To keep you safe and healthy, your body stores calories as fat. Many gimmicks claim to increase fat burning such as spot reduction, fat-burning zones, and foods and supplements that can help you lose more fat.
Learn how to lose fat using a variety of exercises, rather than looking for a quick fix that won’t work. Here are the facts.
Basics of Burning Fat
Knowing how your body uses calories to fuel your weight loss efforts can help you understand your body. Your energy comes from three sources: fat, carbohydrate, and protein. Depending on what activity you are engaging in, which one of these sources your body uses for energy will depend on the type of activity.
People want to burn fat for energy. You may think that more fat can be used as fuel means less fat in your body. However, the use of more fat does not automatically result in a loss of fat. The best way to lose fat is to understand how your body gets energy.
Fuel is primarily made up of fat and carbohydrates. Depending on the activity, the ratio of fuels used will change. Although a small amount of protein can be used for exercise, it is primarily used to repair muscles afterward.
Fast-paced running and other high-intensity activities like running can cause the body’s dependence on carbs as fuel. The metabolic pathways that break down carbs to provide energy are more efficient than those that breakdown fat. Carbohydrates are more efficient at converting fat to energy, especially if they are used for longer and slower workouts.
This is a simplified view of energy that has a strong take-home message. More important than burning fat for energy is the ability to burn more calories. You will burn more calories if you work harder.
This is how it works: When you are in your prime fat-burning mode, whether you’re sitting or sleeping, then you can be considered to be sitting. You probably don’t see sitting down and sleeping more as a way to lose body fat. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are burning more calories, just because you’re burning more fat.
Myth of the Fat Burning Zone
Lower intensity exercise will burn more calories.
This theory has been so embedded in our exercise experience over the years that we often see it in charts, books, websites, magazines and even cardio machines at the gym. It’s misleading.
However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do low-intensity exercises if you want more fat loss. You can burn more fat by doing certain things. It all comes down to how often you exercise and how long you do it.
A combination of cardio and weight loss
It is possible to be confused about how hard you should work in cardio. High-intensity cardio may seem like the best option. You can burn more calories, and it doesn’t take as long.
Having a variety of exercises can stimulate your energy, prevent you from getting injured, and make your workouts more enjoyable. A cardio program can include a variety different types of exercises at different intensities.
Cardio with high-intensity
High-intensity cardio is defined as cardio that exceeds your maximum heart rate (MHR) by between 80% and 90%. If you don’t use heart rate zones, between 80% and 90% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Or, approximately a six- to eighteen on a 10-point perceived exertion score. This means that you should exercise at a level that is challenging but not too difficult for you to speak in sentences.
You don’t have to go all-out, but you should sprint as fast as possible. It’s clear that high-intensity training can help with weight loss and improve endurance.
Short workouts can provide the same benefits as continuous training. A 150-pound person running at 6 mph for 30 mins would burn 341 calories. Walking at 3.5 mph would burn 136 calories.
However, just counting calories is not enough. You could be at risk if you do too many intense workouts per week.
You may not be able to do challenging and intense workouts if you haven’t had much exercise experience. Before you start training, consult your healthcare provider if you have any injuries or medical conditions.
If you do a lot of cardio, it is likely that you will only need one or two workouts in the high-intensity category. Here are some examples to show you how to incorporate high intensity workouts.
You can incorporate high-intensity training by exercising at a rapid pace. For a 20-minute work out, you can use any machine or activity. However, the goal is to keep the heart rate high throughout the session. Most people don’t want to do more than 20 minutes.
Tabata training, another type of high-intensity interval exercise, is where you work hard for 20 seconds and then take a break for 10 seconds. Then, you repeat the process for four minutes. This workout should leave you feeling exhausted and unable talk.
Interval training can be a great way of incorporating high-intensity training but without having to do it constantly. Alternate between a hard section (e.g. running for 30-60 seconds at a rapid pace) and a recovery segment (e.g. walking for 1 or 2 minutes). This series can be repeated for approximately 20-30 minutes.
