What is the best way to burn fat?
That question is asked by tons of people every day in their efforts to lose or even just control their weight. The answer to that question is both short and long at the same time. The short answer is one that is somewhat obvious, and that is to exercise. The best way to burn fat is to get up, get out, and do something. To burn fat, you must burn off excess calories. Calorie burn comes from activity and getting your body moving.
The kind of exercise and how to go about doing it is where the complications can come in. The best way to burn fat is through a combination of cardiovascular exercise and resistance exercise (weight lifting).
Most of the time people will think of fat burning and just think of doing cardio exercise alone. Doing cardio does burn calories but is not the single best way to burn off excess weight.
Doing cardio burns off fat at a higher rate than if you were resting and often uses it as a fuel source.
One main thing to focus on to burn of the most fat for the time and energy you are putting in is keeping the intensity up. Basically, you want to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. If you are sure that you can keep going at the pace you are exercising at, then there is a very good chance that you are not exercising hard enough to burn a decent amount of calories and make the effort worth your time in the long run.
While you are doing your workout there should be a little bit of doubt creeping into the back of your mind causing you to wonder whether or not you can keep up the pace for the duration of your routine.
You may be reading this and asking yourself, “Why do I need to push myself like that when I have read that I can just walk or jog to lose weight?” The reason for that is because for some reason many publications only like to give you partially true information.
It is true, it is possible to lose weight by just walking. What no one bothers to tell you is just how far you will need to walk in order to burn enough calories to contribute to your weight loss. It could be anywhere from 3 to 6 miles in order to see the kind of progress you are after. A leisurely stroll may burn calories, but not enough for you to put in just one hour and be good to go. Increasing the intensity (speed, incline, step size, etc.) causes your body to work harder to complete the work. When you exercise harder you burn more calories. The more calories you burn, the more fat you get rid of in the process.
[Increase] the speed of your treadmill if you are running the [next time] you go to the gym. Add more of an uphill angle on the treadmill if you are walking. Add more resistance to the elliptical or stairmaster. Do whatever you can do to make the exercise a little more difficult and your body will thank you for it later when you are lighter.
The next thing that helps to ensure you are on your way to doing what is best to burn fat is weight training. When you weight train properly, you can expect to burn the same amount of calories as you would in a good cardio session like I mentioned earlier. In addition to the initial calorie burn, you will keep burning calories at a [faster] rate for hours AFTER the workout is [finished]. It is for this reason that if you only have time for cardio or weight training, the weight training should take precedence. Finding out exactly what exercises to do and how much weight to lift is a lengthy topic I will cover by itself, but just know that the best way to burn fat fast is to get weight lifting into your routine and keep it there.