A few days ago I saw a friend of mine post on his Facebook page that he went to Planet Fitness in New Hampshire. Not to my surprise, unfortunately, was that he said there were 37 people in the “cardio” section and 3 people in the strength training area. Now this is not something that only happens in New Hampshire, it happens all over America.

What’s wrong with that you might ask? Now don’t get me wrong, cardiovascular exercise is very important and I encourage everyone to do it. My problem is that most people believe it is the best way to lose weight, which is NOT TRUE. And on top of that, most people are doing long, slow cardio. This in my opinion is a complete waste of time. Unless of course you are training for a marathon.

So what is the best thing for you to do to lose weight and change your body? I’m sure you can guess by now that the answer to that is strength training. Changing your body really comes down to getting rid of fat and replacing it with muscle. You WILL NOT get that by only doing cardio. In order to stimulate your muscles, you need to train them with resistance. And on top of that, to get the results you really want, you need to exert yourself more and more with each workout.

What makes strength training the best choice overall is that you can also turn it into a cardiovascular workout by doing a circuit style program. Which means you would do anywhere from 3 to 5 exercises in a row with no rest in between. Then you would rest briefly (30 secs.) and repeat the routine again. No matter how you slice it, you can’t make a cardiovascular workout a strength training workout though.

So do yourself a favor and start doing some strength training. And remember, if you only have time to do one thing, get the best of both worlds and start doing some circuit training. And to get even better results, make sure to use free weight, your own body weight, bands, medicine balls, etc. You want to avoid using machines for the most part. Don’t sit down, keep your body moving, lift heavy weights, take minimal rest periods and make your body the calorie burning machine it is meant to be. And since you are strength training, more calories burned means a tighter, firmer body

If you are an endurance athlete that is serious about your cardio workouts then you have got to be serious about your strength exercises, particularly your strength endurance exercises. One superior strength endurance related type of workout that will enhance your endurance performance is the inclusion of kettlebell training. If you haven’t had any experience with this hard hitting device then you need to continue reading this article.

You see one of the major components of a highly successful endurance athlete is having a smart strength program. By implementing strength endurance related lifts into your workouts you stand to achieve a much higher level of performance by building on and developing more power, musculoskeletal resiliency, and overall conditioning from head to toe. By having a stronger and fitter body you can outperform your competitors every day you go out to race. This is why kettlebell cardio is so valuable. By implementing the use of kettlebell strength training into your workouts you stand to gain all of these very important traits that I just mentioned. You see kettlebell training is a movement based style of strength training versus a style of strength training that concentrates on isolating specific body parts. Because you are implementing more functional bodily movements up against the resistance of a weight (in this case kettlebells) you will quickly elevate your level of perceived exertion to achieve an optimal level of total body conditioning. Kettlebell training is more dynamic and efficient in terms of developing both an optimal level of strength and cardiovascular fitness than any other form of strength training around. This is a true cardio workout my friend.

If you haven’t taken the time to implement the use of kettlebell training into your cardio/endurance program then you are missing out. You have got to start getting better today if you are serious about beating out the competition. I will make it easier for you by inviting you to access the rest of my articles on the matter for free. Remember that most any athlete can train hard, but only the champions train smart!

Below is an interview about cardio workouts done by Craig Ballantyne. This presents a great example of how cardio workouts are typically misused by exercise enthusiasts in their attempts to lose body fat. You’ll never get those six pack abs if all you keep doing are the same boring cardio routines over and over. Expand your thinking, and shrink your waistline!

Everybody assumes that you must do endless hours of cardio workouts to get ripped six pack abs. But this is simply not true. In fact, if you quit wasting so much time with boring slow cardio routines and change your workouts much more strategically, you will get those six pack abs much faster than you thought was possible!

Let’s look into how one female cardio workout fanatic finally lost her excess belly fat and revealed her six pack abs with the help of the innovative Turbulence-Training workouts!

