It’s Time To Burn – THE Fat

A good, intense session of spinning of step aerobics makes you feel great! And is certainly very good for you, especially if you are trying to lose weight or maintain your current weight. But, surprisingly enough, if you want jumpstart the fat burning in your body, you should add an intense session of weight training.

It has been well documented that a complete training program which includes medium to high intensity cardio workout combined with a weight training session is the ideal duo to speed up that weight loss and fat burning.

If you have noticed, most gyms now carry cardio machines with fat burning indicators – these, while not necessarily scientifically totally accurate, still give you a good basis as to which level of intensity you are burning fat. Additionally, you can easily buy yourself a monitor that you can hook up to your arm – you simply program your age, current weight and target heart rate and the machine will tell you when you have hit your target heart rate.

A quick way to calculate your target heart rate is to use this formula:

MHR = 206.9 – (0.67 x age) (although you will find many different formulas available)

This cannot be used for scientific purposes, but it can give you a fair idea of where you should be. Please note that this number usually reflects the target heart rate for “fat burning”, while the number for “cardio” will be different as will the number of “weight loss”. Find your “ideal” target rate and go with that.

While it might be tempting to push yourself to do better and go above your target heart rate, studies have shown that this is actually to your detriment. If you consistently exercise above your fat burning target rate, your body actually stops burning fat and you are now working for nothing.

As with any type of physical fitness, it is best to push yourself to the point where you are encouraging your body to get healthier and fitter, but you should never overdo it.