Have you gotten caught in an exercise slump and always find yourself bee-lining to the treadmills as soon as you get to the gym? Do you feel that as a long as you’re sweating you’re burning fat and getting in better shape?
In order to burn the highest amount of fat possible and get the absolute most out of your workout, you need to become educated on how your body uses energy and what activities are going to allow you to burn the most fat possible.
How Your Body Burns Energy
Your body turns to two primary sources of energy when simply living and also while working out. These two main sources are carbohydrates and fat. Now, if you’re trying to slim down and cut up then you’re going to want to burn more fat calories than carb calories during your workout.
While sitting, or walking, or eating, your body usually uses about 50/50 fat and carb calories. However, when you stand up and start jogging, your body needs to turn on some fast energy. Carb calories are the easiest for your body to access and so it turns to those first, however, as you continue your activity or exercise, the body will eventually begin to run out of carb energy and in an effort to conserve, turn to burning fat calories.
What About Intensity?
You may be familiar with the idea that working out at a lower intensity (like walking or hiking) is going to burn more fat than higher intensity workouts (running, sprinting, cycling). This is partially true.
When you exert less effort, you don’t resort so quickly to “fast energy” or carb energy, and instead, you remain burning a decent amount of fat calories. However, with this method, you’re still burning fewer total calories than if you upped your intensity.
This is a hard balance to find. If you’re trying to lose weight, then you ultimately you need to be concerned with burning more calories than you consume. If you just want to burn fat, then you should seriously take the idea of intensity into consideration.
If you exercise at a low intensity to burn fat, you need to exercise for longer. If you’re simply exercising to burn calories, then you’re fine with a 30 minute run or 45 minute spin class. Another important thing to remember is that your carb stores need to be replaced when they’re depleted. They can be replaced through your diet or by the internal breakdown of fat.
So, whether you’re exercising at a low or high intensity, you’re still going to be using up fat.
Fat Burning Exercise
One of our favorite exercise machines for burning fat is the stair climber. This machine is highly underrated and many gyms and exercise facilities pack their floor with treadmills and only have one or two stair climbers.
The stair climber is a great exercise machine for fat burning. When using this machine, you are exercising at a “low intensity” but due to the incline, are still exerting more energy than you would be if you were walking at the same pace on the treadmill. The key here, is that your body doesn’t rely on a sudden burst of speed and you therefore don’t turn to carb calories right away. You can burn just as many calories on the stair master as you can in the same amount of time spent on the treadmill, about 100 calories per 10 minutes.
This machine is not for the light hearted however, when beginning, start out slow for 10 minutes then slowly increase your time and intensity. The stair climber is a favorite piece of gym equipment and used often by bodybuilders and fitness models.
Weight Lifting
Whether you’re male or female, weight lifting is an essential part of anyone’s exercise regimen if they’re trying to lose body fat. Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass and lean muscle mass burns more calories than fat does. The formula’s easy: lift for 20-30 minutes, 3-5 times a week to build and maintain a strong, lean figure. The more muscle you have, the higher your fat burn will be in the gym and out.
Conclusion
Now that you have a better understanding on where the energy comes from and goes to as you exercise, you’ll be able to work out smarter.