Craig: C-J, let’s start with a bit of background on yourself and what your goals were when you discovered interval-training and strength training.

C-J:

Ok, I’m a female in my middle 30’s and your typical office professional who spends many long hours in front of the computer.

With regards to fitness and nutrition, I grew up realizing the importance of being active and staying healthy. So while I’ve stayed active for most of my life, I recently realized that I still had a lot to learn about both training and nutrition.

When I first discovered the Turbulence-Training Workouts, I was looking for an improvement in body composition. I had been introduced to weight training a year or so earlier and had made some really good progress, but had gone past that “new stimulus” effect, and really needed something different to kick my results up again and break the plateau.

Craig: How were you doing before?

C-J:

Well, during grad school and working full-time I let my fitness slip for the days and evenings tied to a computer, and the joys of eating at restaurants once or twice a day. I had gained about twenty pounds and was at my heaviest weight ever at about 160 pounds. Once I finished night school, I added exercise and nutrition back to my priority list and lost those twenty pounds, mostly from running five days a week.

The 2nd stage started when I discovered weight training. I was at about 142 pounds at the time and about 28% body fat. After about six months I lost another 8-10 pounds and 7% body fat.

So when I started the Turbulence-Training program, I had already made decent progress as I was down to about 133 pounds and 21-22% bodyfat.

Craig: What were your workouts like before Turbulence Training? Why did they not work as well? How have you since improved upon those workouts?

C-J:

Before Turbulence Training, I was a “same-pace” cardio fanatic, and I ran 3-5 miles three times a week and strength trained using a four day body part split routine. This plan worked OK for about six months or so, but then I just stalled out and the plateau set in. I’m not exactly sure what the culprit was, but I just knew that I needed a different type of workout program to try.

So when I first started strength training and interval workouts I was skeptical that such a short workout only three times per week would be good enough. I soon realized that strength training and intervals kept the intensity levels higher during EVERY workout, so the 3 days and 2 super sets were actually much more efficient than my four day body part split and three days of running. I also got on an interval training program and reduced my slower “same pace” cardio runs to about one day a week.

Craig: How have the interval workouts and strength training helped you improve your shape? What benefits and results have you achieved? What are your improvements compared to your before stats?

C-J:

I am definitely stronger, leaner, and faster than before.

Strength wise, I can finally do chin-ups and pull-ups, something I’ve always wanted to be able to achieve. I have also improved my 5k time by two minutes. I also finally have the muscle tone and athletic body shape that I have always wanted.

When compared to my before stats, I have had to throw the scales out the window and use the mirror and compliments I’ve received as my guide since I have gained a few pounds of lean (but sexy) muscle so the scale weight hasn’t changed much even though my body composition has improved. Also, my clothes have gotten looser and smaller and I’m also making fairly significant strength and speed gains. I can also actually see a visible six pack of abs now, which has always eluded me!

Craig: How do you feel in terms of energy and strength?

C-J:

My strength gains are most exciting to me, since I typically have high energy/endurance. I particularly like how my strength gains have transferred to improved running and biking.

The amount I can lift in the gym just sort of evolves, but when I can climb hills on my bike that I used to be forced to walk, and finish 5k runs in times that were once way out of my reach, it feels pretty damn good!

Craig: What features do you like about TT-style strength and intervals?

C-J:

It is fun, time efficient, and intense. Plus it works like crazy! When I am in the gym, I know that I am making the most efficient use of my time.

Craig: Did you change your eating plan with the guidelines?

C-J:

Not a whole lot, but some. I was on a pretty good eating plan when I started TT strength and intervals, but I am constantly learning about making better food choices and looking to change things slightly here and there. Incorporating a post-workout recovery shake and getting as much variety as possible have been the biggest changes in my nutrition habits since I started the program.

Craig: What would you say to others that ask you about your workouts? Do you get a lot of comments from people?

