At the moment, it is generally accepted that aerobic exercise helps burn fat. Gyms are filled with treadmills, steppers, elliptical, rowing, bicycle simulators, on which people who want to lose weight spend 40-60 minutes doing moderate-intensity movements - running, walking, pedaling, etc.

According to the theory of this issue, after 20-30 minutes of training on such simulators in conditions of a full supply of tissues with oxygen, fats begin to burn (the first 20-30 minutes of physical work is performed due to carbohydrates - i.e. due to blood sugar, glycogen in the liver and muscles).

Of course, it is not necessary to use exercise equipment, you can just run around the park, walk up long stairs, ride a bike, etc.

The main condition is that such training should be performed for at least 30 minutes (otherwise it simply does not make sense, because fat will not yet begin to be used as fuel), and take place at an average load intensity.

The facts really support this - the one who finds time to exercise regularly, the one who really loses weight.

However, as I studied the theory of the effect of aerobic exercise on the human body, I began to have some questions.

1. If aerobic exercise is presented as an indispensable condition for achieving ideal weight and a beautiful figure, then what about the eloquent story of Jane Fonda, the creator of aerobics. A few years ago, the "aerobics queen" made a stunning confession: it turns out that her figure is not the result of many hours of daily exhausting physical exercises, but the sleight of hand of a plastic surgeon. Back in 1989-1992, Fonda underwent a series of operations to improve the shape of her body and bust, including the removal of her two lower ribs, so that her waist would become even thinner.

But doesn't this mean that the possibilities of aerobics are greatly exaggerated?

2. The second piece of news was about research by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The center's specialists studied the health of athletes and came to a paradoxical conclusion: the more kilometers an athlete runs in a year, the higher his chance of getting a viral cold.

For example, a three-hour run at a marathon pace (namely, a load of this intensity is recommended during aerobics classes) reduces immune body's capabilities by 50-65%. In order to then restore immunity to a normal level, athletes needed from 1 to 3 days, and it was during this period that they were at risk of catching colds.

It turns out that prolonged aerobic exercise reduces immunity.

3. I have always been interested in the question of training and nutrition for ballerinas.

Ballerinas train for 10-12 hours a day, their load mode is aerobic.

Let's calculate approximately the energy consumption of ballerinas.

On average, if we take that aerobic exercise per hour contributes to the expenditure of 300 kcal of energy, then a ballerina burns about 3000 kcal per day only due to physical activity. But there is also the main exchange, which will be no less than 1000 kcal.

But the ballerina not only works 10-12 hours a day, she also sleeps, eats, goes shopping, etc. Let us sum up these energy expenditures (the remaining 12-14 hours), which we will approximately distribute as follows:

8 hours of sleep = 50 kcal x 8 hours = 400 kcal;

2 hours for a quiet walk (the way from home to work and back, shopping) = 190 kcal x 2 hours = 380 kcal;

2-4 hours to rest sitting or lying down = 65 kcal x (2-4) hours = 130-260 kcal.

As a result, it turns out that a 50-kilogram ballerina spends on average about 5000 kcal of energy per day.

This is about as much as miners or diggers spend.

But let's look at the nutrition of ballerinas.

Their nutrition is specific, here is what one of them writes:

"In the 1970s, during my studies at the Moscow School (I don’t think that anything has changed dramatically since then), the weight of high school girls should not exceed 50 kg, regardless of height. After the milestone fifth grade, the program included duet dance, and it was believed that it was harmful for boys to lift more than 50 kg.

Every week we had a control weigh-in. The day before, we ate furosemide, a strong diuretic, and tried to drink less. After furosemide, you run to the toilet every fifteen minutes, the next morning you come with bruises under your eyes, but minus two kilos he provided ironically. After weighing five days we lived quietly.

Another milestone is final exams. We passed the "classics" in short pink chitons, all our bodies were conspicuous, we ourselves were disgusted.

One of the girls sat on hard cheese and dry wine for two weeks. From such a diet she was constantly in a light drunk and immediately after the exam she collapsed into a faint.

