Why Can't You Lose Weight with Aerobic Exercise?
When you think about reducing body fat, the first thing that probably comes to mind is exercise, isn't it?
I'm walking, but I can't lose weight...
I'm jogging, but I can't lose weight...
I'm swimming, but my body fat has increased...
I'm doing aerobic exercise, but there's no weight loss effect...
Exercise can be divided into anaerobic and aerobic. If you first understand their processes, benefits, drawbacks, and characteristics, your body shaping and weight loss efforts should become much more efficient.
Anaerobic exercise is any exercise that does not require oxygen to metabolize energy. This type of exercise can be further divided into two energy metabolisms: the phosphagen system and the lactic acid system. The former uses creatine phosphate as a source, while the latter uses carbohydrates. The phosphagen system can generate the highest intensity of power, but it lasts only for about 10 seconds and is primarily used for short-duration exercises like a 100m dash or weightlifting. When you continue exercising, the energy metabolism shifts to the lactic acid system, which begins to break down carbohydrates in the body for energy, which are then broken down into lactic acid. When lactic acid starts to build up, muscles become acidic, making muscle contractions more difficult. One of the roles of anaerobic exercise in weight loss is to intentionally create this state to stress the muscles and stimulate hormone secretion, such as growth hormone. This can lead to increased muscle strength and mass, and is expected to improve basal metabolism.
Unlike anaerobic exercise, aerobic exercise uses oxygen to metabolize energy. The energy sources used at this time are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. As the intensity decreases, the exercise becomes more aerobic, and the body begins to metabolize fat for energy. At this time, lactic acid produced from carbohydrate breakdown is also used as an energy source, so the lower the intensity, the less lactic acid builds up. Since aerobic exercise directly uses fat for energy, it is very suitable for the purpose of reducing body fat.
These two types of exercise are not completely separate; rather, it's better to think of them as transitioning from the phosphagen system to the lactic acid system and then to the aerobic system as the exercise duration lengthens and the intensity decreases. It might also be better to think of them as shifting back and forth—lactic acid system to aerobic system and back again—depending on the time and intensity. For example, even in a prolonged aerobic activity like a marathon, it is said that the body cycles between being more anaerobic and being completely aerobic depending on the specific moment.
With this in mind, when considering how to reduce body fat (lose weight) for body shaping, it's easy to think that light aerobic exercise is best. However, the human body is not that simple. You might have also had the baffling experience of doing light aerobic exercise and not losing any body fat, or perhaps even gaining it.
While it is true that low-intensity exercise is efficient for fat burning, the total calorie consumption will be low unless you exercise for a long time. This can often feel like a drop in the bucket. And that long duration is the tricky part. You might think, "I did an hour of aerobic exercise on the StairMaster, treadmill, or bike and burned about 150 calories. Well, if I drink a beer or orange juice after this, I'm at zero or a net gain..."
Examples of Drawbacks of Prolonged Aerobic Exercise
It's simply difficult and boring.
Physiologically, as exercise duration lengthens, the stress hormone cortisol is secreted, which breaks down muscle into carbohydrates, raises blood sugar, and causes insulin to be released. As you know, insulin lowers blood sugar, but it is also a hormone that signals the body to store fat. The longer the duration, the more of these hormones might be released.
Furthermore, muscle breakdown leads to muscle loss. Sadly, since muscle makes up most of the body's fat-burning furnaces, breaking down muscle is like actively making your body less likely to burn fat, despite all your time and effort.
But don't give up!
It's not that you can't lose weight with aerobic exercise. The key is how you use it. If you use it incorrectly, you'll be doing aerobic exercise and not losing any weight at all.
A Few Recommended Tips for Counteracting Aerobic Exercise's Drawbacks
Increase the size of your fat-burning furnace (muscle).
(For the same intensity and type of exercise, calorie consumption increases proportionally with muscle mass.)
Consider the type and intensity combination of your aerobic exercise.
Shorter workouts are less boring and don't disrupt your daily life.
Find ways to avoid muscle loss during aerobic exercise.
Consider the content and timing of meals before aerobic exercise.
Find ways to counteract insulin
Take measures against cortisol
... and so on.
As a start, mastering these basics is enough.
Furthermore, for women who want to lose weight beautifully, you should carefully check if the following six essential elements of body shaping are being addressed. Otherwise, it is quite difficult to lose weight and achieve a beautiful physique or a well-proportioned body. Any sensible woman would immediately understand that without these six essential body shaping elements, it is physically difficult to build beautiful muscle in the right places.