C-J:

When people ask me about my workouts, I try to hold back some excitement so I don’t come off as a wild fanatic and overwhelm them.

I have had quite a few comments from others in my gym, either noticing how hard and smart that I am working out, or complimenting me on my progress. One woman even pointed me out and said “I want thighs like that!” to her friend. How cool is that!

It is always enjoyable to see friends or family or even co-workers that I haven’t seen in a while because they always remind me of the great progress I have made. It’s also exciting that I can show off my flat stomach now too with the sexy little six pack!

The best compliment I get now is in the form of imitation. Others want to know exactly what I do and ask me for tips to help them. They see that it works, want to know how I have done it, so they can try to apply it to themselves.

Craig: Thanks C-J! Keep up the great work with your time-saving Turbulence Training fat-loss workouts.

See below for a special free report on more effective cardio workout alternatives that will have you losing body fat much faster from now on.

There is really no question that cardio exercise is good for fat loss, as any movement of the body that causes a rise in heart rate will contribute to fat loss. Where things get confusing is those sold on aerobic exercises talk as though it’s the panacea for fat loss, and others counter that cardio exercise has its shortcomings, and therefore is not helpful at all. The truth is, both arguments have some truth, but don’t buy into either argument. Aerobic exercises are very beneficial for fat loss, but alone may be of limited benefit.

So how does cardio exercise contribute to fat loss? First, let us break down cardio exercises into their basic categories, and see what each does for fat loss. When we use the term “aerobic exercises”, it literally means “with air”, and would include those where there is a constant flow of oxygen going to the muscle. These exercises would include bike riding, walking or running. Anaerobic means without air and during one part of the exercise the muscle would function without air. Sprinting and weightlifting would be examples of these exercises. Cardiovascular means exercising the heart, and although there may be a variation of intensity, with cardio being more intense, they are pretty much the same as aerobic exercises.

The best cardio exercise for fat loss is the higher intensity kind that is for shorter duration. Depending on the individual, three to four times a week with thirty minute sessions is probably optimum. Why we recommend more intense cardio exercise is because it has some fat loss benefit when you are finished with your workout, as higher metabolism will be maintained for a period of time later. This is not to say there is not a place for low intensity workouts. We always recommend diversity in your workouts, and longer more methodical training exercises can help build endurance. But for our discussion here on cardio exercise and its contribution to fat loss, shorter high intensity aerobic exercises are much better.

Another important factor in cardio exercise is to be sure to keep it short in duration. The objective is to keep a high level of intensity, and of course depending on the individual it will be impossible to keep an adequate level of intensity if the workout lasts to long. If you know the workout will only last twenty to thirty minutes, it will be easier to push through harder than if you had a one hour workout, where it would only be natural to pace yourself. For proper fat loss, the idea definitely is quality over quantity.

As with any of the high intensive aerobic exercises, a person must be sensible in any program they are attempting to take on. If this is your first go at exercising in awhile, get a physical from your doctor, and let him know what you are planning to do. Have a plan going in, preferably with advice from a trainer that will devise a program fit for you. If you are 60 years old and getting back into exercising, which is fantastic, don’t attempt a program designed for a 30 year old. Also, remember you are never too old to start. There have been cases of people starting exercise programs in their 80’s and have virtually rolled back the years. No matter what age you start, you should be commended on not accepting your age as a barrier. Just be sensible about it.

One of the top questions I receive is “What should I do for my cardio workout plan?” I usually answer with a question; “What do you enjoy doing for your cardio workout?”

It doesn’t matter so much what you do for cardio. It’s doing what you enjoy. If I suggest you run 3-10 minute miles for your cardio workout plan and you have never ran in your life or you hate running, how successful of a plan would that be?

Let’s cover a few of the basics:

o Low intensity-is working at around the 60% range of your target heart rate. 220 – 40 = 180 (maximum heart rate). 180 x 60% =108 beats per minute.

o Low intensity is easy to do so you can workout longer and a great idea for someone beginning a cardio workout plan.

o Low intensity is low risk. Most anyone can start a low intensity workout plan

o Low intensity is burns a higher percentage of calories from fat.

