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I thing you may want to serioulsy reexamine where you get your fat loss info. While that guy may be a great triathlete the only real realization is that a triathlete or a distance runner cannot train like a sprinter all the time.

When someone is going to make scientific assertions they need some sources to back it up. A lot of what he says is just dead wrong. Especially the idea that the body only burns fat at this one certain intensity. I.E. until he started training a certain way his body didn't "know" how to burn fat. Just not true. While higher percentages of fat may be burned at lower intensities anytime you are using you muscles do do work at any realistic amount of time all fuel sources will come into play to on extent or another. It's the myth of the "fat burning zone".

Even in HIIT, as Dave suggested you try, fat will be utilized to some extent, and in fact, even though fat oxidation will be lower in percentage if more calories are burned the total amount of fat burned can be the same if not higher. It is a trick of mathematics that makes people thing that higher percentage translates alway to a higher number. I'm not really preacing one way or another, just saying that the fat burning zone isn't a reality.

Also, as Dave suggested, what has worked up to this point may not necessarily keep working. Low intensity, high intensity, no intensity is the "key" to overall fat loss. What works is what works. AND what you can maintain and doesn't have your body desearately rebounding as soon as you let down your guard.

BTW, 15% is a great healthy number for the normal active person. You've done a fantastic job so good work. My .02 would be to focus on appearance at this point instead of single digit numbers, which are neither necessary or realistic to maintain for everyone.

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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

Good point. And in reading my earlier post, its obvious that I forgot to mention that I would want to minimize the amount of "non-fat" sources that I burn during this experience, hence the low-intensity workouts. So, yes, I realize that the high-intensity could burn just as much fat in a shorter period, but I do want to keep the (little?) muscle that I have. I'm carrying more than enough fat on my frame to fuel me through this - the last thing that I need to do is deflate my biceps

HMMM....I think I see what you're thinking is on this. Let me suggest another way of looking at it cuz I don't think 2 hours a day 5 days a week is going to make your body want to preserve you biceps especially at such a low calorie intake for such a big guy.

One thing you're talking about is cortisol. I've seen at least one study that suggests that higher intensity to some extent releases more cortisol than long duration. But that was 20 minutes vs. 45 minutes. Not 2 hours! It becomes a moot point. I agree with Dave on that issue.

But fat loss is not a adaptation. It's the last thing your body wants to do. To adapt to long duration (and longer and longer duration) your body adapts by becoming more efficient at it. This means in a nutshell that over time your body burns less fat to produce the same amount of work. Not really a desirable outcome unless your prepared to go longer and longer periods of time.

Muscle is the only tissue in the body to burn fat. More muscle burns more fat. A larger muscle would burn more fat during any activity than a smaller one. The more efficient your body becomes at utilizing fat the less muscle it will need to do so. There is nothing muscle preserving in long duration cardio. It just doesn't work that way. Preserving muscle is more about nutrition (like the post workout meal Dave mentioned) and resistance exercise. Your body will not look at the fat on your frame and say, "ok, I have to use all this up before I can touch the muscle."

Interesting stuff. Here's what my research shows, you tell me where the hole are. I'm not going to cite sources here because I think that most of this is inline with mainstream medical texts.

1 - your body has 3 basic sources for energy - fats, protein and glycogen

2 - ideally, your body wants to burn fat because it's highly efficient with 9 calories per gram (recall that a calorie is a unit of heat/energy)

3 - The problem with fat usage is that it's stored "deep" in the body. You can't access it quickly - it takes your body time to be able to use it.

4 - During high-intensity exercise your body is not getting enough oxygen and time to get to use fat, therefore it mostly relies on glycogen and, ultimately, protein for energy.

5 - My understanding is that LIT vs HIT have directly inverse sources of energy. LIT uses a mix of 80% fat and 20% glycogen for energy, HIT uses 80% glycogen, 20% fat. This is evidenced by how you feel during HIT - the heavy burning feeling in your muscles is lactic acid, which is a by-product of burning glycogen. The cramps you feel are the byproduct of your liver giving up the stored glycogen.

So, once again, my goal is to stay within the fat-burning zone and burn fat as my main energy source. Yes, I realize that I will be giving up some muscle mass in the process, but removing the fat is my main concern here.

What do you think?

HIT and HIIT are two different things
HIT = High Intensity Training, (weight training specific)

HIIT = High Intensity Interval Training, (cardio specific)

Today (the 18th) was the first day of my cardio workout plan. I had intended to start on the 17th but ran into some problems with getting my heart rate monitor working and had to delay it by one day.

So, I got up really early today and headed to the treadmill. I actually felt pretty good throughout it. I carried with me:
-A bottle of gatorade
-A towel
-iPod nano

With my current fitness level, the 2-hours on the treadmill are really not that difficult, it's really more about making myself comfortable on it and then just putting one foot in front of the other, repeat ad naseum. For some reaon, I find the final 30 minutes to be incredibly borring - not taxing, just boring. Still have to look into getting myself a video iPod to catch up on some TV shows or something cause music alone isn't going to cut it.

It's about 2 hours later right now and I'm feeling OK. My knees are only slightly sore and my feet are fine. I'm using some comfortable sandals to massage them, but otherwise, I'm fine. We'll see how I feel tommorrow morning when it comes time to do it all over again

I forgot to post about my nutrition. I didn't have as much fruit on-hand as I would have liked, but I did use a Clif bar. I had half before the workout and the other half immediately afterwards. My stomach responds favorably to Clif bars and it provides enough quick sugar to get me going and for recovery.

My first week of this new program is now over and I'm feeling OK. This was the schedule for the past week:

Monday - 2hrs on treadmill
Tuesday - 2hrs on treadmill
Weds - Rest
Thurs - 1hr on treadmill, 1hr on the road with running club
Friday - Core-training, ab work and push-ups (2 variations)

Saturday I will be doing some cross-training and Sunday I have a 5-mile running race that I aim to finish in under 45 minutes.

While I'm not getting the hours on the treadmill that I'd like, this is mostly due to my desire to ease into this because I don't want to risk any injuries. The treadmill is good, but it's not as forgiving on the knees as I'd like. I had a shorter workout today, but I'm really working on my chest & abs, so I blasted them today and feel pretty good about it.

Also, with this new program, I'll be reserving the weekends for my races/events. I have some running & cycling events coming up and that will help with the fat burn.

My diet was still pretty good. I eat very clean and have good discipline about it. I'm focusing mostly on protein and while I'm not depriving myself of carbs, I'm definitely limiting them.

Overall, a good week. Still getting used to being on the treadmill for so long, but that's only a matter of time.