It is possible to burn fat without running 100 miles a week or being hungry all the time. The secret: staying focused on running and walking and using your conscious brain when you choose foods at mealtimes. Be sure to read the next chapter, Cognitive Control Over Nutrition—Fat Burning.
Our subconscious brain has numerous eating patterns that reward us for eating. In The End of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler explains how eating various combinations of sugar, salt, and fat triggers the neurotransmitter dopamine which delivers a temporary dose of joy. Such comfort food experiences that are often repeated become hardwired into the reflex brain as a stimulus–response activity. So when we are talking to friends at a party with a bowl of potato chips nearby, it is common to subconsciously eat one after another without being aware of doing so. The taste of each is so rewarding that we can’t stop at one—or 20—because we allow the subconscious brain to be in charge. No accountability.
Concepts of fat burning:
Aerobic running burns fat. Liberal walk breaks help you stay aerobic.
Long, aerobic runs can adapt the muscle cells to be better fat burners.
During speed training and fast running, you’re not burning fat, but glycogen (stored form of carbohydrate). So slower is better for fat burning.
Walking is aerobic—the more steps you take, the more fat you burn without a significant hunger response.
Monitor food intake by using one of the programs or websites that give you accountability.
Tools that can help you shift away from monkey brain eating:
Use a website like www.fitday.com to monitor intake and analyze nutrition.
Use a resource like Running and Fatburning for Women by Barbara and Jeff Galloway or Nutrition for Runners by Jeff Galloway with Nancy Clark RDN.
for additional information to help understand the process better.
Set your calorie deficit goal each day (150-350 calories).
Set up a calorie budget for each day (websites and apps can help you with tracking).
Get a step counter and increase the number of walking steps to achieve your calorie deficit (10,000 is the goal).
As you monitor your eating and exercise, your conscious brain is in control. You can then take action to improve efficiency of the process. You control your budget.
By increasing walking steps to more than 10,000, you can eat a few more calories and still lose fat if you set up and follow the calorie budget.
How to modify reflex eating behaviors:
Estimate calorie content before eating anything—this shifts consciousness to frontal lobe.
If there are foods that you really love that are hazardous to your diet, eat small amounts and account for each.
Search for foods that are healthy that you can gradually swap for the hazardous foods.
Reward yourself for making progress with non-food items.