You just stopped at fat burning and have decided on low intensity didn’t you? Let’s take a look at high intensity cardio.

o High intensity would be working at around 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. Using the same calculations above a 40 year old would have a range of 135-153 beats per minute

o High intensity cardio continues to burn calories at a higher rate long after you have completed your workout.

o You will burn more calories faster. You can walk 1 mile in 20 minutes and burn 100 calories or you can run a mile in 10 minutes and burn 100 calories.

o High intensity can increase muscle mass. Look at the difference in sprinters and marathon runners.

Here’s the question to ask yourself; What if I do both? Hmmm… could that possibly work? Sure, it’s called interval training. You work at a moderate pace for 3-5 minutes, depending on your level of fitness, and then work at a high intensity for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Work at a 5/1 minute ratio. If you are starting at an intermediate level you could work at a 3/1 minute ratio.

There are several ways you can set up your interval cardio workout plan. I will use a treadmill workout for an example since a treadmill has a timer and is very versatile. Always take about 5 minutes to warm up first.

Walking/Beginner-After your warm up walk briskly for 3-5 minutes and then jog lightly for 1 minute. As your fitness level increases you can shorten the walk to 3 minutes. Repeat your intervals until you have reached your goal mileage or time.

Running/Intermediate-After your warm up run at a moderate pace for 3-5 minutes and then run full out for 1 minute. As your fitness level improves you will decrease your moderate time and even pick up the pace a little. Remember, the goal is your target heart rate.

You can use the same cardio workout plan with the elevation on your treadmill. On your one minute intervals or high intensity interval, increase the elevation as high as is safely possible for you.

I’ve used a treadmill for my example but you can use the same idea with running outside, an elliptical trainer, spin bike, bicycle, aerobic dancing; anything you like.

So my answer to, “what is the best cardio workout plan?” Do what you enjoy first of all and integrate interval training for a maximum fat burning cardio workout plan.

A lot of athletes use bodybuilding cardio workout to get rid of fat and increase their stamina and endurance. But most bodybuilders are strength trainers and a lot of them forget about the importance of a cardio workout. If you use a cardio workout, you can help condition your body and give definition to your muscles.

Timing of your cardio. Preferably, cardio should be in the morning, right after you wake up and right before eating breakfast. Don’t eat anything yet when doing cardio. Black coffee or a sugar-free drink are acceptable. This will help your body burn stored fats and carbohydrates. Do not do a cardio workout after eating carbohydrates because your insulin level will prevent fat from being burned.

Length of a cardio workout. Each cardio training session should be at least 30 minutes and it should be no more than 75 minutes. You should do it 4 times a week. But if you are really out of shape, five times a week is acceptable.

Intensity of your cardio workout. Cardio workout should be within a low to moderate intensity range. This helps burn the most fats in your body. However, interval training is also necessary in your workout plan if you want to burn more calories through the “shock” of the training that your body receives.

Interval training. Interval training, as its name implies, is when you switch several kinds of exercises and intensity levels during your workout. You can sprint for about 20 seconds and then walk for 2 minutes. When you do that repeatedly, say for about seven to eight times, then that is called intensity training.

What kinds of cardio exercises can you include in your workout?

Brisk walking. This is one of the easiest forms of cardio workouts you can do. All you have to do is walk as fast as you can in the treadmill or around your neighborhood and you’ll be able to burn fat. You can also do it in the morning or in the evening before going to sleep!

Jogging and running. These cardio exercises are pretty popular, especially for those who want to join a marathon. The only perceived danger in jogging is the jolt that your body receives whenever your feet hit the ground. Running, though, is a great exercise that could help your heart and your lungs increase their performance.

