Eating and Exercising to Burn More Fat

After finishing my Metabolic Efficiency test, I had some action steps to take to start burning more fat and more importantly, I was committed to getting results. I really wanted to find out if this would work and report back to you.

If you haven’t read part 1 to understand ME, calorie burn and using more fat for fuel, then I’d recommend starting there because it’s an important component.

I don’t have any dramatic before and after photos, sorry I wasn’t aiming for a massive weight loss. Mostly performance and some body fat, both of which I got in surprising amounts.

Here are my thoughts/process after just 10 weeks and I’ll update after my next race in 3 months to see what the more lasting results are!

Initial Fat Burning Results

I’ve got a lot of details to share, but I know you want the highlight reel. As noted in part 1, over seven weeks I improved my fat burning by over 20% and here’s what that impacted:

• Ran a half marathon with another post surgery PR needing no fuel
• Reached my highest week of mileage in over 3 years with no fatigue (50 miles)
• Ran my longest run in over 3 years feeling strong and on very little fuel (18.5 miles)
• Lost 5 lbs (not really my goal)
• Lost a 1/2 inch from my waist I’ve been fighting since injury
• Visibly I look leaner, but I didn’t get a formal body fat test

Within the first two weeks I was back down to my pre-injury weight from 2017. Even after following all the macro advice for months, I wasn’t able to make that happen.

We’re talking a couple pounds, so nothing crazy here, but definitely got my attention. And made me think maybe something was happening, so I kept focused.While I wish I’d taken body fat measurements, recently I decided against that because what’s more important to me is how I feel and of course I can look in the mirror and see if my body is changing. 😊

Over the coming weeks, I found it stayed there easily. I dropped another couple pounds even while increasing mileage to my highest in 3 years and then while tapering for a race, when we normally see weight go up. This put me back at my lowest weight in possibly a decade, but feeling healthy not fatigued and run down.

Can you actually teach your body to burn more fat? Yup and it's not that hard with these tips! #metabolicefficiency #eatwell Share on X

What did I change to burn more fat?

One of the first things many people have to change is how hard they’re training. Yup, more easy running, less of that weird spot where you’re running too hard, but not hard enough for a speed workout.

Because I’m already doing Low Heart Rate training, I was on the right track and that could be what helped me see results more quickly.

Exercise for fat burning

You’ll focus on working below the cross over point found in your initial test, which is why the test is so incredibly helpful!! It’s not something you can really know for sure without it, though I would say that using the Maffetone LHR formula is at least a good start.

This will feel really frustrating for people who are used to working out at higher intensities, but remember this is a perfect time for base building.

I’ve talked a lot  more about this concept of going slow to burn fat and then go fast in Low Heart Rate training. So I’m not going to belabor this particular point.

The second component here is not loading up on carbs right before you run. If your body has them available, then it will continue to go to them first for fuel. Again, this topic I’ve covered in depth on when you should and should not run fasted, which he 100% agreed with all statements.

Nutrition for fat burning

The biggest focus was what he calls the 1:1 ratio. Or the hand model, where you want your protein to be the size of your hand and have an equal amount of carbohydrates. This isn’t weighing food or counting macros, Dr Seebohar says to just visually fill your plate with equal amounts. And of course if you’re filling your carbs with veggies then you’re hitting the fiber goal to fill you up too.

Though Dr Seebohar doesn’t specifically tell you to cut out grains, you’ll definitely find yourself eating less of them to hit that ratio. However, this still shouldn’t result in a low carb diet (ie. less than 50 grams a day), but it might be lower than you’re used to eating because we’ve been trained to believe runners need massive amounts of carbs.

Issues with Undereating?
The first couple weeks as noted I quickly dropped pounds, but finally realized I was vastly undereating because I wasn’t hungry having nudged out a lot of sugar and slightly increasing my protein and fat intake.(I mean I like food, so this was weird!!)

So, I started going to 1:2 of protein:carbs for some meals and that quickly brought my energy levels back up. A good reminder that after a longer run, I’m still going to focus on intuitive eating and refuel with a bit more carbohydrates.

Overall my macros didn’t change much from what I’d be recommended by others, but the way I was eating them changed a lot and I think this is a HUGE missing piece of the whole eat whatever you want if it’s in your macros mindset.

No more handfuls of Cheerios randomly throughout the day because that would be a straight carb. I needed to keep my blood sugar balanced by always getting in protein.

Basically a mindset switch more than a massive food swtich.

• I dropped my sugar simply by thinking about this idea of never eating a carb by itself. (it was already lower than I’ve ever been, but this helped with that last little bit)
• I started drinking Sparkling Ice that’s 0 carbs to satisfy my sugar cravings and it worked like a charm, also keeping me hydrated.
• I didn’t count calories or macros. But, I tracked everything simply to see if it looked different from before focusing on food this way. End of the day my protein and carb macros were very close to equal.
• Initially, it felt weird to eat less veggies, which mostly meant I needed to increase my protein volume to eat more veggies. This is something I’d been told for awhile and am finally doing.
• Snacks became things like Turkey Jerky, Bada Beans or just a spoonful of nut butter sans the cereal
• Snack bars are often way too high in carbs, but I found a number that meet the 1:1 or 1:2 guideline making them ideal for during higher mileage weeks: Vega Sport Bar, Kind Protein Bar, Perfect Bars.
• Added in a daily probiotic. I’ve been told this by so many RD’s, but wasn’t doing it. I figured with more protein I’d do everything I could to help my stomach.

