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If you’re overweight or obese, it can be difficult to figure out how to get started on your fat loss plan. One of the most important things you must realize is that it is your current lifestyle that has made you fat.
Hence, you must dramatically change your lifestyle to get positive results. The shift must go from being sedentary to being as active as possible. So, look for opportunities in your daily life where you can become more active.
You don’t need to go to a gym in order to be active. In fact, loose that “gym” mentality. You can do at home what you do at a gym. The majority of people end up walking on a treadmill at the gym anyway.
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Benefits of High Intensity Exercise
So instead of walking on a treadmill, walk around the block. And instead of focusing on distance, focus on speed. Try to move your body faster and faster. This is what will help you lose bodyfat.
Why?
Because you are slowly increasing the intensity of the exercise as opposed to the distance. Your body is a very efficient machine, and it WANTS to expend LESS energy. So, if it took you 300 calories to walk a mile (just an example), it will eventually take you 200 calories to walk that same mile, if you move at the same speed.
Metabolism vs. Calories Burned
But if you strive to beat your previous speed, you will be engaging more muscle mass, and increasing your heart rate. Increasing your heart will boost your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is a measure of how many calories you burn at rest.
So, lets say your current metabolic rate has you burning 10 calories per minute at rest (just an example). After an intense workout, that metabolic rate may go up to 20 calories per minute. So you’ll be burning of DOUBLE the amount of calories then normal.
And research suggests that your metabolic rate is elevated for up to 36 hours after an intense workout. So, for a 36 hour period, instead of burning 360 calories, you’re burning 720 calories!
Intensity vs. Length
When planning out their exercise, most individuals will use some online calorie counter figure out how long to exercise. For example, if walking burns 10 calories per minute according to the calculator, and the individual wants to burn 500 calories, he or she will walk on that treadmill at a leisurely pace for 50 minutes.
Now, as the length of a workout increases, the intensity of the workout decreases. But, in order to give your metabolic rate the biggest boost, you need to keep your workouts as intense as possible.
What does that mean? You keep your workouts as short as possible!
So, if you need to lose a lot of body fat, it’s time to ditch low intensity cardio, and start performing higher intensity cardio and resistance training. Boost your metabolic rate and burn more fat!