Swimming. This is not just a cardio exercise, but your whole body also becomes involved. Your back, shoulder, chest and leg muscles are all working together when you do this exercise.

Do the bodybuilding cardio workout if you want to burn some fat and bring definition to your muscles.

“Cardio” is the “Economic Stimulus Bill” of the fitness world. You can put your hopes in it, but generally it isn’t going to do anything for you, and it will just waste your time and resources.

Most people don’t realize that there was “life before cardio”. People used to exercise outdoors. They participated in sports. They played games – outside! – with their family and friends. They used their feet or bicycles for transportation (rather than driving 15 minutes to the gym to go do “cardio”).

So here are the top 5 reasons why I think the term “cardio” is lame.

1) People hate doing cardio. Have you ever met a person who smiled when they said, “Oh, I have to go do cardio now.” (That’s not the same as the excitement an endurance athlete gets when they go “training”. That’s different from “cardio”. Endurance athletes don’t call their workouts, “cardio”.)

NOTE: So if you are a runner, and you love to run, and you tell me (with a smile), “I’m going out for a run”, then that’s cool by me. Nothing wrong with that. But if don’t like to run, and you tell me (with a pout), “I’m going out for a run because I have to get my cardio”, then I say, “Boooooo to that”. Life’s to short to hate your workouts!

2) People believe that 30 minutes of half-assed cardio (which is what most people do) will help them lose weight. But it won’t. It just wastes their time. People are obsessed with the calorie counters on machines. I truly believe this is how folks get hooked and obsessive compulsive with cardio…because all they can think about is how many calories they have burned, and how much food that means they can eat.

“Cardio” does not promote healthy relationships with food.

3) People think you have to “cardio” (i.e. go to a gym and exercise on a machine that doesn’t go anywhere) for 30 minutes in order to be healthy.

You don’t have to do “cardio” to be healthy. There is so much more to health than 30 minutes of “cardio”. Your diet is more important for your cardiovascular health than your exercise regime. Plus, as long as you’re active each day (doing manual labor, “cardio”, playing sports, or lifting weights), you’re doing enough to meet the minimum required amount of exercise for cardiovascular health.

4) People think “cardio” will help them with sports performance or their short, burst fitness (like climbing stairs). It rarely does.

In fact, the guy who does “cardio” in preparation for his basketball, soccer, hockey, or Ultimate Frisbee league is going to be sorely disappointed by how slow he is – and by how he lacks sports-specific fitness as much as all the guys who just lifted weights all off-season. Plus, doing traditional “machine cardio” does not prepare you for sports-specific movements or speed of movement, so you’re just as likely – if not more likely – to get injured during the early season.

5) It signifies a waste of time, inefficiency, and a sheep-like mentality towards doing something just because everyone else is doing it.

Seriously, if you were from another planet and you came down to earth and went into a big commercial gym and look at the “cardio” section, pardon me, the “cardio theater” section, you’d smile to yourself and say, “wow, this planet is going to be easy picken’s”.

“Cardio” is also lame because people use cardio as a time to catch up on their magazine reading and TV watching (and now Internet and email time). That about says it all. Workout time is not multi-task time.

So what should you be doing instead if you want to sculpt your body, burn fat, lose your belly, and get lean before summer?

You should skip the “cardio” (let’s not ever use that phrase again) and focus on total-body, multi-muscle resistance training and interval training exercises to help you build “everyday” strength and fitness (like the ability to carry groceries or children, or climb 3 flights of stairs as fast as possible).

Plus, with these total body workouts, you’ll save time and get more health benefits than you will with straight “cardio”. (Sorry to use that term again.)

One of the best ways to lose stomach fat is to do cardio workouts. Indeed, cardio can burn a lot of flab, but not all cardio is made equal and the way you do your workout has a huge effect over the kind of results you may expect. To put it bluntly, a lot of people waste hours doing cardio and get very little results. If you follow the tricks in this article, you will do much better.

