How to burn fat efficiently

You want to burn fat more efficiently? LIFT HEAVY (as you can) and HARD (intensity) on all your exercises. The metabolic boost raises your resting metabolic rate. You burn more calories resting (including sleep) than all the exercising in a day. The fuel used at rest is FAT. Raise that resting rate and you burn fat more efficiently. Nuff said.

The most powerful and efficient way to "burn fat" is to maintain a calorie deficit. The effect of that deficit stimulates changes to a far greater magnitude than all of this tinkering around.

You are wrong.

I exercise on an empty stomach 5 times a week, often with intensity levels to cause burst blood vessels and nose bleeds.

I get stronger every week. Catabolism doesn't work like that. That is bro science taken from the likes of bodybuilding.com or flex.

Glucose, the primary source of fuel for all body cells, is derived primarily from carbohydrates, although, if needed, glucose can also be metabolized from protein. After a meal, some of the glucose not used immediately for fuel travels to the liver or skeletal muscles, where it is converted to a compound called Glycogen--through a process called glycogenesis--and stored for energy. Any excess glucose is stored in adipose tissue as fat. The liver has a greater capacity for glycogen storage than muscle: Liver cells can typically store up to 8% of their weight as glycogen, while muscle cells can typically store up to only 3%. The liver is responsible for maintaining adequate levels of glucose in the body. As the body’s glucose level drops, the liver converts some of the glycogen back into glucose--through a process called glycogenolysis--and releases it back into the bloodstream. Muscle cells, on the other hand, are unable to reconvert glycogen to glucose. Instead, they convert glycogen directly to fuel through a process called glycolysis.

Glycolysis is a cellular anaerobic process which, through a complex series of steps, breaks down muscle glycogen into pyruvic acid during high-intensity exercise. This process rapidly produces a small amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the necessary fuel for body cells. However, if too much pyruvic acid accumulates in the muscle during glycolysis, it can substantially slow down or even stop the process of ATP formation. Therefore, after one or two minutes of high-intensity exercise, a subsequent process of energy formation begins--oxidation

Oxidation, an oxygen-requiring process of energy formation, produces over 95% of the energy used by muscles during moderate and prolonged exercise. Oxidation immediately converts much of the pyruvic acid formed through glycolysis to ATP. However, during prolonged exercise, if an athlete is unable to breathe in oxygen quickly enough to oxidize pyruvic acid into ATP, some pyruvic acid is converted to lactic acid and diffused out of the cell. It then circulates throughout the body until it can be reconverted to pyruvic acid once oxygen again becomes available. If excess accumulation of lactic acid occurs, extreme fatigue can set in, which can greatly impair the athlete’s performance.

Glucose is needed by the central nervous system to keep the body functioning. Therefore, during periods of moderate exercise lasting longer than 20 minutes, the body works to conserve stored muscle and liver glycogen. It does so by reducing the percentage of fuel derived from glycogen to only 40% or 50%, with the remainder supplied by fat. During exercise periods lasting longer than 4 or five hours, as much as 60% to 85% of fuel produced by oxidation may be derived from fat.

Fats need carbohydrates in order to burn efficiently. The breakdown of carbohydrates generates oxaloacetic acid, which is needed for the breakdown of fats into fuel. If insufficient carbohydrate levels exist, the levels of oxaloacetic acid may also drop, making it difficult for the body to continue producing a high level of fuel from fat. Although the body can break down fats in the absence of carbohydrates, it does so at a much slower rate. When the glycogen stores in the muscles and liver are depleted, and the blood glucose level begins to fall, athletes begin to experience fatigue, lack of coordination, light-headedness and lack of concentration. This experience is commonly known as "hitting the wall" or "bonking".

Asimov, Isaac. The Human Body—Its Structure and Operation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963. pp. 238-239.

Crouch, McClintic. Human Anatomy and Physiology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1971. pp. 428-431.

McArdle, Katch, Katch. Essentials of Exercise Physiology. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1994. pp. 35-56, 61-66, 146-148, 184-185.

