Welcome to Part III of this four part series. We’re covering how to spend less time working out and still get better results. Now if you want to spend a buncha time in the gym, that’s awesome, but just know that you can spend less time and get all the benefits you were before. If you haven’t already read Part I and Part II then check them out for your benefit.
Now to spend less time working out and still get better results you’ll need to know an important secret. If you’re an avid reader then you probably know it already: it’s INTENSITY. Intensity is vital and the one thing that will get you the results you’re looking for. It’s also why you can improve your anaerobic and aerobic systems simultaneously and be in a fat burning mode for hours after your workout.
If you bring the intensity you’ll be kicking your hormones into high gear. We’ve touched on hormones in previous blog posts like this one, this one, and this one, but evenso hormones are a missing link that aren’t discussed enough in the health and fitness community. No need to fret though, that’s why we’re here dropping the knowledge for you.
There are many important hormones but we’ll focus on hormone sensitive lipase, also known as HSL. HSL literally assists in burning body fat because it burns your body fat, and then discharges the burnt body fat (fatty acids) into your blood! Once in your bloodstream the fatty acids bind to albumin which transports them to your muscles, where they undergo beta-oxidation to form 35 ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules for energy - got a little sciency here, but not to lose you, that’s some efficient energy currency.
So what the heck are we talking about? What we’re saying is that if HSL is activated then your muscles have more energy than they would otherwise--they’ll have both fat and glycogen (stored sugar/carbs) for energy, and this energy is being taken directly from your body fat. This means you’ll be able to push yourself harder, increase the intensity and get better results. Pretty dope right? You’re damn right. In many cases your muscles will only use glycogen for energy, but with the help of HSL, you can now use stored body fat also!
But how do you get HSL to work for you? Well, you gotta bring the intensity in your workouts. This high intensity triggers your adrenal hormones which is the catalyst for HSL to start doing its thing. If you’re not doing this then you won’t be able to get the benefit of the HSL burning your body fat, nor will you get the benefit of using that burned body fat for energy.
One super duper important caveat though guys: if your insulin levels are high, HSL is inhibited and it can’t even be used. This begs the question how are insulin levels even elevated? Well, when there is high carbohydrate intake, particularly simple carbohydrates. This is easy to have happen when you’re not in ketosis (fat burning mode), which we usually don’t recommend. Conversely though, lower insulin levels do allow HSL to be activated. As you can see, it’s a synergistic relationship between diet and exercise: a low carbohydrate diet coupled with high intensity exercise is a double whammy for fat burning.
Ultimately what you need is a diet and exercise program that brings the intensity so you can spend less time working out and get better results. This is why we created the Full Body Lift Off for you. It fits into any lifestyle, allows you to constantly eat delicious food and keeps you motivated every step along the way. Join now so you can get the results you’ve always wanted and check out Part IV of this blog series next week!