Here are 3 cardio workout tricks to lose belly fat

1. Do high intensity cardio workouts – Most people judge their own workouts by how long they are, believing that the longer they stay on the treadmill or elliptical the better. However, that is far from the case. The true measure of any workout is the intensity of it, meaning how much effort did this workout place on your body.

The more intense the workout, the more fat it will help you burn, regardless of its length. You can actually shave off minutes of workout time and still get an excellent workout.

2. Do your cardio after weight training – A good workout has its order. Weight training comes first, cardio later. It may not seem important but it is. It helps to avoid injury, keeps you weight training workouts better, and helps you to lose more stomach fat.

3. Do interval cardio workouts – Interval workouts mean that you constantly change the pace of the workout. For 2 minutes you’re going hard, then you take it easy for 2-3 minutes. You then increase the pace again, slow it again, and more of the same. This works out your cardiovascular system over a range of intensities and provides a more versatile and effective workout. It will also help you to burn more flab.

Follow these tips for more effective fat burning cardio workouts.

Walking

There is little doubt that walking is one exercise that anybody can undertake, being simple and very easy. It’s especially helpful if you are a beginner, planning to make exercising a regular feature. Or, for some reason if you couldn’t continue with your schedule of exercising in any manner, for whatever reason, this is the best way to get started again. Even those already into some kind of an exercise regimen should find it helpful as a warming up exercise. If you plan to burn fat but lack that energy to get into other sophisticated kinds of exercises, you should start with it.

Running/Jogging

Running and jogging are among the best of cardio exercises. If you love being outdoors to breathe fresh air, there is nothing to beat this experience. Any athlete is necessarily required to go jogging while training. Apart from athletes and experts, people who like going for exercises recommend jogging be adopted as a regular exercise. Running is considered to be an ideal cardiovascular exercise for those wanting to burn fat. However, any kind of exercise if carried beyond a point could cause some undesirable, but avoidable health complications and it’s best to consult your doctor before hand and seek his opinion of continuing with it.

Cycling

Whichever way you look at it, cycling is simply a superb way of exercising. It has some benefits that other ways of exercising lack. And, that’s because of the element of fun associated with it all the time. Of course, it effectively burns calories and fat. Even if you can’t mange to go outdoors, you may like trying stationary biking at home or at the gym. You derive the same benefits minus the element of fun. Working on stationary bikes is not the same as going out for cross-country biking or mountain riding that provides excitement and sense of adventurism. Nevertheless, as the proverbial saying goes “something is better than nothing”!

Machines

Let’s accept the fact that lifestyle of most doesn’t leave them with as much time as to indulge in any kind of interesting outdoor activity like cycling and hiking. But, they could derive the benefits of such activities by going to the gym and opting for a machine they like using. There is quite a choice for them that go to include stationary bikes, elliptical machines, treadmills and Stairmaster, besides others.

There certainly are ways to make aerobic cardio exercises more interesting. Bring some change and break the monotony. For instance, you could try including a few sessions of weight training in your normal routine. That helps to avoid the monotony and makes it more interesting while helping you to have an increased heart rate and burns your fat too.

Before concluding, and once again, do consult doctor before venturing into any exercise regimen.

Are you going to the gym because you want to lose weight? Do you spend time doing cardio work, such as running on a treadmill, using a stair step machine, or working out on a elliptical machine?

If your goal is to lose weight by doing cardio, you might want to pay attention, because it’s been my experience that the majority of the people who do cardio could burn more calories cleaning the house. Not only that, they’d have a clean house at the end of the hour, too.

Part of the problem is that the mainstream advice couldn’t be more wrong about how to correctly workout to maximize fat loss. I did a little self experiment, though I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect, that will help shed some light on what the best approach to cardio is, if you want to lose weight.

My calorie burning cardio expirement.

There is a better approach, and I want to show that approach to you. In this article, I will use a few of my workouts and the actual calories burned and fat calories burned to help demonstrate how to get the most from your workout.

