, near the lactate threshold of 87% [1].

Misunderstanding is perpetuated in fitness circles

It has been widely misconstrued that a greater net amount of fat is burned through lower to moderate intensity work, regardless of study duration and endpoints assessed. In addition to the confusion of net fat oxidation with proportional fat oxidation, the post-exercise period is critically overlooked. No distinction is ever made between during-exercise fat oxidation, recovery period fat oxidation, total fat oxidation by the end of a 24-hour period, and most importantly, a longer term of several weeks.

Thus, the superiority of lower intensity cardio continues to be touted over the more rigorous stuff that takes half the time to do. Fortunately, we have enough research data to gain a clear understanding. Let's dig in.

Dissecting The Research

Mixed study protocols + mixed results = plenty of mixed up trainees

As with all research involving applied physiology, the highly mixed set of results is due to a wide variation of study designs in terms of subject profile, dietary manipulation, energetic balance, and actual intensities used. Nevertheless, the body of exercise-induced fat oxidation research can be easily deciphered by stratifying it into 3 subgroups: Acute effect (during exercise and immediately after), 24-hour effect & chronic effect (results over several weeks).

Acute effects spawn ideas for further research

In addition to measuring fat oxidation during exercise, most acute effect trials look at fax oxidation at the 3 to 6 hour mark post exercise [2]. Fat oxidation during exercise tends to be higher in low-intensity treatments, but post-exercise fat oxidation tends to be higher in high-intensity treatments. For example, Phelain's team compared fat oxidation at 3 hours post-exercise of 75% VO2 max versus the same kcals burned at 50% [3].

Fat oxidation was insignificantly higher during exercise for the 50% group, but was significantly higher for the 75% group 3 hours post-exercise.

Lee's team compared, in college males, the thermogenic and lipolytic effects of exercise pre-fueled with milk + glucose on high versus low-intensity training [4]. Predictably pre-exercise intake of the milk/glucose solution increased excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC, aka residual thermogenesis) significantly more than the fasted control group in both cases.

The high-intensity treatment had more fat oxidation during the recovery period than the low intensity treatment. This implicates pre-fueled high-intensity training's potential role in optimizing fat reduction while simultaneously setting the state for quicker recovery.

24-hour effects come closer to reality

You can call it Murphy's Law, but the promise of greater fat oxidation seen during and in the early post-exercise periods of lower intensity cardio disappears when the effects are measured over 24-hours. Melanson's research team was perhaps the first to break the redundancy studies that only compared effects within a few hours post-exercise [5].

In a design involving an even mix of lean, healthy men & women aged 20 - 45, identical caloric expenditures of 40% VO2 max was compared with 70% VO2 max. Result? No difference in net fat oxidation between the low & high intensity groups at the 24 hour mark.

Saris & Schrauwen conducted a similar study on obese males using the high-intensity interval protocol versus a low-intensity linear one [6]. There was no difference in fat oxidation between high & low intensity treatments at 24 hours. In addition, the high-intensity group actually maintained a lower respiratory quotient in posts-exercise. This means that their fat oxidation was higher than the low-intensity group the rest of the day following the training bout, thus evening out the end results at 24 hours.

Chronic effects come even closer

Long-term/Chronic effect studies are the true tests of whatever hints and clues we might get from acute studies. The results of trials carried out over several weeks have obvious validity advantages over shorter ones. They also afford the opportunity to measure changes in body composition, versus mere substrate use proximal to exercise.

The common thread running through these trials is that when caloric expenditure during exercise is matched, negligible fat loss differences are seen. The fact relevant to bodybuilding is that high-intensity groups either gain or maintain lean body mass, whereas the low-intensity groups tend to lose LBM, hence the high-intensity group experiences less net losses in weight gain [7 - 9].

The body of research strongly favors high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for both fat loss and lean mass gain/maintenance, even across a broad range of study populations [9 - 12]. A memorable example of this is work by Tremblay's team, observing the effect of 20 weeks of HIIT versus endurance training (ET) on young adults [9].

When energy expenditure between groups was corrected, the HIIT group showed a whopping 9 times the fat loss as the ET group. In the HIIT group, biopsies showed an increase of glycolytic enzymes, as well as an increase of 3-hydroxyacyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase (HADH) activity, a marker of fat oxidation.

Researchers concluded that the metabolic adaptions in muscle in response to HIIT favor the process of fat oxidation. The mechanisms for these results are still under investigation, but they're centered around residual thermal and lipolytic effects mediated by enzymatic, morphologic, and beta-adrenergic adaptions in muscle. Linear/steady state comparisons of the 2 types tends to find no difference, except for better cardiovascular fitness gains in the high-intensity groups [13].

Summing Up the Research Findings In Part 1

• In acute trials, fat oxidation during exercise tends to be higher in low-intensity treatments, but post-exercise fat oxidation and/or energy expenditure tends to be higher in high-intensity treatments.


• Fed subjects consistently experience a greater thermic effect post-exercise in both intensity ranges.


• In 24-hour trials, there is no difference in fat oxidation between the 2 types, pointing to a delayed rise if fat oxidation in the high-intensity groups which evens out the field.


• In long-term studies, both linear high-intensity and HIIT training is superior to lower intensities on the whole for maintaining and/or increasing cardiovascular fitness & lean muscle mass, and are at least as effective, and according to some research, far better at reducing bodyfat.

All references are outlined here.

About Alan Aragon

Alan earned his Bachelor and Master of Science in Nutrition with top honors and is a continuing education provider for the Commission on Dietetic Registration, National Academy of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, and National Strength & Conditioning Association.

He maintains a private practice, designing programs for recreational, Olympic and professional athletes, including the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Train hard; stay strong.

Peace.

Susan