Friday, May 29, 2009

How To Maximize Your Weight Loss Results

Silver dumbbells

Most of us want to lose weight and get fit. Starting an
exercise program or joining a gym always seems like a great
first step but if you have ever spent any time at a gym you
will notice that not everybody there makes progress on his
or her fitness goals. It is not being at the gym that helps
you to get fit but it is how hard you work at fitness that
makes the difference.

You are going to have to break a sweat in order to see any
real results from an exercise program. You will need to get
your heart rate into the training zone and make sure that it
stays there for a time. There have been some studies in the
past that have shown that exercising for longer periods of
time at a lower intensity will actually burn more fat than
carbohydrates. However good that sounds unfortunately it
does not translate to fat loss.

Burning fat as you exercise is important but not nearly as
important as just burning calories. For example if you are
doing a cardio workout and you keep your heart rate at the
lower ranges for 60 minutes you may burn 350 calories but if
you do that same 60 minute workout and add in some high
intensity interval training or HIIT, you will burn closer to
750 to 1000 calories. So which one will help you lose the
most weight?

High intensity interval training is extremely effective for
fat loss. The idea is to get your heart rate into the target
heart training zone and then for 30 to 60 second intervals
work really hard and raise your heart rate to the higher
ends of the zone and then let it come back down to the lower
ends and repeat a few times. If you do high intensity
interval training you can even cut your workout time by half
or more and still burn more calories and have more success.

In order to determine your target heart rate training zone,
take your age and subtract it from 220, then take that
number and multiply it by 60% and 80%. This gives you a
target heart-training zone. In order to see the best results
you will need to keep your heart rate in that zone while you
are doing your workout.

Another important aspect to losing weight and maximizing
your fat loss at the gym is to lift weights. The fact is
that in order to burn the most calories by just living
everyday you must have more muscle. Muscle is biologically
active and it helps your body to burn more calories just by
being there. Fat is basically an inactive substance and it
does not help your body burn any calories at all.

Exercise is important but you won't see any results from an
exercise program unless you also have a good diet. Abs are
built in the kitchen, not at the gym. Making sure that you
consume a healthy and nutritious diet is undoubtedly the
most important aspect of any fitness program. You will never
see results unless you follow a healthy diet, no matter how
much you exercise.

If you want to maximize your fat loss the most important
fundamentals should be to incorporate some HIIT into your
cardio routine, start a good weight-training program and
improve your diet. If you do all of these basic things you
will see results quite quickly.


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