Expert Advice For Over-40 Athletes About Training, Supplementation, Nutrition, Hormones, And More.

Let me set up a few situations for you as examples.

- Jay Campbell and Jim Brown

Q: Why does the body seem to burn more fat at a lower intensity level as opposed to a higher intensity level?

Jay Says: Let me set up a few situations for you as examples. First, let’s say you wake up in the morning and do fasted cardio at a steady state for 30 minutes. Your blood sugar is at its lowest level, meaning you don’t have available glucose floating around to be used as energy. If you start doing steady-state cardio with a lower heart rate, you are more likely to start burning fat as an energy source, not taking in consideration glucose being released by liver. If you keep the intensity lower, this should continue the whole time you’re doing cardio. Now, let’s imagine the same situation but you’re doing high intensity where your energy demands require glucose. You will go through the stored glycogen in liver, then start breaking down muscle protein for glucose. Overall, for trying to gain or retain muscle, we recommend low impact, steady-state cardio for the most part. Some high-intensity activities are fine, just plan ahead nutritionally so that you have adequate fuel as opposed to breaking down muscle proteins.

Q: My wife and I tried Metformin and experienced some lower GI issues. My doctor suggested Berberine as an alternative substitute. Do you have any recommendations?