Having navigated the world of weight loss for many years, I've noticed two common misconceptions among those who try to lose weight through exercise:

One group firmly believes that exercise must last for more than 30 minutes, otherwise fat cannot be burned.

Another method involves running two or three laps around the track and then happily waiting for your weight to drop.

1. How many minutes of exercise do you need to start burning fat?

Scientists conducted a study in which they implanted a detector in the arm of a subject. After starting exercise, blood sugar began to be consumed in the first minute. After 10 minutes of exercise, blood flow in adipose tissue increased, indicating that fat began to burn. Blood flow in adipose tissue reached its peak after 30 minutes of exercise.

Even if you stop exercising, the highest concentration of blood flow to adipose tissue can last for up to 6 hours. Furthermore, even if you exercise for more than 30 minutes, the fat you burn will only continue to burn for up to 6 hours.

Start burning fat in 10 minutes

Peak value reached in 30 minutes

6 hours after exercise

In terms of the calories burned directly from exercise, if the exercise intensity is the same, exercising continuously for 30 minutes will burn the same number of calories as exercising in two or three sessions for a total of 30 minutes. However, if your goal is to lose weight, ideally [please note that I said ideally, not necessarily] you can exercise continuously for 30 minutes. In this way, fat can be burned continuously for 6 hours.

2. What if I really can't last 30 minutes?

A girl came to me yesterday, saying she'd been exercising consistently for a week, but her weight hadn't gone down, and she was very frustrated and anxious. After asking her more details, I learned she'd only been running four laps around the track each day, followed by one brisk walk. [Compared to her previous sedentary lifestyle, that seems like a lot of exercise, doesn't it?]

However, I told her that her exercise level was too low. Four laps of jogging, totaling no more than 12 minutes and 1.6km, was insufficient for weight loss. She should at least aim for 5km.

She said, "What if I really can't run anymore?"

We need to give our bodies time to adjust before doing anything.

It's impossible for you to be a gentle fairy today and transform into a powerful superwoman tomorrow; or for you to be a chubby girl weighing 140 pounds today and transform into a goddess weighing 90 pounds tomorrow.

No matter how impatient you are or how much you want to lose weight quickly, gradual exercise is very important!

At first, if you can maintain the exercise for 15 minutes, set that as your goal. After a week, increase it to 20 minutes, then 25 minutes, and so on. A strict exercise plan generally takes at least a month to reach your target exercise volume.

GOOD NEWS

Exercise sessions exceeding 10 minutes at a time will begin burning fat and significantly improve cardiovascular function and overall fitness. Therefore, if you can't maintain 30 minutes at a time initially, you can divide it into three 10-minute sessions. People with poor cardiovascular function should never force themselves to exercise continuously.

3. How do I know if my body is burning fat?

Besides exercise duration, exercise intensity is also important.

However, we can't exercise like scientists do, wearing instruments to monitor our workouts. So how do we know if our exercise intensity is effectively burning fat?

Here's a simple way to tell: if you feel you can still talk but not sing while exercising, that's the ideal intensity. If you can still sing happily, the intensity isn't high enough; if you can't even speak, the intensity is too high and needs adjustment.

Other physical sensations: such as feeling noticeably warm, shortness of breath, and sweating (but note that sweat is for regulating body temperature. The amount of sweat is not related to the amount of fat burned).

4. Is it okay to exercise for several hours a day?

Some people say, "I have great stamina, can I exercise for several hours a day?"

Exercise is a good thing, but I hope you do it in moderation. Everything in excess is harmful.

Excessive exercise leads to excessive energy consumption, causing an imbalance in energy stores. This can cause obesity-related genes to reduce the production of lean proteins, increasing appetite and prompting the body to consume more energy to meet its needs. This can actually hinder weight loss. Furthermore, it increases the risk of exercise-related injuries.

The optimal amount of exercise for fat loss is no more than 5 days a week, and no more than 90-120 minutes a day. Of course, because everyone's physical condition is different, using time to measure whether exercise is excessive will be inaccurate. The simplest method is to use whether your appetite increases after exercise as a reference for whether the exercise is appropriate.

If you feel a decrease in appetite after exercise, it means that the amount of exercise is appropriate.

A strong appetite after exercise indicates that the amount of exercise was a bit too much.

Did you remember that?