You are wrong.

I exercise on an empty stomach 5 times a week, often with intensity levels to cause burst blood vessels and nose bleeds.

I get stronger every week. Catabolism doesn't work like that. That is bro science taken from the likes of bodybuilding.com or flex.

Anecdotal. Because you claim it happens isn't proof. Try clinical science.

Glucose, the primary source of fuel for all body cells, is derived primarily from carbohydrates, although, if needed, glucose can also be metabolized from protein. After a meal, some of the glucose not used immediately for fuel travels to the liver or skeletal muscles, where it is converted to a compound called Glycogen--through a process called glycogenesis--and stored for energy. Any excess glucose is stored in adipose tissue as fat. The liver has a greater capacity for glycogen storage than muscle: Liver cells can typically store up to 8% of their weight as glycogen, while muscle cells can typically store up to only 3%. The liver is responsible for maintaining adequate levels of glucose in the body. As the body’s glucose level drops, the liver converts some of the glycogen back into glucose--through a process called glycogenolysis--and releases it back into the bloodstream. Muscle cells, on the other hand, are unable to reconvert glycogen to glucose. Instead, they convert glycogen directly to fuel through a process called glycolysis.

Glycolysis is a cellular anaerobic process which, through a complex series of steps, breaks down muscle glycogen into pyruvic acid during high-intensity exercise. This process rapidly produces a small amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the necessary fuel for body cells. However, if too much pyruvic acid accumulates in the muscle during glycolysis, it can substantially slow down or even stop the process of ATP formation. Therefore, after one or two minutes of high-intensity exercise, a subsequent process of energy formation begins--oxidation

Oxidation, an oxygen-requiring process of energy formation, produces over 95% of the energy used by muscles during moderate and prolonged exercise. Oxidation immediately converts much of the pyruvic acid formed through glycolysis to ATP. However, during prolonged exercise, if an athlete is unable to breathe in oxygen quickly enough to oxidize pyruvic acid into ATP, some pyruvic acid is converted to lactic acid and diffused out of the cell. It then circulates throughout the body until it can be reconverted to pyruvic acid once oxygen again becomes available. If excess accumulation of lactic acid occurs, extreme fatigue can set in, which can greatly impair the athlete’s performance.

Glucose is needed by the central nervous system to keep the body functioning. Therefore, during periods of moderate exercise lasting longer than 20 minutes, the body works to conserve stored muscle and liver glycogen. It does so by reducing the percentage of fuel derived from glycogen to only 40% or 50%, with the remainder supplied by fat. During exercise periods lasting longer than 4 or five hours, as much as 60% to 85% of fuel produced by oxidation may be derived from fat.

Fats need carbohydrates in order to burn efficiently. The breakdown of carbohydrates generates oxaloacetic acid, which is needed for the breakdown of fats into fuel. If insufficient carbohydrate levels exist, the levels of oxaloacetic acid may also drop, making it difficult for the body to continue producing a high level of fuel from fat. Although the body can break down fats in the absence of carbohydrates, it does so at a much slower rate. When the glycogen stores in the muscles and liver are depleted, and the blood glucose level begins to fall, athletes begin to experience fatigue, lack of coordination, light-headedness and lack of concentration. This experience is commonly known as "hitting the wall" or "bonking".

Asimov, Isaac. The Human Body—Its Structure and Operation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1963. pp. 238-239.

Crouch, McClintic. Human Anatomy and Physiology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1971. pp. 428-431.

McArdle, Katch, Katch. Essentials of Exercise Physiology. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1994. pp. 35-56, 61-66, 146-148, 184-185.

If glycogen is depleted, then glycolysis is the next step. Once muscle glycogen is depleted, then gluconeogenisis (breakdown of non carbohydrate substances for energy) occurs. If you've "fasted" then glucose would be limited. Since you need carbs to break down fats for energy at a HIGH rate, then high intensity training would trump using fat as the energy source since you're working out on an empty stomach and have not ingested any carbs. So where would it get it? Muscle.