Fat Burning Tip #1: Incorporate a Mix of Low, Medium and High Intensity Cardio Exercise
You may be confused about exactly how hard to work during cardio.
You may even think that high intensity exercise is the only way to go.
After all, you can burn more calories and, even better, you don't have
to spend as much time doing it. But having some variety can help you
stimulate all of your different energy systems, protect you from overuse
injuries, and help you enjoy your workouts more.
High Intensity Cardio
For our purposes here, high intensity cardio falls between about 80-90% of your maximum heart rate (MHR) or, if you're not using heart rate zones, about a 6 to 8 on this perceived exertion scale.
What this translates to is exercise at a level that feels challenging
and leaves you too breathless to talk much. You're not going all out,
as in sprinting as fast as you can.
There's no doubt that some high intensity training work can be
helpful for weight loss as well as improving endurance and aerobic
capacity. For example, a 150-lb. person would burn about 225 calories
after running at 6 mph for 30 minutes. If this person walked at 3.5 mph
for that same length of time, he would burn 85 to 90 calories. But,
the number of calories you can burn isn't the whole story. If you do
too many high intensity workouts every week, you risk:
- Overtraining
- Overuse injuries
- Burnout
- Inconsistent workouts
- Growing to hate exercise
Not only that but, if you don't have much experience with exercise, you
may not have the conditioning or the desire for breathless and
challenging workouts. And if you have some kind of medical condition or
injury, forget about doing high intensity training (or any kind of
training) without checking with your doctor first.
If you're doing several days of cardio each week, which is what is
recommended for weight loss, you would probably want 1-2 workouts to
fall into the high intensity range. You can use other workouts to
target different areas of fitness (like endurance) and allow your body
to recover.
Some examples of high intensity workouts:
- A 20-minute workout at a fast pace
You can use any activity or machine, but the idea is to stay in the high
intensity work zone throughout the workout. You'll find that 20
minutes is usually the recommended length for this kind of workout and
most people wouldn't want to go much longer than that.
- Interval Training
A great way to incorporate high intensity training without doing it
continuously is by doing intervals. Alternate a hard segment (e.g.,
running at a fast pace for 30 to 60 seconds) with a recovery segment
(e.g., walking for 1 to 2 minutes). Repeat this series for the length of
the workout, usually around 20 to 30 minutes. You can learn more in my
Interval Training Workouts.
Moderate Intensity Cardio
There are a variety of definitions of what moderate intensity
exercise is, but it typically falls between about 70-80% of your MHR (a
level 4 to 6 on this perceived exertion scale). The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) often recommends this level of intensity in its exercise guidelines.
The lower end of this range usually incorporates the 'fat burning
zone.' That means can carry on a conversation without much difficulty
and you feel pretty comfortable with what you're doing.
Moderate intensity workouts have some great benefits such as:
- Comfort -- Hard workouts are, well, hard. It takes time to
build up the endurance and strength to handle challenging exercise.
Moderate workouts allow you to work at a more comfortable pace, which
means you may be more consistent with your program.
- Better health -- Even modest movement can improve your fitness
while lowering your risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood
pressure.
- More choices -- High intensity workouts will usually involve
some kind of impact or, at the least, a fast pace. But, you can usually
get up into the more moderate heart rate zones with a variety of
activities, providing you work hard enough. Even raking leaves or
shoveling snow, if you do it vigorously enough, can fall into that
category.
For weight loss purposes, you would likely want the majority of your cardio workouts to fall into this range. Some examples:
- Walking 10,000 steps a day
- A 30 to 45-minute cardio machine workout
- A brisk walk
- Riding a bike at a medium pace
Low Intensity Activity
Low intensity exercise is considered to be below about 60-70% of your MHR, or about a level 3 to 5 on this perceived exertion scale.
This level of intensity is no doubt one of the more comfortable areas
of exercise, keeping you at a pace that isn't too taxing and doesn't
pose much of a challenge. This, along with the idea that it burns more
fat, makes this a popular place to stay. But, as we've learned, you can
burn more calories if you work harder, and that's what you want for
weight loss.
That doesn't mean that low intensity exercise has no purpose. It
involves the kind of long, slow activities you feel like you could do
all day and, even better, activities you usually enjoy such as:
- Taking a stroll
- Light gardening
- A long, slow bike ride
- A gentle stretching routine
This doesn't have to be a structured, scheduled workout, but something
you do all day long by walking more, taking the stairs, doing more
physical chores around the house, etc. For help in setting up a cardio
program that includes a variety of different workouts, check out this sample cardio workout schedule http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/l/aa022601b.htm
Go to Fat Burning Tip #2
By
Paige Waehner, About.com Guide
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our
Medical Review Board
