Interval Training for Fat Loss:

What's interval training and how does it help you burn more fat? Glad you asked. Interval training involves doing brief periods of work at a fairly high intensity, followed by short rest breaks and repeated periods of work.

For example, running hill sprints. You would sprint up a hill at a reasonably fast pace, walk back down the hill and after a brief rest, sprint back up for the desired number of repetitions.

How does this burn more fat? Simple, when you do interval training, you work at a higher intensity than traditional jogging, where you usually run at the same speed.

This higher intensity increases your oxygen intake greatly, as you breathe deeply to supply oxygen to your muscles in between bouts of activity. This type of activity creates an effect known as EPOC - Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.

Meaning, after you are done exercising, your muscles continue to burn calories at an increased rate. You turned up your fat burning furnace - increased your metabolism.

When you do traditional steady state cardiovascular exercise, whether jogging or walking on a treadmill, when you are done, your metabolism goes back to its pre-exercise state soon after. Almost all your calorie burn comes during the actual exercise.

However, when you do interval training or strength training, your metabolism can remain elevated for several hours afterwards, on up to about 24 hours for a particularly intense interval or weight workout.

But what about the fat burning zone you ask? Doesn't exist! It is a misinterpretation of the research that says that you burn a higher percent of fat at a lower percentage of your max heart rate.

At higher intensities, your overall calorie burn is greater and that is what is more important - overall calorie burn. So interval training can help you burn more calories and thus reduce your fat levels, unless you enjoy those 60 minute sessions on the treadmill or stationary bike.

Thats so boring that healthclubs have to put TV screens in front of you and give you access to headphones to try to make you forget how mind-numbing it is!

When doing steady state aerobic work, your body adapts to this fairly quickly and becomes more efficient at it. You don't want this kind of efficiency when you are trying to burn the most calories possible.

Think of it this way, does your car burn more gas in town, when you are constantly stopping and starting, or on the highway, when you are driving at the same speed most of the time? Efficiency is a good thing on the highway, but not what you want when trying to lose fat.

You can also perform your weight training in an interval fashion, where you perform two exercises back to back, with little or no rest in between. This would allow you to get more work done in a shorter period of time, increasing the number of calories burned and keeping your metabolism high for several hours afterwards.

If you do your weight training and your cardio together, just make sure that you do the resistance work first and then do the cardio. If you do the cardio first you will burn stored carbohydrates for fuel and then during the weight training, you will use protein from your muscles for energy, which is not what you want to do.

If you are exercising more than 4 hours a week and you are not training for competition, you are exercising ineffeciently if your goal is fat loss.

Several studies in the last few years have backed up the fat burning claims of interval training. One which was just published looked at one group that did steady state cardio 3 times a week for 15 weeks versus a group that performed interval training for the same time period.

The steady state group lost no fat, while the interval group did much better. Both groups probably would have done better though, if strength training was added to their fat loss programs.

If you would like more information on fat loss workouts, click here.