The Secret to More Fat Loss in Less Time

You wanna lose fat. And you want to do it FAST!

To burn of that fat, you’ve got to burn calories.
There’s no way around it.

To that end, the most common piece of advice
you’ll hear is “do more cardio.”

Normally this “do more cardio” advice comes from a person who’s been doing cardio for 2 years and hasn’t lost a pound. Consider your source.

I’m always suspicious of the motivations of people say you need to do hours on end of cardio. I only hear this advice still being dumped by triathletes, skinny/fat runners, and 1980’s style gym warriorz.

Most of the people giving this old worn out advice don’t look so good themselves.

Not to mention doing more cardio isn’t sustainable. There’s only so much time in a given day for exercise.

Could more cardio ever be the answer? If one hour stops working are you going to do 2 hours? I know those numbers don’t work.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a new client break into a grin and relax when I said we “just say no to cardio”.

Study after study has proven the superiority of High Intensity Intervals for fat loss. All the way back to a 1994 Canadian study pitted steady state aerobics vs. interval training.

Group 1

15-week interval program

Burned only 13,614 calories during their workout

Group 2

20-Week steady-state aerobic program (5 weeks longer)
Burned 28,661 calories during their workouts (more than TWICE as many)

Group 1 lost 450% MORE body fat than group 2, despite the fact that their training program was both shorter AND burned fewer calories. The calories you burn during your workout are much less important than the calories you burn after your workout.(the Afterburn effect)

So with just 20 minutes of intense interval training, you’re getting better results. In less time.

This stuff is counter-intuitive and takes awhile for most people to wrap their heads around it. I make a point to coach my clients through one to two sessions of HIIT. It helps clarify exactly how it’s done.

Here’s a Video How-to for Interval training I made-How to do Short Burst Training

The most common mistakes I see people do with HIIT training is they can’t let go of the old school more is better mentality. If you can do 30-45 min. of HIIT training. You’re not training hard enough. You’re high’s need to be really high.

That said, too much of a good thing (on either end) is never a good thing.

Do no more than 2-3 high intensity sessions a week.

Even if you’re really out-of-shape and overweight you can do a modified version of HIIT. There’s no need to sprint if you’re new to this. You can alternate a fast walk with a recovery walk in the beginning. And it still is more effective than a continuous slow walk.

By mixing things up this way, you’re reducing the
chances of overuse injury.

(There’s one positive caveat to slow cardio, mental recovery. I see a lot of my Doctor, Attorney, heavy brain work clients, do need/enjoy it. But the point is they’re not doing it for fat loss. It’s for mental recovery. The lower intensity-rhythemic aspect helps with this. It’s gives you a chance to disengage for awhile.)

So there you have it – cardio demystified!

Start small. Then build up. Then mix in both HIIT
type workouts with low-intensity workouts and you’ll see your fat loss speed up.

Talk soon,
Dave