Fat Loss

The Biggest, Fattest Fat Loss Site

Everyone knows if you want to lose fat you need to do some cardio exercise, cardio raises your metabolism meaning you burn calories for a long time after completing it. For this very reason most experts agree cardio is best performed in the morning, this means you burn extra calories all day long.

The problem is most people don’t have time to perform cardio in the morning and doing repetitive cardio is boring, interval training has been proven to help shift more fat and make better fitness gains than standard endurance training for 30-40 minutes. It can also help you retain or even build more muscle.

Below is an example interval training program that you can perform in 20 minutes a day 3 times a week, in total that makes just 60 minutes a week including stretching.

Run gently for 5 Minutes to warm up, Sprint at 100% effort for 20 seconds then walk or jog for 10 seconds repeat 10x and cool down with 5 Minutes gentle running. After a while you’ll not only find your lighter but also fitter.

Exercise is very important if you want to lose weight, the more you move the more calories you burn. Providing your eating properly a large proportion of these calories will come from your body fat.

More importantly than the calories actually burned doing the exercise aerobic activity will increase your metabolic rate throughout the rest of the day, making you a fat burning furnace.

Other benefits of exercise include improved blood circulation, a stronger heart, better muscle tone (improved appearance) and much more.

Doctors recommend you exercise for at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. Take it easy to start with then build up distance and pace as you get fitter.

Below is a rough guide of the calories burned for a 12 Stone 90lb Man (me) doing 30 minutes of aerobic activity.

Leisurely Swimming 351 calories about 100g of ice cream burned.

Swimming Freestyle Moderatly 410 calories about one Cadbury’s cream egg burned.

Swimming Breastroke Moderatley 585 calories about 150g of ice cream burned.

Running at 5 MPH 468 calories about one Cadbury’s cream egg and a drip of ice cream burned.

Running cross country (more tricky because of uneven surface) 527 calories nearly 1 whole mars bar burned.

Wlaking 1.5 Miles in 30 Mins about 3 miles an hour 193 calories nearly 75g of ice cream burned.

More on the calories burned doing aerobic exercise another day.

Circuit training is an excellent way to burn fat becuase it rises your bodies core temparature and uses all your major muscle groups, the larger the muscle group and therefore muscle used the more calories you burn.

Circuit training is a style of training that consists of moderate and high intensity aerobic exercise combined with weights and strength stations, you have a short recovery period in between the intense exercises. The short circuit training recovery period and swapping between upper and lower body movements keeps your heart rate high.

Circuit training can be done anywhere using the bodies own weight for resistance, no equipment is really required,  a set of dumbells and maybe a skipping rope could be usefull but are not essential.

Warm Up

It is essential to warm up properly before any exercise, warm up gradually to avaiod injury and get the blood flowing around your body do 5 Minutes skipping, running or some other kind of cardiovascular activity to warm up.

Try to control the movements described below – don’t jerk

Dips – Find a chair and put yours hands on it behind you, beginners will probably want to bend at the knees people a bit stronger can keep their legs straight using your arms lower yourself up and down.

Squats – Stand with your legs shoulder width apart Knees slightly bent then lower yourself up and down. People a bit stronger can stand against a wall or hold dumbells for resistance, just make sure the wall is not too rough.

Chin-ups – Find a bar about shoulder height then put yours hands on it with an underhand grip and pull yourself up and down. Beginners will won’t to use a chair to support some of your weight.

Lunges – Stand in the squat position then put one leg about 4 foot lenghts in front of the other and lower yourself up and down alternatively.

Push-ups – Put your hands level with your shoulders in front of you on the floor pull your belly in feet behind you and then push yourself up and down. Beginners and ladies will want to do these on their knees.

Split squat – Like lunges but put one leg behind 2 feet and one in front 2 feet.

Lateral raises – Like chin ups but put your hands shoulder width apart gripping the bar overhand. Remember you will probably need to use a chair to start with.

Do 12-15 Repetitions of each exercise, remember don’t rest much and then repeat the whole lot 2 or 3 times do it all 3 times a week with a days rest in between. Once you can do it all comfortable consider upping the amount of repetitions or get someone to time you 30 seconds for each exercise doing as many repetitions as you can.

Do some abdominal crunches and lower back exercises followed by 5 minutes running or skipping to cool down.