There a couple of school of thoughts when it comes to performing an effective cardio workout in regard to burning body fat. On one side, it is recommended to perform a cardio workout at a low intensity for a long period of time. The thought process is that you need to train at a moderate intensity to get your heart rate to the target zone to burn body fat. It has been argued that if you get your heart rate too high, you will begin to burn carbohydrates instead of body fat. Others argue that you will burn many more calories in your cardio workout if you exercise at a higher intensity. They reason that if you simply burn more calories than you consume in a day, you will lose body fat. Lets look at each school of thought in more detail.
Low Intensity
This is the cardio workout that is currently being pushed by the mainstream. The reason this cardio workout is so popular is that it gets good results. It has been proven in numerous studies that cardio performed at a moderate intensity will burn fat as energy instead of carbohydrates as energy. This is a great goal to have, since if the body is using fat as energy during the cardio workout, then you will get rid of fat exercising in this manner. Most of the cardio equipment these days comes with a heart rate display. It will let you monitor your heart rate during your cardio workout to allow you to hit the ideal intensity level. Usually it takes about 5-10 minutes to get up to the optimal heart rate. It is suggested to stay within that zone for at least 30 minutes for good results.
High Intensity
This is a much less popular cardio workout. It is hard work to workout at a high intensity level. Although it is used less, this cardio workout gets good results as well. If you get your heart rate above the typical moderate intensity level, you will burn a lot more calories. Some of those calories come from your body fat and some come from glycogen (carbohydrates stores within your muscles). The logic of burring a ton of calories in during your cardio workout is to create a daily calorie deficit. If you burn a lot more calories throughout the day than what you consume, you will lose weight.
The Challenge
-
The low intensity cardio workout will burn body fat once you get your heart rate up to an optimum level. The challenge is that it takes about 10 minutes to get to the point where your heart rate is in the fat burning zone. The first 10 minutes of this cardio workout are somewhat unproductive.
-
The high intensity cardio workout is great, but it is hard to exercise in this manner for a long period of time. Many people would have a tough time working out at an intense level for more than 10-15 minutes.
Fat Burning Cardio Workout
If you haven't guessed already, there is a way to benefit from both types of cardio workouts in the same session. You can make the first ten minutes of the low intensity cardio workout productive, by starting your cardio workout off at a high intensity level. What I recommend is to spend the first 10-15 minutes of your cardio workout running on a treadmill or really pushing hard on an exercise bike or elliptical machine. Once you are really working up a sweat, switch to a low intensity and keep it there for 20-30 minutes. You will burn a lot of calories and a lot of body fat.
