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How Often You Should Work Out to Lose Fat

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Surprisingly, it's not hours on the treadmill! When it comes to weight loss, most people are thinking about how to reduce excess fat rather than losing muscle - after all, we like the muscles that give our bodies that sculpted, defined look, but dislike the fat that can mask that definition and cause us to have "wobbly bits". Also, carrying too much fat (visceral or subcutaneous) can lead to health issues and less than peak performance.

Not surprisingly, since so many people are looking to loose fat, there are no end of people looking to help you (and sell you) potions, pills and plans to help you achieve that goal (yes, that includes me!). With so much information out there, where do you start sorting out what's fact and what's fiction?

Luckily, there is an irrefutable fact that underpins the whole issue of weight loss (and gain). If you want to reduce the amount of fat in your body, then you need to expend more energy than you consume. In other words, if you give your body less fuel than it needs to perform its level of activity, over time you will lose weight as you body uses up stored energy (fat) to meet its energy needs.

This is admittedly a gross oversimplification of how our body works, but for our purposes, it's a good starting point and guiding principle. Macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, protein) and good nutrition count, but if your body is not in an energy deficit, the total amount of fat in your body will not change.

So to create an energy deficit you can do two things - reduce your energy intake and/or increase the energy you expend. For this article we will look at the latter - increasing the amount of energy you expend through exercise. Just reducing the amount of energy (food) you eat can lead to muscle loss if not done right (and we don't want that!).

Therefore, don't think weight loss, think body recomposition! We want to reduce fat and sustain (or increase muscle) which might mean overall, body weight stays the same.

Resistance training coupled with a moderate calories deficit is an ideal way to achieve this. The resistance training will help to maintain your muscle and any increase in muscle mass will also increase the amount of energy your body needs, supporting your deficit goal.

However, when you are in a calorie deficit, your body's ability to repair itself is reduced and so you need to be careful not to overtrain - which does more harm than good.

So for optimum fat loss, go for no more than around 4 or 5 hours of weight training. Add some cardio if you like (but no more than a couple of hours in total) to help keep your cardiovascular system in good working order. And have at least one exercise free day a week (gentle stretching or yoga would be good if you must do something) so that your body can rest and repair.
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