How to Burn Calories for Weight Loss: Understanding Energy Systems

Posted by Mark on October 14, 2011 in Blog, Fat Burning Foods, Fitness and Health with 6 Comments

I think one of the main reasons why many of us have difficulties with burning calories for weight loss is this:
Most don’t really know how their bodies work, in particular how they actually use the available fuel, and what for.

There are different types of fuel sources –or energy systems– the body can utilize and those are very important for sports performance for example. So when you learn how to train athletes, you also learn about these fuels.

You can see your body as having three main “Gas Tanks”. #1: the food you just had.

caloriesforweightloss2 How to Burn Calories for Weight Loss: Understanding Energy Systems

Your body's calories come from 3 different gas tanks

But never mind all the science babbel, ignoring the actual energy systems and focusing on a even more basic level, you can think about it this way: the body has different “Gas Tanks”, where the fuel is coming from. That’s really all that counts where weight loss is concerned.

Ultimately, to lose weight, this gas –or calories– must come from your body’s fat stores. But how do you know? And how do you make sure of that?

I like to think I’m good at simplifying things: the KISS Rule applies (keep it simple stupid).
And I believe that at the end of the day everything actually is pretty simple, when it comes right down to it. A real expert is a guy who can explain his stuff to a layman in everyday English, and they will understand basically where he’s coming from: that’s the sign of someone who really and truly and fully understands his subject matter.

So how DO you burn calories for weight loss? Let’s go over two of the major factors as far as calories and fat loss are concerned:

1. How Many Calories should you take in for optimal fat burning?
2. Which Calories (where do they come from) are you actually running on at any given moment?

So, two totally different things here.
Point 1, the number of calories per day on average:
Here’s a simple and general rule of thumb, that works swell for most all who use it …

Target Body weight in pounds x 10. So if you would like to be 170 pounds ideally, just multiply by 10 = 1700 calories/day. This is best applied as a weekly average, so weekly calories divided by 7 should give you this number. This you can arrive at via all of different kinds of means: short term fasting, daily deficit, etc.

Point 2 brings us back to the three gas tanks.
The first is basically the food you’re eating, and that might stay in your bloodstream some 3 hours or so. That’s tank #1, as seen above.

Any excess then gets stored as glycogen in the muscles and the liver. That’s tank #2.

caloriesforweightloss1 How to Burn Calories for Weight Loss: Understanding Energy Systems

This is your Tank #2: the calories from muscle and liver glycogen

And finally, if there’s excess still, your body will keep it for a rainy day, in gas tank #3: your body fat stores.

caloriesforweightloss How to Burn Calories for Weight Loss: Understanding Energy Systems

THIS is your biggest gas tank: the body's fat stores

The difference in available calories is amazing:

The food you just had will only last for a short while, approx 3 hours or so, depending.

Your muscle and liver glycogen might hold some 1600-2000 calories, depending on the individual.

And your fat stores? Well, even if you’re lean, you’re literally sitting on 100′s of 1000′s of calories. That’ll last you for WEEKS, man!

Now how does that apply to weight loss?

Simple: your body will basically not touch it’s fat stores when there’s calories available from food. It will not touch them when there’s calories available from the glycogen stores.
It will only really start using them when it has to, and that’s when all other calories are used up: from food, and the glycogen stores out of your muscles and liver.

The big question: when is that? When do you have emptied out all the other gas tanks, so the system is forced to use it’s “emergency tank”, literally running on fat for fuel?

Don’t hate me now, but it can take all of 20 hours. Fasted. Yep, that’s ri-ight! If you do the maths you’ll see: 2000 calories, even at 100 calories an hour average? And it’s usually more like 80 kcl’s per hour, depending on how tall you are, amount of muscle mass a little bit and most of all your activity levels.

But say you got your carb stores all filled and you have 2000 calories in there? 20 hours plus without any food. See where the short term fasting comes in?

The human body is woefully efficient at using energy, and it will make sure to go through all available fuel first before switching on the emergency supply.

Now there’s other factors playin into it, and you can make the most of your efforts by optimally timing nutrients and training, etc. That’s one reason why my TS Method is so effective.
But when you get right down to the basics, calories for weight loss are the ones that come from tank # 3, and to get there you need a massive deficit, in other words step on it, pedal to the metal, until the other two tanks are dry.

And no fueling up at the pizza parlor!