Archive for December 4th, 2009
Hmmm…how much should I exercise? It depends on your fitness/exercise goals. A single exercise session will not change your muscle tissue, however, long term regular exercise will gradually increase your muscle size and muscle protein. Fat stores will gradually decrease due to the need for energy production. Cardiovascular exercise will utilize the fat stores to create energy while we exercise. Unfortunately, this doesn’t increase the muscle size.
Strength training will increase muscle size, however will not burn as many calories, initially. This is only in the short term. The larger the muscle mass/size your base metabolism will increase and burn more calories throughout your day. Another words, your resting metabolic rate will be higher. The reason for this is, the amount of calories needed to maintain your muscle tissue is 30 times more than the maintenance of fat stores.
How much should I exercise? A brief exercise session requires the muscles to use energy from glycogen stores. When the glycogen is depleted and you eat, glycogen will be restored to the muscles.
A long term regular exerciser’s muscles will use energy from fat and glycogen. The glycogen will be depleted and your fat stores won’t change. When you eat, the food will restore glycogen and fat levels. The fat stores decreases. Glycogen increases. The muscles will enlarge and reduce marble fat.
So go ahead and ask yourself, “How much should I exercise?”