High Intensity Workout: Melt Fat Fast With These Tips

The most popular myth about exercise is often referenced as the ‘fat burning zone’ - a theory that claims low-intensity exercise, in a specific range of heart rates, burns fat. Even though many personal trainers subscribe to this so-called theory, it actually remains a myth.

The two main fuels used during exercise are fat and carbohydrates; at low intensity, you use more fat, but as intensity increases, you use less fat and more carbohydrates.  While more fat is used at low intensities, what matters is how many calories you burn during your workout, not whether those calories come from fat or carbohydrates.  Despite what people think, you do not have to use fat during exercise to lose fat from your waistline; after all, carbohydrates are actually muscles’ preferred fuel.  For fat and weight loss, what matters most is the difference between the number of calories you expend, and the number of calories you consume.  To burn lots of calories, going long or going hard are the best options available.

With high-intensity exercise, the metabolic rate also remains elevated for hours afterward, which means you will burn more calories even when you are not exercising, as your body recovers from the tough workout.  Research has shown that the more intense the workout, the longer your post-workout metabolic rate is elevated and the more calories you burn.  Since you can perform a greater intensity of work by breaking up the work with periods of rest, interval training is a great way to perform the high-intensity exercise and help you lose fat. 

To maximize fat loss, try these workouts:

Go Hard

Interval training burns lots of calories in a short amount of time and keeps your metabolic rate elevated for hours after the workout.  Integrate one or two of these workouts each week:

• 8 x 2 minutes at 95-100% max heart rate with 2 minutes active recovery
• 8 to 12 x 30 seconds fast with 1-minute active recovery
• 4 x 4 minutes at 95-100% max heart rate with 3 minutes active recovery

Go Long

Long aerobic workouts (≥ 1.5 to 2 hours) burn lots of calories and make you a better fat-burning machine by increasing the number of mitochondria in your muscles. Mitochondria are your aerobic furnaces, where fat is burned.  With more mitochondria, metabolism is steered to a greater reliance on fat at the same exercise intensity.  Long workouts also deplete your stored carbohydrates, which threatens your muscles’ survival since carbohydrates are muscles’ preferred fuel.  In response to this threat, muscles "learn" how to use fat more effectively.

So, if you want to burn fat and lose weight, just remember that high-intensity workouts and very long workouts burn more calories both during and after your workouts.  And do not worry about staying in your fat-burning zone, because there is no such thing.

For Related Articles Try: