Step it up to burn fat part 1

 



Back in the day we were told you had to stay in the fabled fat burning zone with your cardio to burn more fat and less sugar. This was commonly taught all around the fitness realm.  Many people would drone out like zombies on some piece of cardio equipment staring vacantly ahead or even sometimes throwing towels over the time so they wouldn't have to look at how long they had to go.

 

Some kooky myths popped up like "you need to do 1 hour minimum of cardio to really burn fat and "cardio needs to be one everyday.  These are truly fairy tales.

Here's the deal. A 1996 study by Treuth, Hunter and wWilliams studied two groups of cyclists one group did intervals at 100% of their VO2 Max and the other continuous cycling at 60% of their VO2 max(The fat burning zone)The interval group not only burned more calories during the workout but significantly more calories 24 hours post work.  Likewise another  study done by Laforgia in 1997 did a similar comparison using running and subjects who did the intervals had a much more significant amount of fat loss.

The bottom line is if you are serious about burning more fat you need to incorporate some interval training into your cardio regimen.  This will elevate your metabolism post workout for up to 38 hours. Basically burning more fat even when you might be sitting at your desk at work. 

There are several ways to do this. Here are some examples:
1.)Spinning class or hill programs on the stationary bike
2.)Run/Jog or walk/jog depending on your fitness level
3.)Boxing/Martial Arts
4.)Mountain Biking
5.)Agility Drills/Plyometrics mixed with recovery jogging
6.)Basketball-hustling not standing around
7.)Snowshoeing/Cross country skiing on a hilly course


Here are some interval formats to use

Always do a 5-10 min warm up and cool down with each of these

• 5-6x 3 minutes of hard work at 95-100% max HR with 2-3 min recovery periods
• 4 x4 minutes at 95-100% man hr with 3-4 min recovery periods
• 8-12 x 30 sec  cranking it out with 1-2 min recovery periods

So if you are stuck on a boring cardio routine crank it up with some new intensity and creativity. Also this is very time efficient. I believe 25-30 min of intense cardio is better than 1 hour of light "fat burning" cardio. Jack up the intensity 2-3 times per week and you should start seeing that fat melt off.

Stay tuned next week as I address strength training for max fat loss part 2 of this blog series.