While most people think the best fat burning exercises at the gym are cardio workouts, they don’t consider that cardio workouts burn both muscle and fat tissue for energy. Burning muscle tissue is actually counterproductive, since the more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn. That’s because muscle tissue requires extra calories to maintain compared to fat tissue, so the more you have, the more calories you’ll burn 24/7.
At Iron Fit, we focus on building muscle tissue.
Strength training is one of the best for building lean muscle mass and it also can trigger Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption, known as EPOC. That means it boosts your metabolism for up to 48 hours after you quit exercising. While cardio workouts do burn tons of calories, it doesn’t continue to burn them after you quit exercising like strength-building workouts do.
Penn State conducted a study on which compared dieting without exercise or dieting and exercise.
This study compared not just dieting and exercise, but dieting combined with just cardio and dieting and cardio and weight training. Those who participated in both weight training and cardio lost an average of six pounds more than those who did just cardio. The diet and cardio group lost as much as 25% of their weight from muscle tissue, and 75% from fat, but those who had weight training lost almost all their weight from fat tissue.
Vary the intensity of the workout to make it a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout.
HIIT workouts aren’t a specific type of workout but a way to do any type of workout. It involves alternating the speed and/or intensity between high intensity for a minute or more and a recovery pace for an equal length of time or longer. It increases the number of calories burned and when combined with a strength training program, can provide not only a great fat burning program, but also both strength-building and cardio.
- High-intensity exercises, a high fat diet combined with exercise and even shivering can increase irisin. Irisin transforms white fat into brown fat that the body can burn easier. If you have more brown fat than white fat, your body burns 20% more calories.
- When you vary your workout, using different exercises, you’ll burn more calories and more fat, since it takes more calories for the body to adjust while muscles learn the new exercise.
- Compound exercises, particularly strength-building ones, are the best at burning calories and ultimately burning fat. Compound exercises use several muscle groups and joints at once.
- At Iron Fit, we create a program designed specifically for you to help you lose fat faster. You’ll get the benefit of science-based workouts from our personal trainers.
For more information, contact us today at Iron Fit San Antonio