Exercise is hard work. Whether you’re doing cardio exercises, lifting weights or even doing Yoga or Pilates, it takes time, commitment and effort to get up and exercise. It also takes determination to stick with it and do it over and over again.
So obviously you want to make sure that the exercises you’re doing are burning the most fat possible. It’s not worth it to get up and put in the effort to exercise if the moves you’re doing don’t maximize your fat loss!
Are There Exercises That Will Burn Fat In Specific Areas?
Unfortunately, “spot reducing” fat doesn’t work very well. If you have extra fat around your midsection and do 1,000 crunches a day to try to get rid of it, you’re unlikely to be anything but very sore. The best way to “spot reduce” is to actually burn fat all over your body. As you do exercises that naturally burn fat, your body will have no choice but to use the pockets of fat it has stored, and that includes the trouble areas like your thighs, butt and stomach.
How Much Time Does It Take To See Results?
No matter how hard you work out, seeing results from your fat burning exercises is going to take time. While working out at a moderate to high intensitydaily will give you results faster than if you were to exercise only a couple of times a week, you’re still not going to see results overnight. In fact, it may be frustrating at how long it takes to see significant results, even when you are working out at your maximum level. Try not to check the scale too often and give your body time to adjust to yournew routine.
Which Type Of Exercises Are Most Effective?
Cardio exercises are among the most effective to burn fat from head to toe. As your heart pumps harder to do the workout, you burn calories and use up your fat stores. Keeping your heart rate at certain level for a sustained period of time is the best way to burn fat the fastest. Any of the following options are great at doing just that.
Walking: Walking is one of the best fat burning exercises and it’s very easy to do! You can walk on a treadmill, at the park, or even around the block a few times. You can literally walk almost anywhere and burn fat. It’s a great option for people who want a cardio exercise that is low impact and doesn’t damage joints like the ankles or knees.
Interval Training: This is another great choice and it’s a bit easier to do than full on intense exercises. This involves doing a high intensity exercise for a short burst of time, and then doing a lower intensity exercise for a short burst of time to recover. For example, if you wanted to combine walking and interval training, you might walk for 5 minutes, jog for 2.5 minutes, and walk again for five.
Weight Training: Lean muscle is an important component for burning fat, and weight training is yet another one of the most effective exercises to burn fat. It’s essential to combine weight training with cardio if you really want to see great results. Work out the whole body instead of just the trouble areas and as you build more muscle, the muscle in turn will burn more fat.
What Does Food Have To Do With It?
Of course you can exercise and eat whatever you want. But it makes no sense to work so hard to burn fat if you just add it right back to your body. You won’t see any results that way. An important part of engaging in fat burning exercises is to also overhaul your diet and kick the high fat foods out completely.
You can still eat decent portions, just increase the amount of fresh foods and lean proteins you eat and decrease the amount of refined white carbohydrates and fats that you consume. A healthy eating plan will make your workout significantly more effective and you’ll notice results a lot sooner.
Measuring Your Success
If you’ve started doing more exercise and want to see how well you’re doing, it’s important that you understand how and when to measure your success. Looking at the scale too often can make you feel as though you’re not seeing results as quickly as you’d like.
At the most you should only weigh yourself using a high quality digital scale at the same time every week, without any clothes on. However, even weighing yourself once a month is okay too.
If you want to forget about the numbers on the scale, you can also see if your fat burning exercises are working by measuring yourself once a week or once a month. Use a soft tape measure to measure your bust, arms, waist, hips, thighs and calves. Record your findings and compare them each time you measure.
Don’t worry too much about it until you’ve measured at least 3 or 4 times and can chart an actual trend.
Fat burning exercises are hard work, but they can be a lot of fun too. Strive to make working out a habit instead of something you just “do.” Only once you make it a solid part of your lifestyle that you don’t think twice about doing – like brushing your teeth or taking a shower – will you truly see your body change and stay that way.