When is the last time someone told you that a low intensity cardio workout was the best way of achieving maximum weight loss in the shortest time possible? I hear it from clients everyday. Its about 5 minutes later I go into this little routine in one form or another. Now lets see why the leading sports conditioning trainers and fat loss coaches in the world recommend a quicker approach to leaning out your midsection. Could you really have been steered wrong all this time? Everything you've read over the last ten years has said that when you want to lose weight fast that slow and low intensity cardio workouts are the rule. If you dare to buck the trend and do that new high intensity interval training all you will do is burn of carbs and not experience fat loss. Right? Wrong! If you have come this far I know I have you interested in the possibility that there must be a better approach. There is. High Intensity Interval Training may be the next big thing. I can promise you that if you keep reading you will never look at a treadmill the same way again! First, what is "normal" slow, static, weight loss orientated cardio workout defined as? A low intensity cardio workout is when you exercise at 60-65% of your max heart rate. Your max heart rate can be most easily figured out by subtracting your age from 220. For a person that is 35 the equation would look like this. 220-35= 185 max heart rate. Take the 60-65% fat burning recommendation and you would be shooting for a sustained heart rate of 120 beats per minute. If that is a low intensity workout, then what is high intensity cardio workout? High intensity cardio is defined as exercise that gets your heart rate into the 75% and up range. This can be done in a sustained fashion but not for very long and that is where the interval training part comes in. Intervals of high intensity combined with a downshift in gears to rest for 30 seconds to a minute before ramping it back up. You go fast then slower to catch your breath a little. So how exactly does H.I.I.T. burn more fat then the slow and low method? Again, another great question! Let me explain. Low intensity cardio training burns about 50% fat for energy while a high intensity workout burns about 40% fat for energy. So the low intensity method is best right? Just wait. Lets take the average walker doing cardio on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Once they have finished they have racked up a calorie burn of 160 calories. If 50% of those calories are fueled by fat then they have burned 80 fat calories Then over on treadmill number two, you have a mixed martial arts fighter doing wind sprints in the high intensity cardio style. He is doing one minute high and 30 seconds at a jog or a walk. He keeps this up for 20 minutes, is drenched in sweat and breathing like a freight train. In those 20 minutes of HIIT he has burned 350 calories. If you take the lower fat burning percentage of 40%, what do you have? What you have is 140 fat calories burned and in less time then the low intensity person. As a matter of fact, our HIIT person is in the showers as we speak while the slow cardio workout person is getting bored out of their mind looking for something to read on the treadmill. The bottom line is that you almost doubled your fat burning with the high intensity cardio workout, and less time to boot. Now you can see that in the long run you actually burn more fat calories in total with HIIT then the regular style while you are doing it. What about the rest of the day? The fact of the matter is that slow-low cardio workout only helps weight loss while you do it. Once you get off the treadmill that's all you get as far as weight loss goes after a couple of minutes rest. Here is the clincher on HIIT. It burns calories long after you stop! It sounds too good to be true but even after you stop your interval training your body will continue to rev its metabolism for up to 24 hours depending on how intensely you did your intervals. This is a great thing for weight loss wouldn't you say? The fact of the matter is that even after you hit the showers and are sitting on the couch, HIIT is still working towards your weight loss goals for you. Now that's efficient. Less time spent working and longer lasting effects. Small changes like this to your workout make all the difference when you really want to lose that weight fast. I hope that helps you out!
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