fact or fiction?

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sayuri1
sayuri1 Posts: 111
in Health and Weight Loss
A friend was telling me that by taking a week off exercising you would kick start your muscles again burning as many calories as when you started. I was just wondering if this is true or not?

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  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    A friend was telling me that by taking a week off exercising you would kick start your muscles again burning as many calories as when you started. I was just wondering if this is true or not?

    Going to have to go with.. fiction.
  • think48
    think48 Posts: 366 Member
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    I would guess that if that were true, then people would be most successful losing weight by exercising once every 7 days. Wish it were true.
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    A friend was telling me that by taking a week off exercising you would kick start your muscles again burning as many calories as when you started. I was just wondering if this is true or not?

    He probably just believes this because, if you stop for 7 days and start again you will get the soreness feeling back.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    There is truth to the "stress reaction" philosophy, where you confuse your muscles by doing something different (not necessarily easier or harder, just different) than what you ordinarily do. This puts your muscles in a slight state of shock so you might get more of a calorie burn from the very first workout after taking an entire week off. But it's not going to be anywhere near enough to offset the week you spent sitting on your butt.

    Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  • neenaleigh
    neenaleigh Posts: 584 Member
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    you start losing all youve gained after 3 days of non-excersize ---that is a fact!
  • sayuri1
    sayuri1 Posts: 111
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    I think that's what it is. I was trying to tell him that taking every other week off wont help. Thanks guys =D
  • Egger29
    Egger29 Posts: 14,741 Member
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    Not fact or fiction...more specifically - Inaccurate.

    Many people get trapped into the same routines (weight lifters especially) so taking a break between periodization periods (8-12 weeks) is good and gives your body additional rest time.

    For strength trainers, you make the gains BETWEEN workouts when resting, not when you're doing the actual work. I've had several clients double their results at going to 2x a week instead of 3 because the additional day gave them the recovery time needed to prep for the next workout, but it also depends on What you're doing with your time.

    I see 90% of the people in gyms simply going through the motions rather than actually working hard, so that's a big variable as well.

    Overtraining is generally the result of not having enough rest between workouts, or at all. The "If some is good, then more is better " is what's typically Fictional.

    Personally for me, I'm all for the week off between Periodization programs which does increase the recovery time and helps break plateaus that the body may have adapted to in the previous program.
  • TateFTW
    TateFTW Posts: 658 Member
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    A friend was telling me that by taking a week off exercising you would kick start your muscles again burning as many calories as when you started. I was just wondering if this is true or not?

    This is a skewed version of a couple other facts regarding working out and food consumption. The amount of calories your muscles burn doesn't change. However, it's a good idea to take some time every now and then and either rest or de-load. De-loading is the word we use to describe not working out as hard as usuall. When it comes to weightlifting, this means doing the same routine, but with much less weight than usuall.

    Your friend might have also been talking about your metabolism. Your metabolism slows down as you comsume fewer calories, in order to preserve your current energy stores (fat). Switching back up to maintenance calories for even a single day can bring metabolic rates back up a bit, but going for a whole week should bring metabolic rates back up to where they were before you started your caloric deficit. Therefore, when you start running a deficit again, you should theoretically burn more fat in the 2 weeks (average) it takes for your metabolism to react and slow down.
  • TateFTW
    TateFTW Posts: 658 Member
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    you start losing all youve gained after 3 days of non-excersize ---that is a fact!

    Could you quantify this statement? What exactly is it one would lose?
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
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    In my personal training certifications, we're taught to train in Mesocycles of 3-7 weeks and then take a week of active recovery. The active recovery is to allow the muscles to rebuild and repair. Because you actually build muscle during recovery, that week off allows for an increase in overall metabolism, which will then help increase calorie burn from future workouts. It's also a great way of preventing over training.

    ETA: Active recovery isn't sitting on your butt on the couch. Active recovery means being active through sports, push mowing the lawn, yoga, pilates, light cardio, etc. but not heavy lifting or high intensity cardio.
  • jkestens63
    jkestens63 Posts: 1,164 Member
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    My trainer will tell me to take a week off a couple times a year - give my body a chance to unlearn some of the "muscle memory" moves we all develop but even more so to clear the head. Its like taking a vacation from work, you need it sometimes to regroup and get re-invigorated. HOWEVER, taking a week off from exercise is not taking a week off from eating healthy. Then you will gain and be behind the eight ball again if you don't exercise and return to the old eating habits.
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    you start losing all youve gained after 3 days of non-excersize ---that is a fact!

    Could you quantify this statement? What exactly is it one would lose?

    I think she means all the weight you would of put on the week that you don't exercise. That's the way I took it at least.
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
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    you start losing all youve gained after 3 days of non-excersize ---that is a fact!

    Could you quantify this statement? What exactly is it one would lose?

    I think she means all the weight you would of put on the week that you don't exercise. That's the way I took it at least.

    You actually start losing muscle mass and cardiovascular capacity after not training. It actually takes 2 weeks to show major changes in the body, but that is from sitting around doing nothing. An active recovery week will not cause those losses.
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    you start losing all youve gained after 3 days of non-excersize ---that is a fact!

    Could you quantify this statement? What exactly is it one would lose?

    I think she means all the weight you would of put on the week that you don't exercise. That's the way I took it at least.

    You actually start losing muscle mass and cardiovascular capacity after not training. It actually takes 2 weeks to show major changes in the body, but that is from sitting around doing nothing. An active recovery week will not cause those losses.

    Could the same be said about it taking 2 weeks to show changed in the body in a good way? For example, I took nearly 3 months off from P90X, before starting my 3rd round, and did not exercise in that time. So would it take 2 weeks to see any good results or just the bad ones from not exercising?

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