What is the best way to burn fat?
That question is asked by tons of people every day in their efforts to lose or even just control their weight. The answer to that question is both short and long at the same time. The short answer is one that is somewhat obvious, and that is to exercise. The best way to burn fat is to get up, get out, and do something. In order to burn fat, you’ve got to burn calories. Calorie burn comes from activity and getting your body moving.
Deciding the type of exercise and figuring out how much is needed is where the complications can come in. The best way to burn fat is doing both cardio and weight lifting exercises.
[Usually]people think cardio is the only way to go in order to burn fat. Doing cardio does burn calories but is not the single best way to burn off excess weight.
When you do cardio exercises such as walking or running your body will burn off fat as a fuel source at a higher rate than it would if you were just resting.
The key to burning off the most fat for your efforts is to increase the intensity of the exercise you are doing. Basically, you want to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. If you are sure that you can keep going at the pace you are exercising at, then there is a very good chance that you are not exercising hard enough to burn a decent amount of calories and make the effort worth your time in the long run.
While you are doing your workout there should be a little bit of doubt creeping into the back of your mind causing you to wonder whether or not you can keep up the pace for the duration of your routine.
You may be reading this and thinking, “Why should I exercise hard like that when I heard from others that I can just walk outside and lose weight?” The reason for that is because for some reason many publications only like to give you partially true information.
It is true, it is possible to lose weight by just walking. The thing that no one tells you is exactly how much walking you need to do to burn enough calories to lose weight. It could be 3 or 4 miles or more in order to see the progress you are really after. A leisurely stroll may burn calories, but not enough for you to put in just one hour and be good to go. Increasing the intensity (speed, incline, step size, etc.) causes your body to work harder to complete the work. Harder work simply means more calories burned. The more calories you burn, the more fat you get rid of in the process.
[Increase] the speed of your treadmill if you are running the [next time] you go to the gym. Increase the incline on the treadmill if you are walking. Move the resistance up on the pedals of your elliptical or stairmaster machine. Do something to make the exercise a little harder and your body will thank you afterwards when the weight is gone.
The next thing that helps to ensure you are on your way to doing what is best to burn fat is weight training. When you weight train properly, you can expect to burn the same amount of calories as you would in a good cardio session like I mentioned earlier. On top of that initial calorie burn, you will continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate for several hours AFTER the workout is complete. If you only have time for either cardio or weight training and not both, the weight lifting should probably be your choice. [Knowing] exactly which exercises to do and how much [resistance] to use is a [huge] topic I will talk about later, but just know that the best way to burn fat [quickly] is to add weight training into your workout.