With obesity levels rising worldwide, health and fitness experts are devising exercises that will train the body to burn fat faster. There are several methods of burning fat including endurance cardio, high intensity interval training, and weight training. Training earlier in the day can also be more effective when it comes to losing fat.
Traditional long runs or the equivalent are an effective way of burning calories. A one hour session of jogging, rowing, or cycling can burn up to 1,000 calories. What turns some people off from these sessions is their monotony. Jogging on a treadmill for a full hour can be a less-than-stimulating experience, which is why people are looking for other ways to burn fat.
High intensity interval training is gaining in popularity; various scientific studies show that it burns fat up to nine times faster than cardio at a steady pace. This means that it is possibly the best way to train the body to burn fat. This form of training can increase metabolism which results in the body burning fat even when at rest. This gives interval training a crucial advantage over traditional jogging which burns fat during the exercise only.
High intensity training takes numerous forms but all are effective means of training the body to burn fat. Regular interval training involves sprints of between 30 and 60 seconds followed by a rest period of between 30 seconds and two minutes. The length of recovery time depends on the individual’s fitness level. The period of rest usually will be of the same length as the sprint. Beginners should start off with six sprints of 30 seconds in duration with one minute’s rest before working their way up to 15 sprints three times a week.
A more advanced form of interval training is the Tabata workout. This involves a sprint of 20 seconds followed by a rest of ten seconds. It is performed eight times and appears to increase a person’s anaerobic capacity and boost metabolism. These results came from a study in Japan in 1996 conducted by Dr. Izumi Tabata.
Weight training is often avoided as a means of losing weight; it is effective because muscle burns more calories than fat at rest. Various metabolic studies have suggested that lifting weights as part of an exercise regime helps the body to burn fat faster than running alone. The amount of energy used after exercising is known as the afterburn and is recognized as an important means of losing fat. Lifting heavy weights with low repetitions causes a greater afterburn than slow, steady cardio.
Exercising before breakfast is also an effective way to train the body to burn fat. When someone wakes up in the morning, he or she has not eaten in several hours which results in a decrease in the body’s glycogen level. When the human body is deprived of glycogen, it will lose fat during exercise rather than carbohydrates which are usually burned for the first few minutes of a cardio session.
