The internet is a wonderful place to find hacks that promise quick results without most of the hard work. In keeping with the same, we once came across a workout video that promises to keep you in fat-burning state all day. Well, apparently. The digital creator listed the following exercises, advising those on a weight loss journey to do them first thing in the morning on an empty stomach for 20 minutes.
Does this hack really work? reached out to an expert to find out.
Dr Irania Ravanan, consultant-diabetologist and physician, KMC Prakriya Hospitals, , said that the video is factually correct. “Majority of the population fasts for 8–12 hours between dinner and breakfast. Around this time, fat burning is just beginning to happen. Exercising when one is already fat burning will result in better results,” she said.
According to her, that help build muscles lead to increased muscle mass. This will ensure greater energy utilization during the day and reduce the time taken to deplete glycogen stores in the liver and commencement of fat burning.
Dr Ravanan explained that glucose is the most easily available and used fuel in the body, and the body has mechanisms to keep the glucose level within normal range. After eating, additional glucose is first stored as glycogen in the liver. The liver can store about 100 – 120g of glycogen. Any additional carbohydrate absorbed from the meal is then stored as fat.
“When we fast, the glucose in the blood is constantly replenished by breakdown of the glycogen to glucose. It can take 10 – 12 hours for the glycogen stores in the liver to be completely depleted. The speed of depletion will depend of the consumption during the state of fasting,” she said. Once the glycogen store is depleted, fat is metabolized to glucose. This is fat burning.
Increasing levels of overweight and obesity is a significant healthcare problem among the adults and children today. Weight is an important but not the only marker of health of an individual. Reducing one’s weight to achieve a BMI of 18 – 23 (for Asians) and 20 – 25 for others will significantly reduce healthcare risks.
Dr Ravanan added that a combination of intermittent fasting and exercise that results in muscle building is the most efficient and long lasting solution to achieve weight loss. Intermittent fasting without exercise can cause significant muscle loss too, otherwise known as sarcopenia, which will reduce ones abilitiy to keep the weight off.
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