How to Conquer Fat ... Forever

The best way to burn the maximum number of CALORIES in a SHORT TIME is through a crosstraining workout routine. Working at high intensity. Yes. Moderate exercise, such as walking one mile for example, will burn more fat calories in proportion to carbohydrates or proteins, but running the distance will burn more fat calories overall.

Many people debate the best way to zap calories through exercise . It would appear that working out for over twenty minutes, at least, with your heart rate around 65% of its maximum would appear to be the best method. Polar heart rate monitor manufacturers advocate this intensity level, in their training programmes, as the best for burning fat.

However, if this were the only way to reduce body fat then why are power athletes, sprinters, footballers, basketball and volleyball players not over weight? As the majority of their traning would be short duration, high intensity, and probably based around the anaerobic energy without oxygen system, as opposed to the fat burning system which is an aerobic, with oxygen, system.

The answer is very simple and is that high intensity exercise still burns lots of calories due to the quantity of high intensity training undertaken in a short period, which results in an increase in lean muscle mass . And here's another valuable point in the attempt to become that fat burning machine: the person determined to become lean and mean can't ignore resistance training or weight training as a means to the end.

The Role of Resistance Training in Fat Burning
Resistance training usually, though not exclusively, involves weight training. Your muscles are overloaded and have to overcome and eventually adapt to this additional resistance. A weights room workout is a perfect example of a resistance session, but other workouts also contain a resistance component. For example Circuit Training and Boxercise Training usually contain an anaerobic effect, and also require bodyweight resistance exercises - press ups, squats, burpies etc. Rowing on level 10, pulling hard, holding at the top for about 1-2 sec with a SPM of about 18/20 or 20/22 as opposed to level 1, or hill running or cycling as opposed to runnig or cycling on the flat.

So what so important about increased lean muscle mass? Simply, muscle burns more calories than fat just by being resident in your body. It has been estimated that an increase in lean body mass can increase the number of calories burned by an additional 20%.

The Role Of Diet
You should cut down on the fat you consume and become aware of what you are eating . For a diet complementary to your exercise regime you need to understand the basis of calorie intake and energy expenditure.

We all know that if you consume too many calories without expending them you will become overweight. So how do you work out the optimum calorie intake level for your fat burning lifestyle?

Very simple: to determine what you need to eat in terms of calories, to sustain your weight, just add a nought to your weight in pounds. So if you weigh 13 stones (182 lb) your estimated calorie intake to maintain that weight would be 1820 calories. It is estimated that to lose 1lb in weight you will have to burn 3500 calories which is a lot of calories, especially when you consider that an hour's running burns about 700 calories. So, if you want to lose 2lb in weight, you will need to burn 7000 calories.

What you should be aiming at is to start off with a small goal of about 300 calories reduction in your food intake, and 300 calories in energy expenditure, a day. Add this up for the week: 600 calories for seven days comes to 4200 calories. Add this up for the whole month and we're talking of 16800 calories which is almost 5lbs in one month in weight and fat loss.

So it does not take rocket science to lose weight. You are more likely to reach your fat burning goal in this way than through fad diets which don't work. The Atkins Diet, for example, should be approached with caution and is considered by some to put your health at risk by causing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, the onset of diabetes and many more similar health risks. And when you come off the diet you put the weight back on. The most interesting fact is that you will have more fat on your body then before since you would lose a lot of lean mucle mass which, as we have seen, burns more calories then fat. Remember?

Fat Burning Lifestyle Changes
To become that all-encompassing fat burning machine you need to adopt a total fat burning approach to life. Yes, workout and control your diet, ensuring that you maintain adequate glycongen levels whilst restricting fat intake. But also attempt to change your lifestyle so that your body almost unconsciousy uses up more enengy. Try walking one extra block to work, take the stairs instead of the elevator, for short trips to the shops leave the car at home, and do your own DIY instead of getting someone to do it for you. These little extra bits may be all that is needed to literally tip the scales in favour of fat reduction. Burning some of these few extra calories here and there may fine tune your already well honed body and turn it into a high powered fat burning machine. You're holding the keys - all you have to do is turn them.

1. Don't eat too close to bedtime: doing so will more than likely cause your body to hold on to this energy supply and convert it to fat.
2. Don't eat excess levels of carbohydrate: the body can only convert limited amounts into glycongen. Excess carbohydrate will be converted and stored within the body as fat.
3. Do increase your fibre intake: reseach has indicated that doubling your fibre intake can reduce the absorbtion of fat and protein from other foodstuffs at a rate of up to 130 calories a day.
4. Don't cut fat out completely, you need it to survive as it aids the absorbtion and digestion of vitamins, and act as a protective coating for our bodies.
5. Do eat regularly , failure to do so could result in bingeing and eating convenience foods which are often high in fat.
6. Do drink plenty of water: this will basically flush your insides, removing toxins and inprove your body's absorbtion of vitamins and minerals.
7. Do watch your fat intake: as mentioned above, fat has the highest calorific content of all food consituents. Restrict fat to around 30% of your daily food intake and try to get your fat from polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated sources.
8. Metabolic rate: a futher piece of information for those well and truly on the path to a fat burning lifestyle is that it appears that the more you exercise, particularly at high intensity over 70% of your maximum heart rate, the higher your metabolic rate could be after the workout . This mean that you willl continue calorie zapping even when you're relaxing in the comfort of your own home.