For all of my ladies who are going to the gym and mindlessly slaving away on treadmills and stationary bikes, I’m going to talk to you today about a BETTER way to use these machines for fat burning; a way that 99% of women are NOT doing.  The method is called high intensity interval training, or HIIT for short.  After you read this post, you’ll never go back to your old ways again!

If you want to burn a ton of calories during your cardio workouts, endurance style “steady state” activities are NOT the best way to burn fat.  Sure, you’ll burn a few hundred calories during that hour that you’re walking or “jogging” on the treadmill, but what you don’t realize is that you are actually slowing down your metabolism by doing these endurance exercises.  The fat burn will come to a near stop once your workout ends.

Here’s a better way… 

Instead of these hour long workouts, instead try a short 20-30 minute HIIT session.  During a HIIT workout, you’ll be mixing in short bursts of high intensity exercise, followed by brief rest periods.  You’ll be repeating this sequence for 5-15 times during your workout. 

For instance, lets say you’re riding the stationary bike.  You would pedal as fast as you can (without killing yourself or falling off!), for 30-45 seconds, rest briefly, then continue to repeat the sequence until your 20-30 minute workout is over.

So how much more fat will HIIT exercise burn vs. the old endurance “steady state” exercises?

Great question!  You can burn as much as 9 times the fat

How do we know?

Dr. Angelo Tremblay PH. D from Laval University in Canada performed a study of people doing HIIT workouts versus endurance exercises.  The HIIT group lost 9 times as much subcutaneous fat in 15 weeks as the ET group did in a whopping 21 weeks!

Even though the endurance training group would burn twice as many calories during the exercise period versus the HIIT folks(who had shorter workout periods), the fat burn would almost come to a halt once the workouts ended.  The exact opposite held true for the HIIT group.  Once their workouts finished, their metabolisms stayed substantially elevated.  This caused the massive calorie burn POST  WORKOUT!

The number of calories you burn during the workout isn’t NEARLY as important as the calories you burn during the other 23 plus hours of the day.  When performing high intensity interval training, you can burn calories when you are sleeping, fixing the kids breakfast, at the office, clipping coupons, reading a book, or any other of your daily activities.  

I don’t know about you, but I would MUCH rather burn fat while doing nothing versus slaving away on a treadmill for an hour at a time!

Give high intensity interval training a try!  It’s fun, will burn tons of fat, and will get you in and out of the gym in no time.

Oh, by the way, you don’t have to use a gym or exercise machine to do HIIT.  You can walk/run, ride your mountain bike, swim at the pool, etc…any type of exercise where you can alternate your intensity level.

Until next time!

Heather

P.S. Be sure to check out my recent post about how to lose weight fast.  You can also learn how to get free online personal training and free online diet plans.

Every woman wants to know how to lose weight fast.    As a society, it seems we all want results YESTERDAY!  The fitness TV infomercials take advantage of this fact.  If you flip through 10 TV channels, you’ll likely to find at least one infomercial for some sort of ab contraption or weight loss product.   They try to make us believe that with just 10 minutes a day, we’ll magically have a body like Angelina Jolie!

My mother fell for one of the latest gimmicks.  I forget the exact name of the machine, but it looks like a garage stool.  You basically “spin” back and forth on it.  I called mom up to ask how her “workouts” were going.  She just laughed and said she’d be selling it at her next yard sale!  That’s $129.95 down the drain!

As much as I dislike these types of machines for burning away fat, I REALLY hate the diet pill advertisements!  So many women are trying these things without actually knowing what they are putting into their bodies!  These supplement companies are preying on women who are desparately trying to figure out how to lose weight fast!

As much as you may not want to hear it, I’m going to tell it to you straight…

There ARE NO SHORTCUTS!

If you want to lose weight, you need a healthy diet and an exercise program that combines cardio and resistance training.   Why?  Because muscle burns fat!

Abs specific exercises are not the best way to burn away fat.  Sure, those exercises may burn a few calories and strengthen your abdominal muscles a bit, but that won’t do you much good if you have 3 or 4 inches (or more) of fat covering your abs!

After personally reviewing dozens of  weight loss programs, there is really only one that stands out for me.  That program is Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.  It’s not a fad.  It’s not a “quick fix” solution that will have you putting back on the weight as fast as you took it off.

Tom Venuto is an all natural professional bodybuilder that now helps women and men reshape their bodies and enjoy a completely new lifestyle of health and fitness.  His book is one of the most complete, detailed, and precise guides to fat loss you will ever read.

There are no “30 pounds in 30 days miracles” here.  Knowing how to lose weight fast is all about lifestyle changes, not “quick fix” diets that will leave you to crash and burn!  Tom teaches you how to make intelligent eating choices, workout properly, and how to make a total lifestyle change.    In the chapters on nutrition, you’ll learn how you should setup your own meals using  Tom’s menu “template” system.  All you have to do is choose the foods you like (from Tom’s recommended food lists), plug them into the meal plan template, and your menus will be created automatically for you.  He also gives sample menus for ideas.

Tom’s training programs can be performed at home or in a gym.  If working out at home, you’ll need some basic equipment like dumbbells or resistance bands.

Again, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is not a ”quick fix”. You don’t get 6 pack abs by training 10 minutes a day and eating lots of bad foods all the time.  This program requires structure and effort.  At the end of the day though, it’s worth it.  If you follow the program, there’s no doubt that you will become very, very lean!

There are many imitators and copycats out there, but if you want an original, this is it. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is literally the “fat loss bible.”

For More Information About Tom Venuto’s “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle”, click here.

Until next time!

Heather

heather @ womenshealthquestions.org