One Simple Change That Will Maximize Fat Loss

If you hop on the elliptical or treadmill and zone out for 30 minutes, your workout strategy needs help — especially if your goal is to burn fat and lose weight. All you need is one minor tweak: interval training.

Sprinting is one of the most challenging and effective workout routines for fat loss. Short periods of all-out activity challenge your muscles and energy systems to produce intense efforts much more effectively than typical steady-state cardio. By adding it into your existing cardio routine (in addition to regular strength training), you’ll speed up fat loss and reveal all the hard work you’ve been putting in.

Plodding away for hours on the elliptical is both boring and incredibly inefficient for fat loss. With typical steady-state exercise you become increasingly efficient at aerobic activities, which is great for improving aerobic health and cardiovascular endurance. But the more efficient you are with a given aerobic exercise, the less metabolically demanding it becomes and the less fat you’ll burn. Once your body acclimates to an activity, you need to push it to the next level. And steady-state cardio at lower intensity takes longer, generally in bouts of 30 minutes or more, and when done in excess, is counterproductive to gaining or maintaining muscle mass. What you need is high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to maximize your time and fat loss. Sprint training specifically preserves your hard-earned muscle, shredding fat to reveal your lean physique and showcase your athleticism.

Exercise post-oxygen consumption (EPOC) is the phenomenon in which your breathing rate stays elevated for hours after an intense workout to regain all the oxygen lost during the high-intensity exercise. Essentially, all the air you’re gasping for during sprinting must be repaid. As a result, your body seeks oxygen to get back to baseline, keeping your respiratory rate and metabolism elevated long after your workout ends.

In one 2013 study published in the journal Kinesiology, researchers had six physically active men repeat three 30-second cycling sprints and found they required more energy in the subsequent 24 hours than following 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise.

Reference: http://tinyurl.com/gu5hu6b