Let me start by explaining what I did. I took three different kids of workouts and compared the results. The comparison was made between high intensity interval training (HIIT), long slow distance training (LSD), and medium distance interval training. I chose these three methods, because the first two, HIIT and LSD have been at the center of a debate over the last few years, and there is a great deal of controversy as to which is better for weight loss.

I also added middle distance interval training, so that we could see how this method to compared to the others. I recorded each session and wrote down the duration of the workout, my heart rate, how many calories I burned, and the total fat calories burned. I used my Polar FT60 heart rate monitor for this comparison test.

This experiment is not exact, but it doesn’t need to be either. It just needs to be consistent, so we can make an intelligent comparison between the three workouts. The point is, don’t worry about the exact numbers used here. Your caloric burn is different than mine, your heart rate is different than mine, and your fitness is different the mine. The conclusions that we draw are more important than the actual numbers used.

Fist, so we are all on the same page, let’s take a look at what I mean when I say LSD, HIIT, and MDI.

Is HIIT The Best?

High Intensity Interval Training is akin to sprint training. Essentially, you run very “hard” and then you rest and repeat the effort. The important thing to remember when doing HIIT is that “hard” means at or close to your maximum effort. That’s why I say it’s like sprint training, you have to really bust your behind and work at your greatest potential. On level of 1-10 in terms of effort, HIIT is an 8-10, when done correctly.

One commonly used method of HIIT training is to work hard for 1 minute and then recover for 1 minute. For fat burning purposes, it is best to slow to a jog during your recovery period rather than stopping entirely. You will burn more calories this way. This work and recovery cycle gets repeated for the duration of the workout.

You can do HIIT training on a variety of exercise equipment, if you don’t want to run. I like bikes and elliptical machine for this kind of workout. It’s not important what piece of equipment you chose, it’s only important that you reach a level of effort of 8-10.

A Benefit of HIIT Training

One thing that many people don’t realize is that an intense workout causes the body to burn calories after the workout, which is often referred to as the after burn effect. Exercise is a process of breaking down the body and building it back up, but stronger. When you do intense exercise, the body break down effect is much greater and there is a greater need for repair. The energy that goes into this repairing process burns additional calories, so hard exercise can have a fat blasting effect for hours after your workout.

Both HIIT Training and middle distance interval training are intense enough to give a good afterburning effect.

The Bad About HIIT

Because of the intense nature of HIIT, your body will need time to recover afterwards. It is not practical to do HIIT everyday, and it’s difficult, even for very fit people, to do HIIT for a long duration. So, to burn more calories, you cannot simply do more HIIT without overtraining. Because of this, there are calorie burning limits to HIIT.

Some very misinformed people will try to convince you that doing more HIIT is the answer to weight loss stalls, but they are sorely mistaken. Their recommendation will lead to overtraining and overtraining is counterproductive to fat loss.

How Did HIIT Score?

My HIIT workout followed this pattern: 1 minute of a hard run followed by 1 minute of an easy recovery jog. I did this for a total of 23 minutes.

Time: 23 minutes, no measured warm up

Heart rate average: 158

Heart rate max: 168

Calories burned: 315

Fat calories: 31

LSD for Fat Loss

Now, just to be clear, when I talk about LSD for fat loss, it has nothing to do with illegal drugs. So, I am not suggesting you find the local drug dealer and start doing drugs to lose weight. Rather, I am referring to long slow distance training (LSD).

LSD training is the most common approach to cardio training in most commercial gyms. It’s often called steady state training, because you exercise at the same pace for your entire workout.

LSD training is not very intense. The goal of LSD training is to exercise for long periods of time, and to do this we need to avoid burning out, so training is slower and easier. It is best to do LSD training at an intensity level somewhere around the 4-7 range.

