Fat Burn=Weight Loss..whats the best way?

ljdborton

What is the best workout program (30DS,P90, Insanity) for cardio to get the fat burn/weightloss? Or is the plain general running/biking the way to go until you get the fat off first? Help me out here friends:)

Lozze

Best option for fat burn is none of the above.

Lift heavy weights (heavy for you) Best option if you're a newbie is New Rules of Lifting for Women, Starting Strength or Stronglifts. These are all beginner programs.

You will NOT get bulky lifting weights. Unless you're planning on taking steroids.

twinmom01

Strength training with some HIIT (High intensity interval training) cardio thrown in - which is basically what most of those programs you mentioned 30DS, P90 are. Also watching what you eat...you want to get a fair amount of protien to maintain your muscle mass so the energy is drawn from your fat storage.

Make sure you take measurements...my scale has been slow to go down (because doing strength training and HIIT really works your muscles and create microscopic tears...your body will hold on to water to repair those muscles to make them stronger - hence why you also need a good amount of water) - but my body has changed A LOT - if you are doing something like 30DS or P90 it doesn't really allow for down times to let your body shed excess water weight from muscle repair so you may not see much movement on the scale - depending on how large you are to begin with...if you are at a stable weight you may not see any scale loss but body change...There are some great photos on here of people who have done things like 30DS where the scale maybe moved a lb or two but the body shows a big difference...

Just wanted to throw the above out there - too many people think doing programs like that will help them shed a bunch of weight and then get discouraged when the scale doesn't budge much - nevermind all their clothes are loose

dlwyatt82

There's no exercise that specifically causes extra fat burn. All exercise burns extra calories, and when you burn more calories than you eat, your body will break down some fat to make up the difference. It might also break down some muscle tissue.

When you exercise, you'll likely need to eat even more to keep your deficit at a healthy level. Exercise for the benefits of exercise, but losing the fat is all about how much you eat in relation to how much you burn. Benefits of exercise:

Strength training: Maintain more of your muscle mass as you lose the weight. Great, toned body appearance once your body fat percentage gets low enough to show it off. Increased strength and confidence, posture, etc.

Cardio: Improved cardiovascular health (heart and lungs, reduce risk of heart disease / stroke, etc). More energy overall, ability to walk / run farther. Very important for escaping zombie attacks.

Other than increasing your calories burned, neither type of exercise is specifically causing any fat loss.

alasin1derland

http://www.freeweightlossexerciseprograms.net/fat-burning-heart-rate.html

if this link works it talks about optimum fat burning heart rate zone

mcarter99

Good advice here. I would add two things-

Increasing your overall daily activity level can burn a lot more calories over the course of a week than adding in some intense workouts here and there. Take the stairs, park further away, walk to the store, watch less tv, etc.

That 'fat burning zone' is highly misunderstood. You burn a higher PERCENTAGE of fat at a lower heart rate but you burn higher total calories (and therefore more fat) at higher heart rates. Mostly, I'd strive for elevated heart rates more for cardiovascular health than 'fat loss'.

mmapags

The best way is a combination of cardio, and strength training. You can utilize HIIT, or Moderate Intesity Steady State or a combo of all 3 at various time. I would limit cardio to 2x per week and strength train 3 times per week. This will result in FAT loss not nessesarily most weight loss. With the strength training you will gain some water and glycogen and your existing muscle tissue will develop. In the begining, you won't see as much weight loss as much as inches lost unless you are very high body fat. Also, eating in deficit, you will likely not develop much new muscle tissue beyond a pound or 2 of newbie gains at most, again unless you are very high body fat. A Heavy Lifting style strength program is best as you will get stronger and leaner but not bigger, This means heavier weights (For you. Heavier is all relative.) and lower reps. Higher reps lighter weight will cause hypertrophy and could cause mass gain.

mmapags

Good advice here. I would add two things-

Increasing your overall daily activity level can burn a lot more calories over the course of a week than adding in some intense workouts here and there. Take the stairs, park further away, walk to the store, watch less tv, etc.

That 'fat burning zone' is highly misunderstood. You burn a higher PERCENTAGE of fat at a lower heart rate but you burn higher total calories (and therefore more fat) at higher heart rates. Mostly, I'd strive for elevated heart rates more for cardiovascular health than 'fat loss'.

This! Zone training has been largely debunked. It is least efficient when you factor in EPOC. That being said, it doesn't hurt for 1 of your 2 cardio sessions in a week be a low intensity activiy like walking for an hour on a day after you did heavy strength training.