Some, not so risky, ate unleavened buckwheat porridge: three times a day, two tablespoons, snacking on dried fruits. "

As we can see, the food is the most severe. Six tablespoons of unleavened buckwheat porridge per day and some dried fruits!

But this is at the school. Maybe after school ballerinas eat better?

Reading:

"Ballet people lead a nocturnal lifestyle - late performances, excitement after a load. They eat little or almost no food for breakfast - they don’t feel like it yet, the body has not yet woken up.someday they will intercept the chicken, or even limit themselves to tea with chocolate. Real life begins late in the evening at home. At night, ballet people eat soup. "

Those. and after school, the ballerina cannot afford to eat normally. On average, the daily calorie intake of a ballerina seems to be kept at the level of 800 - 1000 kcal per day.

A natural question arises - why, with a constant daily many hours of aerobic exercise, limit nutrition so much? Indeed, if we proceed from modern ideas, then with a daily 10-12 hour aerobic load, a ballerina could eat like an elephant and not gain weight.

4. There is not a single example in nature when an animal would unnecessarily make long runs. Long-term aerobic exercise of moderate intensity (especially marathon running) is a recent invention of man, and, in general, is not characteristic of him and is not natural to him.

5. There is such a thing as a tendency to thinness. We all know people who can eat a lot, but not get better. This is the tendency to thinness, or resistance to weight gain.

But we also know people who can get better "even from the air." These are people who tend to gain weight.

It seemed very strange to me that among those who devoted a lot of time in the past to aerobic exercise - aerobics trainers, oriental dance instructors, former ballerinas, etc. - A lot of people are overweight.

This is especially true for ballerinas. A ballerina who has left dancing is very often so blurred that one can talk about obesity of 2-3 degrees, as an occupational disease of former ballerinas.

It seems that aerobic exercise, although it allows you to drive fat, but does a person generally prone to gaining excess weight. And even in cases where a person was originally thin and prone to thinness (and others quickly drop out of ballet schools and colleges).

All these questions require answers.

To answer these questions, we will have to touch on some questions of physiology.

The human body has a universal energy accumulator - it is adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

The human body obtains ATP in various ways from various sources. The way the body tends to get ATP, or, more simply, energy, indirectly determines its tendency to either store fat or become thin.

In total, there are three main sources of energy (ATP sources): the breakdown of creatine phosphate; glycolysis; oxygen oxidation.

The first two sources of energy (cleavage of creatine phosphate and glycolysis) do not require the presence of oxygen, i.e. are anaerobic.

The creatine phosphate breakdown system is used for short-term, intensive work. The molecules in our muscle cells divide to make energy, and creatine phosphate rebuilds those molecules so even more energy can be produced. This system is especially important for high intensity workouts such as weight training, sprinting, jumping, throwing, etc.

This process lasts for only 10 seconds. After 10 seconds of high-intensity exercise, the reserves of creatine phosphate in the muscles will be used up, and the body switches to the use of the next energy source - glycolysis.

The anaerobic glycolysis system is also anaerobic. Glycolysis plays an important role in the energy supply of exercises, the duration of which ranges from 30 seconds to 150 seconds. These include running medium distances, swimming 100-200m, cycling, long accelerations.

This system uses glucose, which is present in our blood, or glycogen from the muscles and liver.

The last system - oxygen oxidation - is aerobic, because. actively uses oxygen. Just this system is directly involved in aerobic training. The source of energy during oxygen oxidation can be both fat and proteins and carbohydrates.

Fat oxidation occurs in mitochondria with the obligatory use of molecular oxygen, which is largely limited the speed of this process. This system provides basic metabolic processes, as well as long-term muscular work of moderate power.

Fats are the main substrate for mitochondrial oxidation. Another name for this process is tissue respiration, it can use not only fats, but they are the most profitable fuel for this energy supply mechanism.

So, we briefly considered the issue of energy supply of ATP muscles. But what happens next with this ATP?

The fact is that the muscles in their structure are very reminiscent of a telescopic