What I did not do?

• I didn’t stop eating chocolate, pizza or cereal.
• I didn’t go Keto and eat all the fat, the fat came in naturally through the protein.
• I didn’t demonize any food group.
• I didn’t feel bad if I had a meal that wasn’t exactly 1:1.
• I didn’t follow a keto plan or a paleo plan.

I just kept paying attention and focusing on how I felt. Overall, I can say my standard mileage increase normal hunger wasn’t as apparent and especially that feeling of waking up in the night feeling ravenous (usually a result of enjoying a super wonderful high carb meal after long runs) didn’t happen eitehr.

Ultimately, I’d like to go back in for a third test later this year and see if I’ve moved my cross over point farther. Hopefully, I can keep pushing it closer to my 9:10 pace and that means less fueling needed for a sub 4 hour marathon.

Initial Race Results

Just after my second round of testing, I headed out to the Santa Barbara Wine Valley half marathon. As a hilly course, I knew my HR would go up which is usually when you start burning more carbohydrates for fuel and thus I expected to need fuel.

However, I fueled less during that race than any previous race and finished feeling fantastic and with a small post surgery PR!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Amanda:Runner/Active Traveler (@runtothefinish) on May 19, 2019 at 7:33am PDT

For a few days while we enjoyed vacation in Santa Barbara I relaxed my 1:1 protocol and did come about 3 lbs up from when I left. However, that’s pretty normal with any race and by the following weekend I was already seeing most of that vanish.

Gladys Experience: Active and Overweight

As noted, this initially hit my radar due to a friend while I lived in Miami. So, I wanted to share her experience with you as well!  Because we’re all an experiment of one, it’s often great to see that something has worked for people who are completely different!

Since I am 6 years old, I have been a very active person, including being an elite swimmer for Eastern Germany. Sure, I took a few breaks from swimming to try other things like ballroom dancing, underwater rugby and running, but I was always active.

Even though I was consistently working out, I struggled badly with my weight.

Moving to the USA 8 years ago did not help! I kept running, even started with triathlons and trained and finished two 70.3 distances (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike and 13.1mi run) last year – but I kept gaining.

I became an unhappy person, and unhappy athlete.

It seemed no matter what I did (diets, workout styles, etc) – nothing changed.

I became worried about achieving my major goal: to complete an Ironman distance triathlon (2.4mi swim, 122mi bike, 26.2mi run) in October of 2014. I knew I needed a change, but what was left?

Working out and still not losing the weight? Read this Share on X

Metabolic Efficiency

In November 2013, I was introduced to my “nutritionist.” I put the term in quotation marks because technically Javiar Diaz is a doctor of Pharmacy with a specialty in metabolic efficiency training, but that’s above my pay grade!

Basically, he helps endurance athletes to succeed with their dreams by training smart and living healthy to get the best possible performance out of their body.

Nevertheless, my goal was weight loss, and I cared less about his “metabolic efficiency”. But I was ready to listen and over the next 6-7 month I made these changes:

• Good Bye to sugar!!!!!! This was hard since I’m a professed sugar addict.
• Good Bye to most of the nutrition products offered in stores in terms of gels, cubes, bars.
  {How to fuel your runs with whole foods}
• Relearning about carbs as a fuel source by eliminating all grains (until training increased and then oats, brown rice, quinoa)
• Adding in vegetable and fruit carbohydrates all the time
• Cooking from scratch
• Prepping meals
• Learning to snack the right way – for hunger, not boredom and on nuts/fruits
• Meals became healthy fuel for my body and not because I was bored.
• Building a stronger aerobic base that would burn more fat {Low Heart Rate Training details!}

When asked how she quit sugar…like a true athlete she said “I had to suck it up because I had a goal.”

Committed Results

I lost 40lbs.

My runs are now sub 10min/mile, which was a goal I’d been chasing for years. My 5k time dropped from 37min to 27 min and I completed a 16 mile training run in the same time as I did 13.1miles a year ago.

Most of all, I became a happier and healthier person.

Thanks to Gladys for being open to sharing her story too!! I certainly am excited to see what happens if I stick with this program!!

For those local to Colorado, I can’t recommend Dr Seebhoar enough. I paid for the Potential enrg package to get the initial and follow up testing done, but as noted I’d actually like to go back again in another few months.

Do you think about balancing protein and carbs at your meals?

Other ways to connect with Amanda
Instagram Daily Fun: RunToTheFinish

Facebook Community Chatter: RunToTheFinish

Sign Up to Receive a Weekly Newsletter with Top Running Tip