W
Weight Loss and Cardio
| Home A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
Home
W
Weight Loss and Cardio
|
Weight Loss and CardioWeight Loss Myth: The Harder You Spend Doing
|
||
|
|
Although cardio exercise certainly does help to shed those extra kilos, training harder, or overtraining is not going to help you burn more fat.
Exercise for weight loss should be about burning off excess calories, not necessarily weight. When you step on the scale your body measures the mass of your body as a whole — this weight includes your organs, water weight, bone weight and muscle weight as well as fat weight. Remember, muscle weighs five times more than fat, so while you are overtraining you could be burning off precious muscle mass instead of fat. The end result to burning muscle tissue and not fat tissue is being fatter, even though the scale may read your weight as being lighter before you started with your exercise regime.
A good guide to help you exercise at an optimal level when training for fat loss is to aim to work at reaching various levels of your target heart rate. A good number for fat loss is about sixty to seventy percent of your maximum heart rate. To determine your heart rate, subtract your age from the number 220. This applies to any age and is the same for both male and female. For example, if you are 28 years old your max heart rate is 192, whether you’re a man or a woman. Seventy percent of 192 will be around 134/5.Alternating your heart rate throughout your cardio exercise will also help you burn more fat calories in less time than staying at the same level for longer durations.
So, the next time you are spending an hour running, while the lean and toned person next to you, who exercises half as long looks that much leaner, you’ll know one of their secrets.
Author: Dimi Ingle.
Copyright 2009: Remedium. This article may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Remedium.
|
Glossary References Links Contact
|