Fitness, Fat Loss & Strength

The terms "fitness" & "fatloss" are usually very closely associated with one another. 

Exercise helps with fat loss, right? And by exercise, most people mean cardiovascular-based training, which results in people getting "fitter" as they undertake their fat loss journey.

But here's the thing: 

Fat loss & fitness are not related.

At all.

You see, fat loss is primarily driven by 1 underlying factor: creating an energy (calorie) deficit.

This is best achieved by a combination of:

1.) Reducing your kcal intake on a day-to-day basis 

2.) Increasing your kcal expenditure on a day to day basis

The diet side of things is not the focus of this article, so let's focus on point number two. The best way to achieve a higher day-to-day kcal expenditure over both the short & long term is to keep or slightly increase your lean muscle tissue. This can only be achieved with some type of progressive resistance training, which will also have the additional benefit of strengthening the entire body, improve fundamental, functional movement patterns & provide the highly desired shape that most people are after when they go on holiday and visit the beach.

Notice how we've yet to mention direct fitness work in this equation. It doesn't really have a place. I know plenty of fit people who carry huge amounts of excess weight (take a look at your local running club for proof) & I also know people who look great but have no endurance at all. 

Now, I'm not saying that fitness isn't important. To me, it's an essential part of the package; but primarily for it's health benefits & impact on day to day tasks - not it's effect on getting lean.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that your focus needs to be on what matters the most when it comes to fat loss.

Fitness is easy to develop. Undertake any type of fitness-based activity, and you'll see huge improvements in a short space of time - sure, it's hard at first, but performance will often improve 10 fold in just a couple of weeks.

Strengthening the body & improving dysfunctional movement patterns however isn't - it takes time. Muscle have to be forced to reawaken, learn how to fire correctly again in certain sequences & strengthened so that basic movement quality can be re-established. It just so happens that such a process also appears to impact calorie expenditure in much greater amounts that simply fitness based activity.

What all this means for you is this:

There is a hierarchy when it comes to training for fat loss.

Your first priority should be to strengthen the body & fix dysfunctional movement patterns via resistance training (as well as work on cosmetic trouble areas!). This will have the biggest impact on your resting metabolic rate AND fix things that need to be fixed.

THEN, you can add in select fitness work as appropriate for you. 

It's important, but not for getting lean. 

Remember this, as most people have it backwards. Don't let that be you!