Aerobic Exercise for Fat Loss
Written by Yasar Shahzad Wednesday, 07 July 2010 18:21
Aerobic Exercise for Fat Loss
When I say aerobic exercise I’m not talking about dance music, fancy choreography and jumping up and down in the latest trendy classes. By definition, aerobic means "with oxygen" For fat to be burned, oxygen must be used. For oxygen to be used, the activity must be sustained for a prolonged period. If an activity is intermittent in nature it’s not aerobic exercise – it’s anaerobic or sugar burning.
For the purposes of this program, aerobics exercise is any cardiovascular activity that’s rhythmical in nature, involves large muscle groups (namely your legs), and, here's the kicker - can be sustained continuously for long periods of time (at least 20 - 30 minutes and up to as much as 60 minutes). Walking, jogging, bicycling, stair climbing, rowing, cross-country skiing and elliptical exercise all fit the bill perfectly.
Some people prefer to call it cardio exercise instead of aerobics exercise, but whatever you call it, you have to do it if you want to burn the fat.
The difference between effective fat burning exercise “aerobic exercise” and recreation
Certain types of exercise are far more effective than others when it comes to measurable “real-world” fat loss. Tennis, golf, basketball, racquetball, house or yard work, or any other intermittent activities or sports are not efficient for fat burning because they are anaerobic. I’m not saying they don’t help at all, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t do them. What I’m saying is that these types of start/stop activities should not be your first choice when your goal is maximal fat loss – they should be considered recreation first and fat burning exercise second. Aerobic exercise is a real fat burning exercise and the above mentioned exercise are not aerobic exercises they all are recreations.
Short bursts of activity burn primarily carbohydrate for fuel. Fat can only be used for fuel in the presence of oxygen and oxygen is only used in longer duration aerobic activities. The question is; does it matter if you’re burning fat or carbohydrate for fuel? The answer is yes and no. Any increase in your activity level, regardless of whether it burns fat or carbohydrate predominantly, will have some impact on fat loss. However, it’s been my experience that to achieve low body fat levels, you need to burn as many calories from fat as possible by performing longer duration exercise “aerobic exercise” at a moderate to moderately high intensity level.
Choosing the proper type of aerobic exercise will help you burn the most of fat calories and achieve maximum fat burning in the shortest time possible. So let’s talk now about how to design a maximum fat burning aerobic workout.