1. Volume adjustment (volume increase/decrease)
2. Shape (joint angles)
3. Body function (torsional rebound, diagonal coordination, pelvic mobility)
4. Symmetry (visual psychology)
5. Texture
6. Sense of trend/fashion
High-Quality Personal Training Cultivated Through Pro Model Body Creation
Professional models do not do exercise or training for the purpose of losing weight. Our high-quality body shaping personal training is cultivated through pro model body creation and is for the sake of fashion.
Personal Trainer
At Models, Toshiaki Ozeki, a personal trainer with 30 years of experience, provides personal training. "Body shaping = Fashion" — Models' personal training is a world apart from sports training and body shaping contest-style training.
Personal Training
for the General Public
- ✔︎ Women who want to achieve a sophisticated posture
- ✔︎ Women who want to move their bodies without strain
- ✔︎ Women who want to improve their physical stamina
- ✔︎ Women who want to build balanced muscle
- ✔︎ Women who want to change their body shape
Please click here for information on the process, fees, and rules for Models' personal training for the general public.
Personal Training
for Professionals
- ✔︎ Women who are often seen by others
- ✔︎ Women in professions that require them to be in the public eye
- ✔︎ Women who aspire to be a fashion model
Please click here for information on the process, fees, and rules for Models' personal training for professionals.
Body Shaping Methods
Many women think they should do more lower body exercises to slim their lower body! Are you also focusing blindly on lower body exercises because you want to slim your lower body? However, if the form doesn't match your skeletal structure, your hips and thighs might actually get bigger with muscle development. This is the dilemma of lower body exercises - even though you're doing body shaping...
From the extensive model guidance experience of personal trainer Toshiaki Ozeki, who has the #1 track record in model body shaping, it has been discovered that top models have developed what are called "model muscles" - muscle areas that ordinary people don't have. If you develop model muscles, you can achieve a model skeleton and automatically get a model body type. With model muscles, you can achieve the same straight, linear model body lines as top models.
Does doing lots of abdominal exercises remove fat from the waist? If you think so, that's a big problem! To conclude, body shaping is not that simple. Conversely, belly fat can be removed and the waist can be slimmed without doing abdominal exercises. To change a body that's hard to lose weight, you need authentic women's body shaping that produces results.
Slender, straight, thin stick legs - so-called model legs - have become essential not just for models but for all women in today's fashion-forward world where showing legs is mainstream. While model leg body shaping tends to focus only on making legs thinner, the key point of model leg body shaping is creating the straight, linear appearance of the legs.
In model body type body shaping, we reduce overall fat, change the shape of areas of concern, adjust posture and skeletal silhouette to straight joint angles, and organize body type lines. We polish the model body type by developing the same model muscles as top models. Finally, we add model body functions to achieve perfect finishing - this is true model body type body shaping.
To slim and beautifully shape your calves, you first need to objectively determine the cause of your thick calves. Causes of thick calves include: ① fat accumulation causing thickness, ② muscle causing thickness, ③ a combination of both. For cases ② and ③, body shaping that reduces calf muscle is essential.
While "pelvis" has become a standard term in women's body shaping and women's diet training, there are endless consultations about pelvis body shaping: "I didn't lose weight in a feminine way," "I didn't get a slender model-like body type," "I didn't lose weight at all"... Aren't you fed up with body shaping that uses the plausible-sounding word "pelvis" to obscure what's really happening?
Women with good posture are beautiful and cool. Good posture alone makes you look slimmer. Everyone surely thinks so. Even if you work hard to lose weight and diet, if you don't have beautiful posture, you won't look slender and your body shaping efforts will be wasted, won't they? In authentic body shaping, we don't leave posture to conscious effort - beautiful posture is achieved through body shaping training that changes the underlying skeletal joint angles.
Have you experienced doing upper arm exercises to slim your upper arms but finding that your upper arms don't get thinner? Or dieting but your upper arms don't look thinner? You might hear that you should do lots of upper arm exercises because your upper arms are a concern, but you've probably already realized that doing only upper arm exercises has almost no effect on reducing upper arm fat or slimming them.
Do you really understand the body mechanisms for weight loss and the systems that enable dieting? Is not eating the best way to lose weight? Is exercise unnecessary for weight loss? Can you lose weight by going to diet gyms or women's exclusive body shaping gyms? Does cardio burn fat? Foods introduced on TV one after another and exercise books lining bookstore shelves... The honest truth is you don't know which ones are really effective!!
"Body Shaping = Fashion" - We shape your body to a type that can wear any outfit like top models, allowing you to freely enjoy fashion as you shape your body. This can only be achieved through authentic body shaping. Instead of being chosen by clothes, you shape your body for the clothes. Why not freely shape your body type to enjoy fashion?