3 Weekly Goals to Maximize Fat Burning
By Ben Greenfield
In the fitness world, there are little tricks you can incorporate into your weekly routine that will equal significant gains in weight loss and fat burning. Over years of training hundreds of clients, I've discovered 3 of these key fat burning techniques that achieve such results. Here they are:
1) At least 1 day/week, accumulate 60 minutes of repetitive motion aerobic exercise that uses the same predictable joint patterns, like cycling, elliptical, running, or swimming.
Please understand that it is important to expose your body to frequent "change-ups" in exercise mode and type. This ensures that you never become efficient at exercise, which ultimately will cause your body to become insensitive and nonresponsive to your workouts. However, you must break this rule at least once per week. This is because the enzymes responsible for burning fat during exercise must be trained to work at a high efficiency, and this only occurs during extended, low-intensity cardio sessions that stimulate the same muscle over and over again. Yes, it may be boring to sit on that stationary bicycle for an hour, but at a low intensity with a good magazine or television show, you'll be surprised at how quickly time goes by. Use the fact that it's a "non-difficult" workout to get you motivated.
2) At least 2 days/week, complete a high intensity non-aerobic interval training sessions of 30 minutes, that includes at least 10 minutes spent above an 8 on an exertional scale of 1-10.
There is a crucial paradox in exercise. While exertion at lower intensities will burn primarily fat as a fuel, you actually burn *less* total fat than compared with exercise at higher intensities. Why is this? Because when you exercise at a lower intensity, you burn significantly fewer calories. For example, you may burn 70% fat and 30% carbohydrate during low intensity exercise at 300 calories per hour. That's 210 calories of fat per hour. But at a higher intensity of, say 900 calories per hour, you may burn 30% fat and 70% carbohydrate. That's 270 calories of fat per hour. There are also huge implications with intense workouts, primarily an increase in fat-burning hormones, post-exercise metabolic rate, and lean muscle tissue building. Interval training is the ideal way to achieve these type of sessions and are comprised of hard efforts at a high intensity separated by rest periods at a low intensity.
3) At least 5 days/week complete 20 minutes of aerobic, fat-burning cardio prior to breakfast.
When you wake up in the morning, your body has burned through a significant portion of the liver's carbohydrate stores. You can activate fat mobilization and burning early in the day by completing a light cardio session when you are in this "fasted" state. More is not better in this case. If you go for a 2 hour run, you'll return completely depleted and in fat-storage mode. Instead, go light and easy for a short period of time, then consume a healthy and complex breakfast that includes good fats, complete proteins, slow digesting carbohydrates, and fiber.
Remember that the key is consistency. You will only reap the rewards of these goals if you can maintain a consistent effort for 6-8 weeks! So what are you waiting for? Get started today, and let me know if you have questions...
Until next time, train smart
Ben Greenfield
About the author
Ben Greenfield holds bachelor's and master's degrees in sports science and exercise physiology (University of Idaho), and is certified as a National Strength and Conditioning Association personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach, a Serotta certified bicycle technician and an ISSN Sports Nutritionist. In college, Ben competed in tennis, water polo, and volleyball, and was named as the top student personal trainer in the nation by the NSCA. He has authored multiple books on metabolism, nutrition and fitness (available at www.pacificfit.net and is an expert in holistic wellness management.
With over 9 years experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, Ben is the owner of Pacific Elite Fitness (www.pacificfit.net), an online multi-sport coaching, nutrition and personal training service and is director of sports performance for Champions Sports Medicine www.champsportsmed.com
As an Ironman and top ranked triathlete, Ben specializes in weight loss, metabolic management, nutrition, wellness, endurance sports fueling, coaching, and program design. He is also available as a private wellness coach or to speak at seminars and conferences. E-mail Ben@elite@pacificfit.net from http://www.FreeArticlesAndContent.com
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