Best Exercises for Fat Loss
By Robyn Littlewood
Personal Trainer
Desert Spa, Cabo San Lucas
Get off the darned cardio equipment! I see this common fat loss mistake time and time again, people spending an hour with their book in their so-called “fat burning” zone strolling along on the treadmill. Low intensity cardiovascular exercise is the least effective way to get fat off your body. You need to consistently burn more calories than you take in and three hours of low-intensity cardio exercise every week will only net you 400-600 calories lost. All you need is a couple of beers and half a sandwich to ingest that many calories.
In fact, the calories expended during your exercise session are not as important as how much you can raise your resting metabolism after your workout. The only thing that raises your metabolic rate for more than a couple of hours is anaerobic training. An anaerobic state is better achieved by lifting weights or by interval training, short bursts of high-intensity cardiovascular exercise spaced with active resting periods.
Anaerobic exercise will also put muscle on your body and that will help you burn more calories all of the time, even when you are sitting at your desk or sleeping. Compound weight lifting moves, like squats, will do much more to get fat off you than cardio machines.
Use the cardio machines like this in your workouts for maximum fat loss:
- Jump on your favorite cardio machine and warm up for four minutes. For the next five minutes, increase the intensity until your heart rate is near its maximum, (220-Your Age x .9). You should feel like you are out of your comfort zone and getting winded. Total time: Up to 12 minutes maximum.
- Immediately get out into the weight room and keep moving for 45-60 minutes, focusing on your larger muscle groups: Lower body, Back and Chest. Do not rest in between sets, go from one machine to the next or do one machine and skip rope for 30 seconds in between. No slacking! No chatting! Move!
- When you start to feel a bit rubbery, head back to the cardio machine and do another fifteen minutes at low-medium intensity. Studies show that for the first fifteen minutes AFTER lifting weights you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories than before. This is because your body is out of sugar to burn so it has to use energy from fat to keep moving.
In order to focus on larger muscle groups you will do best to choose compound lifting exercises such as squats, deadlifts, leg presses, pushups and pullups. The more joints you move, the more calories you will burn and the more muscle fibers will be stressed. Muscle fibers rebuilding themselves will burn more calories during the next 36 to 48 hours.
If you would like to learn more, you can book a fitness evaluation with me at the Desert Spa Fitness Center in Cabo San Lucas.
Email me at robynlittlewood@yahoo.com for appointments.
Website: http://www.robynlittlewood.com/