Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Burn Fat and Stay Motivated

People often ask me, what's the best way to burn fat. A few thing may help your chances of success in fat burning and therefore successful weight loss. In general you need to add weights to your cardio if that's all you do. Add cardio to your weight program if that's all you do. Weight lifting adds muscle which speeds up your metabolism and working in you target heart zone burns fat. One thing to remember, moderate intensity and longer duration is more effective than a 20 min. sprint when you hit the elliptical, bike or treadmill. Go for about 30 to 45 mins. at a rate where you could carry out a conversation. When you go full out you burn more glycogen (carbs) than fat. After min. 20 you start using fat as an energy source. Fat was initially intended as a slow burning energy source for our hunting ancestors. It takes a while to get it burning.
If your time is limited you may want to try circuit training. Most of my clients workout with a heart monitor which allows for cardio and weight training at the same time. The idea is to get the pulse up first with a 3-5 min. warm up. Perform various sets of weight lifting exercise then return to the cardio machine of your choosing. You can either talk or walk between exercises. One may be more fun but the other burns a lot more fat.

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