8 seconds key to weight loss

[Galatia]

8 seconds key to weight loss

By Clare Masters

Daily Telegraph


A REVOLUTION in weight loss is about to hit Sydney after scientists devised a workout that burns three times the amount of fat.


They found their specific brand of interval training prompts the body to click into a metabolic response that allows more fat to be burned under the skin and within the muscles.

Researchers at the University of NSW and the Garvan Institute studied 45 overweight women over 15 weeks, putting them through a 20 minute cycling regime in which they sprinted on a stationary bike for eight seconds followed by 12 seconds of cycling lightly.

"They lost three times more weight as other women who exercised at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes," UNSW Associate Professor Steve Boutcher said.

Their success was due to higher amounts of chemical compounds called catecholamines that are produced in increasing amounts when linked to interval sprinting; the resulting chemical reaction drives greater weight loss.

The scientists believe the regime would also be applicable to swimming, walking, running and rowing.

Professor Boutcher said other types of interval training use longer interludes which are not as effective for overweight people and said the current government recommendations for exercise are largely ineffectual.

"Walking for 60 minutes, seven times a week does not result in much fat loss, usually 1.15kg over 15 weeks – for a lot of overweight people this is going to be a revolution," he said.

The scientists found their method could "spot reduce" troublesome areas such as legs and buttocks.

The system will be useful to diabetics, as "insulin resistance was dragged down by about 32 per cent".

The findings were welcomed by Bondi local Kim Broderick, 21.

"I try to run or walk but if this system works better it's great."

The scientists are now ready for the next phase of the study which controls food and exercise plans.

"We hope to find even more loss in fat," Professor Boutcher said.

The trial will put participants through the interval training while placing them on a Mediterranean diet of fresh food as well as daily fish oil capsules, which helps burn fat more efficiently.

[Espi]

It's a very catchy title, isn't it! Who wouldn't want to get slimmer in just 8 seconds!

I bet they'd talk differently when trying Tabata! Anyone who dared to do a Tabata protocol?

[Margo]

Gee, pretty much HIIT, right?

[Built]

HIIT on crack, yes.

[Built]

More on this

[Built]

I'm going to be trying this soon. Is anyone else doing it?

[Inatic]

what makes that better than reg hiit?

[wendyoh]

I'm going to be trying this soon. Is anyone else doing it?

Crap!  60 sprints?    I'll let you test this one out MA

[Built]

My feeling is that it has to do with ATP-CP.

[wendyoh]

My feeling is that it has to do with ATP-CP.

In English, por favor?   

[Built]

ATP (adenosine triphosphate - that means three phosphates, folks) fuels muscle cells by breaking off a phosphate, forming ADP (adenosine diphosphate - two phoshpates are left) as the ATP is used to provide energy. Simple math will tell you ADP increases as ATP is broken down for energy.

This increase in relative ADP concentration activates AMPk, an enzyme that stimulates both fatty acid oxidation and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle.

Acute activity induces a sudden energy-need at the cellular level. The energy produced from phosphate breaking off ATP is useful for extremely short bursts - say under 10 seconds.

When ATP is high enough, and excess energy is available, it is stored (through the phosphate) as CP. The phosphate in CP is not immediately available to the cell as energy, but it is a compact energy storage unit for phosphate which is required to regenerate (from ADP and phosphate) ATP - which is the only available energy source to the cell.
 
My thinking is that ATP is the energy handler. CP is the non-user-friendly storage space for P. ATP hands off P for energy, then picks up P from CP so it has it available for the next energy request.  At least, that's how it makes sense in my little brain.

Anything lasting longer than this requires glucose. The anerobic combustion of glucose results in lactate.

For the 8-seconds sprinting, 12 seconds of recovery sprint protocol, the acute energy need of the cell increase the ratio of ADP to ATP, which activates AMPk. In doing so, fatty acid oxidation is increased. Because the sprints are so short (ie under the 10-second threshold), glycogen is spared. This is a "pure" ATP protocol.
 
Now, the sprinting stimulates catecholamine release, promoting lipolysis. ADP:ATP increases, AMPk is activated, promoting fatty acid oxidation.
 
Marriage made in heaven, right?
 
Sooo... you do the sprint, you stimulate catecholamine. This promotes lipolysis of peripheral stores. If you go beyond 10 seconds, you go into the glycolytic pathway, producing lactate as a byproduct of the incomplete (ie anaerobic) combustion of glucose. But we don't go this far - and it appears that it's the lactate that prevents FFAs from catecholamine-induced lipolysis from hitting the blood-stream. This was the part Romjin et al discovered in their ground-breaking research a few years back, and which is why Lyle has people sit on their asses and wait five minutes after doing stubborn fat loss protocol before doing the SS cardio which follows.

I may have bits of this wrong. I'm still working it out.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[wendyoh]

Thank you   I don't understand all of this, but it sounds good when you explain it   I thought Lyle had decreased his sprint lengths in his SFP b/c he thought they would increase effectiveness, and he has since changed his view that longer sprints are more effective.  Any idea about this? 

[Built]

You can go harder and faster short than long.

Now, we need us some emperical evidence! <rubs hands together>

[wendyoh]

Will you be doing these on the bike, as in the article? 

I'm trying to imagine what I'd have to set the treadmill on for 8 second sprints.  I do 10 mph incline 3% for 20 second sprints.  I'd have to increase the incline even more.  Sounds dangerous, treadmill is probably a bad choice

[Built]

I intend to do these on the bike, correct.