One of the most common questions we get asked is what is the best way to burn fat and create a rock hard mid section. You know the same old story, every time I come you the gym I do my crunches, leg raises and so on and no matter how many I do I ain't getting those abs. You may be wondering where you are going wrong. If you told me that you train abs everyday, do your cardio 4 times a week, for up to 45 mins a session to reach the 'Fat Burning Zone', I would tell you there is a more efficient way. A Scientifically proven system that will burn fat faster and improve your fitness faster then you ever thought possible.
You mean, 'Effective Fat Burning'. Before we get into the real nitty gritty of fat burning realise this. Energy (calorie) balance will always determine whether you gain, lose, or maintain weight. Energy balance is the proportion of calories you take in versus the calories you burn up through metabolism and exercise. You lose fat only from a negative energy balance. One reason we have trouble losing fat is due to the body's ability to adjust energy balance by decreasing or increasing metabolic rate. To give yourself the best chance of success you need to monitor your energy intake (what you eat) and make the necessary changes when your body requires it.
The reason people's expectations are not reached when it comes to Fat Burning is because of how they approach it mentally and physically. To most, cardio exercise is the necessary evil when it comes to Fat Loss. No one likes walking on the treadmill for an hour at 60% of his or her max heart rate. It is SO boring. What if I told you I could reduce the time you spend doing cardio to 15 minutes a session whilst gaining you better results. To truly reap the benefits of effective cardio you need to get excited about it and put in the same effort as you put into your weights sessions. Without an intense desire to succeed and to constantly set new benchmarks into what YOU can achieve you will not succeed. You need to put everything into it.
I ask you this. When you are weight training you will constantly strive to improve. That improvement might be in the form of one more rep, or maybe even 1 more kg on the bar. By striving into new territory or at least attempting to each and every workout is what will make improvements. You don't just happen to put on 1kg of muscle and you don't just happen to do 2 more reps. You must force your body to change. Your body would rather be on the couch eating chips than in the gym. Your body is also a master at conserving energy (hence you're excess fat problem). The last thing your body wants to do is put on muscle and to lose some of its precious fat stores. Unless you strive each and every cardio session to improve you might lose a little fat but it isn't going to be a lot. It you are going to go through the effort of doing cardio why not do it as effective as possible.
As you realise when doing your weights, training is only a stimulus. By lifting heavy weight you provide a stimulus for your body to change, to become stronger and fitter. The same can be said for cardio. By doing cardio-vascular exercise you are stimulating you body to become fitter, leaner and more efficient. Now why would you only want marginal results? Why would you settle for second best or for less then optimal results. That's what people expierence everyday when they follow a 'traditional' approach to cardio exercise.
To truly expierence great results you need to view your cardio as you do your weights, do it HARD. People view cardio-vascular exercise all wrong when they want fat loss. They think they need to do a marathon session. What they don't realise is that by increasing the duration of a session you need to reduce the intensity. Whenever you do this you will reduce the likelihood of succeeding. It's as simple as that. I will ask you this question. If you are required to 'bust your ass' with the weights to get any kind of result why would it be different for fat loss. If all you had to do was move around 'in the zone', wouldn't the world be full of lean people. Look at the people in the gym with the traditional approach to cardio. They look as though they always have some flab to lose. They should be the leanest of the lot seeing how much they do.
Now I will put a whole spin on the issue. When do you burn bodyfat? Do you burn the fat whilst you are training or do you burn it after. The answer is both but the key is in how much total energy you burn. The traditional cardio advocates will tell you that you burn a greater percentage of carbohydrates with more intense exercise. Of course you will. That's the whole point of cardio exercise, to burn energy and increase your fitness. Another fact is when using a traditional cardio approach you will burn a greater percentage of fat per session, yes right again. So how can I say that intense exercise burns more bodyfat? Intense exercise STIMULATES the body to burn more energy and raise your metabolism. Using a traditional program you would exercise for say 45 minutes. During that time you will burn a little fat and will keep your metabolism elevated for several hours, increasing energy expenditure. Now by completing an intense cardio-vascular session you will increase your metabolism to an even greater level and it will be elevated for a much longer time.
It is your metabolism, which is responsible for the amount of energy that you use during a given day, therefore the KEY to the amount of fat you can burn. You see, you should not view the exercise as burning fat but view it as a means of increasing your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism is like replacing the 4-cylinder engine in your body with a V8. The bigger and more powerful the engine, the more fuel (food and more importantly, stored energy as fat) is used for day to day activities. By increasing the rate in which energy is burned when in a calorie controlled environment you will virtually be burning fat all day long. Imagine sitting on the couch watching 'The Simpson's' and being in the 'Fat Burning Zone' - how cool is that.
The bottom line is, if you are in a calorie controlled diet, the quicker the available source of Carbs are used the quicker your body will start to utilise stored energy- FAT. The quicker your body can start using fat as an energy source, the greater chance you have at getting leaner. More burned fat equals MORE FAT LOSS. This is the reason why dividing your current 30 minute session into 2 high powered 15 minute sessions can double the results you achieve. This is achieved because your body will utilise almost double the amount of calories for the combined same length of time. Mmm, interesting hey.
Burning fat is so simple but so many people manage to get it wrong. Want to know how to do it step by step:
* Nutrition. You need to be in a calorie-controlled diet. What this means is that you need to monitor what you eat each and every day. Why do we do this? The only way you lose fat is by utilising more calories in a given day then you take in. If you keep track of what you are eating and keep each days intake relative the same, this goal can be achieved so much easier. If you do not know how much you are eating get in the habit of writing everything down and then use a calorie counter and a Protein/Carb/Fat counter and work out your daily macronutrient intake and calorie intake. This way you know what you are eating to maintain the 'current' you, and can then make the necessary changes to clean up your diet and reduce calories. You need to follow a High Protein, Moderate Carb, Low Fat diet for the best chance of success.
* Cardio-Vascular exercise - Hard and Intense. Increasing your performance each and every workout is the goal here. Only when you put stress on your body and force it to change it will. As I said before, intense cardio-vascular exercise will increase your metabolism faster and more efficient then anything else, and this is the secret to effective fat burning.
* Mental Approach. You need to view cardio with the same mental focus and approach as when you weight train. Remembering that you never get anything for nothing, why will the illustrious 'six pack' be different? So many times I have seen people just wandering on a treadmill or pedalling endlessly on a bike. What is this achieving - not a lot? Get this. Once, I seen a guy on the treadmill walking away with his eyes closed. He was going so slowly that he didn't even need to look where he was going. So what do you think this is doing for his metabolism and fat burning abilities - I will leave this one for you to decide? Getting back to focus. You need to really attack you aerobic excise hard with the attitude that you MUST improve from the last session you did. It doesn't matter what form of exercise you choose, as long as you do it to the best of your abilities and continually make improvements. Train hard, train fast and to the best of your abilities to give yourself the best chance of experiencing successful fat loss and reaching your goals.
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