Fitness page -2
Muscle atrophy:
Atrophy is where the muscle wastes away due to long term lack of use or from poor nutrition-especially including fad diets that are nutritionally imbalanced (low calorie, low protein diets are the worst).  It is characterized by the muscles becoming weak, sore & inflamed, and often resulting in a limited range of motion.  Moving muscles to the limits of their normal range can cause extreme pain and even injury for people with atrophy.

Most overweight people have some degree of atrophy (unless they are the rare overweight active people like football players and sumo wrestlers).   Muscle atrophy also makes a person extremely susceptible to muscular injury since the muscles are not able to take the same stresses normal muscle could.

Wimpy workouts:
The amount time you spend exercising is irrelevant compared to the type, quality and intensity of the exercise. 

For example, a 130 pound woman walking at 2 miles per hour for 2 hours will burn off 327 calories.  The same woman jogging 6 miles per hour will burn off the same amount of calories in only 33 minutes.   Her speed tripled, but the time required to burn the calories was cut to only about one-fourth.  The added stress burns calories better and helps condition the body.  

Overweight individuals often spend a lot of time in the gym with little to no results simply because their workouts are extremely low in intensity.  The same is true for men and women who want to grow muscle and tone up but find they never see any gains.  Go to any gym and you can see men who could lift for example 100 pounds ten times only lifting 40 pounds five times.  This kind of workout is not even a challenge and will not grow muscle.  It may not even be enough to maintain muscle as they age.

With few exceptions, your exercise should be vigorous.  Work out smart if you want results-otherwise you are just wasting your time in the gym.  

It is also a good idea to write down in a notebook what you were able to do: type of exercise, duration, intensity setting (weight or resistance number or incline).  Then each week or two challenge yourself to do a little more.

*Steady State Cardio, *Interval Training (IT) and *High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):
A. Steady State Cardio: This is a steady pace exercise with an intensity you can maintain for hours. It does not generally change in intensity unless for example you are jogging and find you are coming to a hill.  This type of exercise is great for starting a diet and getting your muscles used to working if you are extremely out of shape.  It is also great if you have a lot of muscle atrophy and need to recondition your muscles before attempting more challenging exercise.  After you are able to work out without with steady state cardio for 30 minutes, start adding some interval training. 

Other than what is mentioned above, steady state cardio is really not a great choice for weight loss and should be discontinued--with one exception.  You can do hours of this type of exercise and still burn calories while watching TV. 

B. Interval Training is cardio where you increase the intensity at certain intervals then drop it back (e.g. run for 1 minute walk for 4).  It burns more calories and is able to elevate your heart.  You cannot perform it for as long as cardio because it will wear you out.  After an hour, you are pretty tired. 

C. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is Interval Training as above, only it is characterized by being extremely intense and more frequent.  With HIIT you will only be able to do 20 minutes at best and you will not be able to do this every day.

Due to the intensity of the stress on the body, HIIT is a form of training that will build muscle.  It is also shown to induce fat loss better than plain cardio for the same amount of calories burned.  But one word of caution, HIIT is only for people who have developed enough physical fitness to not injure themselves in the process.  Most people work up from learning steady state cardio, to adding Interval training, then when they are in shape enough, they add HIIT.

So what is the best type of cardio for burning fat?  For weight loss the best rule of thumb is to use as much interval or HIIT cardio as you can along with steady state cardio if you are watching TV. 

Also, if you are weight training, it is better to do you weight training before any cardio.  If possible, split your workouts to twice a day to separate the two.

Lastly, is cardio the best form of exercise for weight loss?  Contrary to what many fitness gurus say, NO it is NOT! 

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Quote:
If you don’t change your nutrition, exercise will have very little weight loss effect.
Question:
What if you start exercising regularly and eating nutritious food yet don't lose a single pound?

Answer:
Your health will dramatically improve and you may rid yourself of many serious medical complications.

FOCUS ON NUTRITION AND EXCERCISE YOU ENJOY!
                 Exercise has many benefits:

1. It can let you burn more calories for quicker weight loss
2. It can help you maintain your weight
3. It can transform your body shape or maintain it.
4. It can prevent and cure some medical problems
5. Using a phase 2 technique, it will allow you to eat more and reshape your body
6. It combats depression and helps your mood
7. It can improve your strength and energy
8. It can help keep you mobile as you grow older
9. It can reduce bone fractures and breaks especially as you grow older
10. It can help you sleep better
11. It will help you feel better about yourself and how you look