Any ideas?

stianledal21 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

Lowering fat percentage is something you achieve by being in a calorie deficit, not by any particular workout.
Workouts will determine what happens to your muscles: preserve, build,...

Agreed, but what kind of workouts will benefits more, for example for higher pulse, intensity etc, also cardio's

The workouts you most enjoy (or tolerate enough to come closest to enjoying), and that leave you feeling energized, not exhausted, for the rest of your day (maybe after a few minutes of "whew" feeling right after the workout).

Why?

Workouts we enjoy are best because we're more likely to want to do them, and will do them more regularly. Any workout we actually do burns 100% more calories and generates 100% more fitness improvement than some theoretically ideal workout that we find unpleasant, so we frequently delay, procrastinate, under-perform, or drop entirely, with the slightest excuse.

If your workout is too intense for your current fitness level, it's counterproductive for calorie burn because it may burn lots of calories per minute when you do it, but the duration is self-limiting. We can only go super hard let alone all out for a limited timespan, physiologically - it's not about willpower, it's how bodies work. Additionally, if it's too intense, it will be exhausting to the point where it saps energy, activity, and calorie burn out of the rest of our day, so the net all-day calories burned are lower than we expect . . . and in extreme cases could even be lower than if we'd skipped the exercise altogether.

In contrast, lower intensity exercise can be done for pretty much whatever time we choose to devote. It burns fewer calories per minute, but as long as we have the minutes, we can keep going, burn more total calories. Also, it needn't cause that excess fatigue that makes us rest more and do less the rest of the day.

Some people (who are bad at math) will tell you that the afterburn from intense exercise gives you bonus calories, saying that you burn twice as many calories in after burn (a.k.a. EPOC = excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). Yeah, it burns more EPOC calories as a percentage of the calories burned during the exercise session, but the raw numbers are underwhelming. They're easily cancelled out by over-fatigue implications. Further, if the low-intensity session was longer than the self-limiting higher intensity one, a bigger percentage of a smaller total calorie burn can be a smaller absolute number than a smaller percentage of a bigger total calorie burn.

On top of that, intense exercise (beyond current fitness level) is more likely to cause injury, or to spike appetite to difficult-to-control levels.

Usually, for calorie burn for a beginner - which I'd guess you are - the best exercise is a moderate intensity exercise that's a manageable challenge to current fitness level. Start gradually, build up slowly, striving to always keep it a manageably mild challenge to current ability, but not exhausting. That's the sweet spot for calorie burn.

When I talk about slowly/gradually, what I'm talking about is the combination of exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and type. (Intensity is things like how heavy the weights you lift, or how fast you walk/run.) Type is what it sounds like: Some kinds of workouts are inherently more taxing than others. Some really objectively and universally taxing ones aren't suitable for beginners.

At first, give yourself a recovery day between workouts. If that schedule feels good, you can increase frequency. Once you get to a frequency and duration that fits into your life nicely, you can increase intensity some of the time (for cardio, it's good to mix up intensities) or on a schedule (for strength training, it's best to follow a professionally-designed program).

Also whats your opinion on finding the right macros for getting lower fat percentage?

Overall good nutrition. Get adequate protein, adequate healthy fats, and vary carbs however it works best for you (people differ). If too many carbs spike your appetite, eat fewer carbs. If too few carbs sap your energy level, eat more carbs. Get plenty of varied, colorful veggies and fruits for fiber and micronutrients. Those are the basics.

No particular specific macro mix causes weight loss or universally makes weight loss easier. Calories determine fat gain or loss. At most, macros have an indirect effect. If we get sub-par nutrition, it can make us fatigued, so we burn fewer calories. Or, sub-par nutrition can cause cravings, make it difficult or impossible to stick to a reasonable calorie goal for weight loss. Either of those are indirect effects: The direct mechanism is still how many calories we actually eat, compared to the number we burn from everything we do, from heartbeat and such, to job/home chores. to exercise.

You can find a discussion of good strength training programs here:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

In order to pick an overall program of strength and cardio, you'll need to think through more what your most important fitness goal is. Is it general health? A certain type of physique? Strength? Purely maximum calorie burn? Endurance? Performance at some particular sport or activity? Etc. We can't maximize every outcome ever, and especially not all at once. What are your fitness goals?

The one that doesn't make you super hungry compared to the type of workout just done.

Example - I can go for a 1 - 1.5 hr walk when injured - and get very very hungry even while walking, and I stay that way afterwards for a long time. And I haven't burned that many calories actually.
Waaaaaay to easy to eat too much.

But I can go on a 1 - 1.5 hr jog (and when improperly trained but feeling strong anyway that's what injures me!) and not be hungry for hours afterwards.
Now - I know if I don't eat and wait, I will get very hungry, but if I eat a reasonable amount earlier, even at a deficit for the day - much easier to handle.

And that effect varies per person.
It sounds like you are aware strength training is beneficial while on a diet.
The type of training depends on YOU, it varies.
Maybe you do great with a high intensity circuit training style workout, burning a lot of calories but not pushing the strength aspect that much. You can create a deficit and body doesn't feel like it's rebelling so much. You can handle a deficit of X.
But maybe you do better with a strength or hypertrophy program and some well timed eating, and though it burns fewer calories during the workout, you can still eat with same deficit X and be fine.

This effects depends on YOU, when you do your workout, compared to when you can eat, depending on how much you eat at different times.

There are averages, and then there is YOU. Experiment, find what works best for YOU.

Now, just mathematically speaking, if you burn more calories in a workout adding to your daily burn (if a harder workout makes you sleep or sit around more, then perhaps no NET gain to the day) with say circuit training, compared to strength training routine - it may be easier to take deficit X.

Burning 2500 and dropping 500 deficit, could be easier than burning 2250 and dropping 500.
Guess what that depends on too - YOU!