Steady State Aerobics - why it hasn`t worked

Steady State Aerobics- why it hasn`t worked

Let`s think of all the reasons steady state aerobic training is supposed to burn fat.

1- It burns calories. I`ll buy that one. How does it burn calories?

Because the muscles are hard at work and demand extra oxygen to help them continue working. Hmmm, but there are a ton of activities such as weight training, sprinting, sleeping, talking, watching tv that also burn calories by requiring work from the muscles. So no extra points for aerobic training.

2- The fat burning zone. Nope- sorry doesn`t exist.

At lower intensities the body may burn 50% of the calories from fat, while at higher intensities you may burn 35% of calories from fat. But at higher intensities you burn way more total calories, and more fat calories over all than you do at lower intensities. Are sprinters fatter than long distant runners. No, sprinters carry less body fat than long distant runners due to their muscle mass..and their jacked.

3-Aerobics makes your body an "efficient fat burning machine". Yes it does demand work from the muscles, but not as much as other activities. Aerobic training doesn`t require the muscle to stay around either. Aerobic training makes muscle more efficient at using fat. So if muscle tissue is the only tissue that burns fat, and aerobic training makes it smaller and more efficient at burning fat, then essentially you are creating a smaller, more efficient fat burning machine..That`s not effective!

4- Aerobic training raises your metabolism. Metabolism is largely a function of how much muscle you carry. As aerobics does nothing to even maintain muscle, never mind build muscle, it will do nothing to contribute to raising your metabolism at rest. Sure, you`ll burn calories while you`re doing it, but will you burn any at rest as a result of doing aerobics?  No, the body literally adapts to anything we attempt to do by responding in the reverse manner. 

*So if you burn a ton of calories doing aerobic training, that same body adapts to aerobic exercise by slowing your metabolism and allowing your body to store more fat. The biggest problem with aerobic training is that you get better at it. So to continue to improve  you either go further or you run faster. Is there more joy in running 40 min. to burn the calories you once burned in 30 min? Eventually you will reach an intensity eventually that will be the end of the aerobic zone. Simply going harder will throw your body in to the anaerobic zone, you will not be doing aerobics any more. So, if you have to stop doing it at some point to get the benefits you seek why not do anaerobic work to begin with?

Rob