You might think that the best way to burn fat is to do lots of exercise, whether it be running, swimming, cycling, gym work or whatever. Unfortunately, burning fat efficiently isn’t quite that simple. We need to train our bodies to burn fat not just when we’re exercising but all day long.

A good fat burning workout program uses three levels of exercise at differing intensities.

The first level of training is endurance training. This type of workout should be done at a slow and steady pace. You start exercising for a reasonably short period of time. For example, you might run for 20 minutes, or however long you feel comfortable with. This gives you a base which you can build on. Over time you can increase the length of your workout until you can exercise at a consistent rate for about an hour.

The second level of a fat burning workout is the threshold workout. This is medium intensity training where you work for around 15 or 20 minutes at the highest rate that you can sustain for this time.

Finally, there is interval training. This part of your fat burning workout involves working at a high intensity for a couple of minutes followed by a rest period for about the same time. You then continue to alternate between exercising and resting or walking for the full workout session.

Ideally, your heart rate should be monitored during your workouts so that you can exercise at consistent levels in different sessions. Training in this way trains your body to increase its metabolism and burn more fat, not just when you’re working out but 24 hours a day.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Fitness, Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.