DLNews Health:

The fat burning. A term that has been used very inflationary in recent decades, especially in the fitness industry!

What is fat burning anyway, and are we actually burning anything in the body? So with fire and stuff? The answer is: no! But, of course, we don't have a fire in our bodies (although it might feel like it sometimes after eating chili peppers). Ergo, the correct physiological term would be fat metabolism - or the training of the same and the associated oxidative processes. However, I don't want to bore you with biochemistry here, but rather explain how the body does it.

Losing weight is about energy balance.

Many think they have a few extra pounds on their ribs and want to shed them. How it works? Very easily. In principle, you only have to take in less energy from your food than your body requires. 

My ole saying, "Like filling your car up with gas but never driving it."

Or you turn the whole thing around and use more energy (e.g., through sport) to get back to precisely this negative calorie balance. Calories are simply a physical measure of energy. Thoroughly explained: A calorie (or kilocalorie) is the energy required to heat one liter of water from around 15 to 16 degrees Celsius. And we consume this every day through our food.

So let's start by saying that losing weight is primarily about energy or calories, not just fat. Although fat is a potent energy source (1 gram of fat contains 9.3 kcal), there are other tasty nutrients such as carbohydrates and protein. 

What is fat burning all about?

It's long been known that the body likes to attack its fat at low intensities, especially if the workout is long. This makes perfect sense because, as we know, most of the energy is in fat. Unfortunately, this also led to the prejudice that fat was only "burned" with low loads (e.g., slow running or walking) from 30 minutes upwards. This is incorrect. The body draws on fats for energy in the first few minutes of exercise; this percentage increases with more extended training. So it's true that percentage-wise, you metabolize more fat during an easy/long workout - but wrong that you don't do the same with other types of exercise.

Training in fat metabolism is not the decisive factor in losing weight. 

And to go back to the initial hypothesis of the negative calorie balance:

If you want to lose weight (i.e., lose fat), you don't necessarily have to train in the fat metabolism. The main thing is that the calorie balance is "slightly" negative, and you move - preferably through sport. And if you ask me - preferably through strength training, because a large muscle burns many calories (even at rest)!