First, if you want to get rid of that stubborn fat from your butt, thighs and arms and lose those last 10 -15 lbs, you must STOP with the steady state cardio immediately. No more treadmills, elipticals or steppers. Conventional aerobic exercises are not very effective ways to lose weight and will train your body to STORE fat on top of inhibiting your fat burning hormones.
Study after study over the past 10 years show the efficacy of metabolic resistance and high intensity interval training and over steady state cardio.
In the last 10 years, research has shown us two very important things about exercising for fat loss. First, lifting heavier weights for full body movements or body weight, total body movements lead to burning more calories after the workout when compared to old school lifting programs or cranking out rep after rep with a light weight.
Second, the more muscles you use during an exercise, the more calories you burn during your workout and after. A study of women showed that when they used heavier weights and lower reps for compound movements they burned more calories in the hours after training. This is called EPOC. (Exercise post oxygen consumption)
Doing hours and hours of ”cardio” each week is a great way to go nowhere in your fat loss program while wasting a lot of time and most likely incurring injury. Stop worrying about exercising in a certain heart rate zone for fat loss or for cardiovascular endurance or how many miles you walk.
Unless you have nothing better to do with yourself than spend 5 plus hours a week doing cardio with minimal results (which, long term lead to joint damage on top of fat storage) there are far more effective ways to reach your goals.
Step 1: Forget about how many calories the machine says you’ve burned (they are rarely accurate), it’s all about MAXIMUM calorie burn and EPOC
Step 2: Get off the Elliptical, treadmills and steppers for good.
Step 3: Choose the right total body exercises for your body type, fitness level and goals, exercise at the right intensity, and perform shorter bouts of metabolism-boosting interval training.
Step 4: Eat to burn more fat which is a topic for a whole other blog post but will account for 70 ish % of your results and includes eating more protein, good fats and limiting processed foods.
You can read more about TEF and how to eat for fat loss at Fat Loss University here: http://custombodies.blogspot.com/2014/07/fit-tip-tuesday-eat-smart-not-less.html
If you want to speed your metabolism and reshape, you need to do 3 things.
- Eat More Protein:
- Step away from the treadmills, steppers and ellipticals
- Start a fitness program that includes plenty of high intensity interval training and whole body resistance trainingFor more detailed information and research studies on EPOC and TEF you can read them at Fat Loss University here http://custombodies.blogspot.com/2014/06/as-your-trainer-thursday-how-do-i-fix.html
Copyright © Custom Bodies, Inc. 2014
Article written by Dianne Villano, an MExPhys, NASM CFT , author of “How To Lose Fat & Reshape Your Body in 21 Days” and “The Ultimate Belly Blast Program”. She is president of Custom Bodies which has been serving the Tampa Bay with cutting edge nutrition & fitness programs for 18 years. Miss Villano is a frequent speaker on health and fitness related topics with articles published in over 20 media outlets. You can grab a copy of her Special Report “22 Big Fat Lies Keeping You From The Body You Want” at http://mypersonalfitnesscoach.com/fitness-freebies.html
Author: Dianne Villano
Dianne Villano is an MExPhys, NASM CFT , author of “How To Lose Fat & Reshape Your Body in 21 Days” and “The Ultimate Belly Blast Program”. She is president of Custom Bodies which has been serving the Tampa Bay with cutting edge nutrition & fitness programs for 18 years. Miss Villano is a frequent speaker on health and fitness related topics with articles published in over 20 media outlets.
