You got careless and gained a few pounds during the holidays? That is almost inevitable considering all family gatherings and cocktails at the office. Most of us expect to gain a big weight during the Christmas holidays so not only that we are more careless about the food we eat we also stop doing our workouts.
I’m sure that this year as well as the last year you read numerous articles on how to stay slim and reduce body fat during the winter and spring. Some say you should do cardio hours on end to lose weight. Others say that what you need is weight training since it speeds up metabolism. But what are actually the best fat burning workouts?
Weight training builds the muscles, raises the temperature and speeds up the metabolism and all of that leads to higher calorie burn. Raising muscle mass is the main reason why many experts recommend weight training for weight loss.
Studies show that weight training stimulates the consumption of body fat but only if the training is of high intensity and if you gradually raise the weight of the dumbbells you are lifting.
It is considered that cardio exercises like walking, jogging or swimming are perfect for weight loss. But not all studies show that cardio helps people to lose weight. For example, swimming or a long slow walk does not stimulate weight loss for a lot of people since they do not exercise long enough or with high enough intensity to burn more calories or more fat.
A lot of people lose weight difficult no matter how hard they try because their body is constantly trying to maintain a certain permanent weight. Positive energy balance or consuming more calories than the body will use results in weight gain while negative energy balance results in weight loss.
When you try to lose weight your body slows down the metabolism and increases the appetite in the effort to maintain the weight. But there is a solution for that. Here are some useful tips on how to use cardio and weight training in order to lose weight and shape up your body.
Weight Training And Weight Loss
Muscles are incredibly active tissue. When the body is resting they continuously burn calories. When they contract they raise the temperature. Scientist found that the capacity of the body to create heat is proportional to muscle mass in that body.
That means the more muscle you have the faster your metabolism is. Best way to speed up your metabolism is to get new muscles and to keep them active. What is important for you to know is that weight training can help you lose weight and shape up your body only if you train long and intense.
Cardio Training And Weight Loss
While your body is still it consumes about 1,5 calories in a minute. If you’re doing a high-intensity workout your body burns 15 calories in a minute. But, in the beginning, you can maintain this high-intensity training only for a minute or two.
Once you get in shape you will be able to train for an hour or more in the intensity that is 70-80% of your maximum and to burn 10-12 calories in a minute. At that rate, you will burn about half a kilogram of fat per each 290th minute of training.
So you will burn more calories during high-intensity training than you would during low-intensity one. For example, if you walk slowly on a treadmill you will burn 5-7 calories in a minute.
If you run on it with the intensity of 80% of your maximum you will burn 12 calories more per minute. You will also build more muscles with high-intensity training and speed up your metabolism and that will help you to burn more calories during the rest of the day while you are not working out at all.
Weight Training, Cardio And Diet
The best weight loss program includes a healthy diet with reduced calorie number, cardio and weight training. Training gives the best results if you are working out hard. If you are doing cardio using half of your strength and if weight training is of low intensity then you are almost wasting time in the gym.
Those people that combine reduced calorie intake with cardio and weight training keep their muscle mass while at the same time noticeably progress regarding strength, body shape and aerobic capacity.
So if you include weight training and cardio training in your weight loss program you are losing more fat and fewer muscles but only if you do high-intensity workouts.
You have to be focused on your training, give your maximum whether you are doing cardio or weight training and soon you will see the results of your hard work.
There is no need for you to exercise for hours all you need is to take it seriously and invest your self in it, if you do not do it you are just wasting time and results will never come.
Process Of Weight Loss
Losing weight is very hard! That process consists of very hard work and consistency. If you manage to apply these principles you are on the right track to build a nice and slim body:
- Eat 300 calories less each day. Consume low-calorie food such as apples, green vegetables and carrot that you can eat in large amounts.
- Drink energy shakes mixed with low-fat milk. You won’t get hungry quickly and the level of sugar in your blood will stay the same for hours.
- Workout from 60 to 90 minutes almost every day in the week.
- People that do high-intensity training have more muscle mass and less fat than those people that do low-intensity training.
- If you are really not in shape start slow with walking or light jogging on the treadmill. In time start increasing the duration and the intensity of your training.
- Once or twice a week do interval training. It consists of short intense training intervals combined with short periods of rest.
- At least twice a week do an intense weight lifting training. Start with a series of ten repetitions doing 8 to 10 exercises for all main muscle groups. Continue increasing the number of series until you get to three series of ten repetitions. Exercise in a manner that you can hardly gather the strength to finish each series.
- Be more active during the day. Every little effort helps. Use the stairs instead of the elevator. Park the car further away from the office. Watch tv less.
It is hard but not impossible. In the end, it is all up to you and your determination to succeed. Create your goals, start with smaller ones that you can easily achieve and build up slowly to one big one.
Achieving all the little goals one by one and crossing them off your list will keep you motivated and give you the strength to persist until you finally reach your big goal and that is a beautiful and healthy body.