The Good About LSD

The best things about LSD is that most people can do some form of slow training. They can jog, walk, or even ride a bike for extended periods of time, once they have built up a little bit of strenghth and endurance.

Also, LSD is not terribly intense, so the it is much easier to recover from. In fact, many athletes use LSD training as a recovery workout after previous intense workouts.

The Bad About LSD

With the good comes the bad. Because LSD is not a high intensity exercise, there is less post workout repair needed. So, we will burn fewer calories post-training in the recovery process. The main benefit to LSD is the calories burned while doing the exercise, because relatively few are burned afterwards as a result of the workout.

How did LSD stack up?

Since this was an LSD workout, there was relatively small variation in pace and heart rate throughout the entire workout.

Time: 46 minutes, no measured warm up

Heart rate average: 122

Heart rate max: 131

Calories burned: 396

Fat calories: 99

Is MDI the best fat burning cardio exercise?

Middle distance intervals are not very popular with the fitness crowd. You are more likely to see track athletes and middle distance runners do these types of interval workouts. They are similar to HIIT in that there are work periods and rest periods, but different in that the work periods and rest periods are much longer. For example, a good program for soccer is 5 minutes of work with a 2 minute recovery jog.

When doing MDI, the important thing to remember is to try to maximize the effort during the work period. I do this by measuring the heart rate, but it can be done be estimating your work effort like we talked about with HIIT. An effort of 7-9 is the right range for MDI.

Benefits of MDI

You can burn a lot of calories with an MDI workout. Due to the pace, you wind up with a workout that is relatively short, but covers a pretty good distance.

Also, like HIIT, there is an afterburn effect from doing MDI. This means you will continue to burn calories during the post-workout “healing process”.

Downside to MDI

The downside to MDI is that it’s hard. Not many people like to push themselves that hard for that long.

How did middle distance intervals stack up?

I wanted to make sure the duration of the workout was exactly the same as the HIIT test, so this workout was done for exactly 23 minutes. That was a bit of an uneven number, so I did 4 sets of 4 minute intervals with a recovery jog of 1 minute between each set. I ended the session with a 3 minute interval, so that I finished exactly at the 23 minute mark.

Time: 23 minutes, no measured warm up

Heart rate average: 160

Heart rate max: 167

Calories burned: 321

Fat calories: 32

So what does this mean and how do we know which one is best for burning fat?

First, let me point out that each workout burned a lot of calories. However, the LSD workout was twice as long as the HIIT and MDI workouts, and that the results were not twice as good. In short, LSD is not an efficient workout.

There wasn’t a whole lot of difference between HIIT and MDI. For athletic training purposes there are differences, but for fat loss, there aren’t.

Also, since I cannot measure the calories burned in post exercise recovery, it is reasonable to assume that both HIIT and MDI workouts actually burned a few more calories than I show. This is due to the after burn effect. And while the numbers are not huge, it is safe to assume that so our total calories burned in the HIIT and MDI workouts are relatively similar, and close to the equivalent of what was burned in a much longer LSD workout.

LSD burned a higher percentage of fat. It burned 25% vs. the 10% burned by MDI and HIIT. But, you have to devote more time to an LSD workout to see the benefit. So, the question becomes is all that extra time worth burning a few more fat calories? In my mind, it’s a rather small gain for all the extra time you have to spend to get the benefit.

Which brings us to the big conclusion: HIIT and MDI are more efficient and give us a great way to burn calories. But, they are too demanding to do everyday. LSD can be done everyday, but you better clear you schedule because you will need more time. Unfortunately for many people long workouts 6 days a week are not an option.

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself two questions. Can you convince yourself to do hard training like HIIT and MDI? And, do you have time to do long workouts like LSD? If you workout with weights, too, you probably don’t. Combining weights with LSD makes for a very long workout.

Now that you know how to do cardio training to burn the most amount of fat possible, you are ready to become a fat burning furnace. Just pick an exercise you like, such as biking or running, and go out there and do it.