The Best Workout for Fat Burning

Take a look around your average gym. You will notice people doing various forms of exercise and cardio training.

What you will NOT notice is people doing more than one style of cardio training. In fact 95% of people at the gym will stick to one form of cardio exercise. Whether its long slow boring cardio, sustained cardio at a faster pace or high intensity interval training.

What these very people fail to realize is that in order to get the best workout for burning fat you have to combine different styles of cardio.

Now first lets take an in-depth look at the different types of cardio practitioners:

Bodybuilders believe that medium or high intensity cardio burns muscle tissue so they resort to long slow boring cardio on an empty stomach to burn fat. The upside of this type of cardio is that it effectively uses fat as a fuel source. The downside with this format is that because the intensity is so low you burn relatively few calories even when exercising for long periods of time.

Traditional Cardio Junkies only do lengthy cardio at a quicker pace for 20, 30, or 45 minutes successive at hopes to burn off any extra calories they ate that day. This kind of training burns more calories than low intensity cardio but most of the calories burned are from carbohydrates. After a cardio workout in this nature your body wants to refill all of the depleted carbohydrates. As a result your body naturally craves sugar. This is why most people that do this kind of cardio never lose any fat. They burn 400+ calories or so only to eat it all back.

Interval Training Fanatics swear by high intensity interval training as the only acceptable form of cardio. They see lower intensity cardio as a complete waist of time. HIIT is amazing at:

1. Increasing your metabolic rate
2. Elevating your bodies natural fat burning hormones (Human Growth Hormone)
3. Triggering the release of your bodies fat cells into your bloodstream.

The only downside is that if this type of training is not followed by additional exercise all of those fat cells that were released into the bloodstream crawl right back into the fat deposits.

So What is the Best Workout for Burning Fat?

The Ultimate Fat Burning Workout

5-10 minutes of a warming up - jump rope, light jogging or dynamic exercises

HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING on a treadmill, recumbent bike, rower, or stair-mill: 12-16 minutes total of short burst of intense exercise alternated with periods of active rest

LOW INTENSITY CARDIO: 20-30 minutes of slow and steady cardio such as walking on a treadmill at 4mph with a 3 degree incline.

How does it work?

The intense exercise forces your body into a fat burning state. Most people call it a workout here and let the released fat cells go right back into your bodies fat deposits. Not us. Were going to exploit the fat burning state we're in and follow the intervals with low intensity cardio to burn off as much fat as possible.

Interval Workout Options: These are just a few options. Feel free to experiment with your own work to rest ratio's.

1. 30 seconds of work / 90 seconds of rest x 8 times = 16 minutes

2. 30 seconds work / 60 seconds rest x 10 = 15 minutes

3. 30 seconds work / 30 seconds rest x 12 = 12 minutes

4. 60 seconds work / 120 seconds rest x 5 = 15 minutes

5. 60 seconds work / 90 seconds rest x 6 = 15 minutes

6. 60 seconds work / 60 seconds rest x 7 = 14 minutes

Workout Notes:

No food three hours before the workout for maximal fat burning effect. As a result of doing your workout in a fasted state your going to burn up to 3x more fat. I also recommend not eating for at least one hour after your workout. The high intensity intervals boost your bodies natural fat burning hormones (HGH). Once you put food in your body your insulin levels increase and your HGH levels decline.

If performing intervals on a treadmill with less than 60 seconds rest than put your feet on the sides of the treadmill during the resting portion. It will take too long to switch speed. For the intervals only use a machine that you can really push yourself on.

Lastly if doing the intervals on a treadmill you can build up to your max speed. So if your doing 60 seconds of exercise alternated with 60 seconds of walking and your max speed for 60 seconds is 10mph then you can do your first interval at 7mph and increase the speed by 0.5mph every interval.

Greg O'Gallagher is a top Fitness Coach and male model. His goal is to help other guys transform their lives by building the body of their dreams. He runs a top fitness website dedicated towards building the ideal lean, fit and muscular physique. He is giving a way a free video on Building the Body of a Greek God

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