When you're looking to lose weight, the primary exercise you
need to engage in accomplish your goal is cardio training. If
you devote yourself exclusively to strength training, you'll
likely end up getting even bigger and weighing more, especially
in the beginning, which might serve to demotivate you. You want
to build muscle, but it's much more important initially to cut
fat through cardio training. You will also become more healthy
overall through increased cardiovascular exercise, which can
only aid you in your weight loss efforts. Cardio training is
your current and future key to success when it comes to winning
the battle of the bulge. Not only will you improve your capacity
to burn fat, you will also become leaner. This is the formula
for not only weight loss, but for sustained weight loss, as well.
How much training will you have to do to achieve cardio fitness?
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you do
cardiovascular training for 20 minutes at your target heart rate
up to a maximum of one hour for a minimum of 5 sessions per
week. More than one hour is considered to be non-beneficial.
Right here you can quickly decide on a course of action, as it
relates to cardio training. If you do the absolute minimum, you
can set aside 20 minutes per day. If you have more flexibility
in your schedule, you may receive additional benefit by
extending your workout time to one hour per day. But keep in
mind you want to be as close as possible to your target heart
rate, so expect some serious exertion.
Cardiovascular training is clearly the most important aspect of
achieving fitness, especially for someone who's overweight.
Strength training is beneficial, of course, but it runs counter
to your basic needs of slimming. A few key components you need
to consider concerning cardio training are:
1) Intensity - the intensity relates to the type of exercise you
do, and how hard you do it. 2) Duration - the time your workout
takes. For fat-burning, many fitness experts recommend a minimum
of 45 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week
Strength training is also hugely important to fat loss for one
big reason: it's estimated that one pound of muscle helps you
passively burn 35-50 calories per day. You can see how quickly
this could add up. This has the potential to be your secret
weapon against bodyfat! If you gained 10 pounds of muscle, you
would automatically burn 350-500 more calories per day while at
rest! For this reason, you're best to try to balance both your
cardio and strength training, so that you get the most out of
each. If you overdo your strength training, it will probably
come at the expense of your cardio training, and vice versa. If
you are too intense about cardio, you might have a hard time
keeping the muscle on. The best thing for you to do is to
experiment until you find the perfect level.
Almost all of the modern equipment at gyms can target your heart
rate, so using a LifeFitness, or similar cardio machine is
recommended. This way, the guess work is removed. The
LifeFitness unit will tell you your target heart rate based on a
live reading, and will adjust it based on a constant reading
from the sensors you hold. 40 minutes daily of the "fat burn"
mode should be enough to help you kickstart your metabolism and
help you shed those extra pounds.
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