By We have been lead to believe a lot of misconceptions regarding cardio training for fat loss. Fat loss is a lot easier when you know how your energy systems are used and how to effectively target the strategies.
This is where interval training comes as an advantage. Steady state cardio on the other hand doesn’t give you the same results, unless of course you want to continually increase your distance and effort exerted. This is not an effective long term strategy as it’s likely to cause nervous system exhaustion and lead to thyroid conditions.
The trick is to pivot between different forms of exercise, in order to get the best overall caloric burn, as well as changing the shape of your body. Let’s discuss this in further detail.
3 energy systems to use that will get you better fat burning, strength, and body composition results
- Anaerobic – Weight training & sprinting
This form of training increases fat loss and builds muscle at the same time. It’s most peoples dream to be able to intertwine between the two. The process of anaerobic training, is that the rate of intensity worked, surpasses the amount of oxygen that can be consumed. This causes a cascade of hormonal responses that lead to fat burning and muscle building. When you get that intense muscle pain or burning when you are pushing over your threshold of reps, or feel you legs getting to a point where you must stop, remember that you are on the right path!
Now, in order to activate this energy pathway, we have to work at a high intensity. Try things like sled work, strongman exercises, decreasing your rest between repetitions with weights, or running up stairs and hills. You will surely feel the burn when doing any of these!
This way of training improves your bodies ability to switch from lactic acid – the carb burning system and aerobic fat burning systems. You want to train your body to be flexible for maximal results when training
Try this 3–4 times a week, alternating between weight training, sprints of strongman training. You will get faster results, as well as reshaping your body. - Explosive movements – Power lifting & Heavy lifting
This is another great alternative, although it does not provide the fat burning capabilities of anaerobic training. Instead, it builds steady strength, and also increases your stamina, which is just as important. You do not want to be training daily with one system, as you run the risk of injury and overtraining.
These types of movements are limited, because of the shear volume of the weights. Therefore, exhaustion will slowly creep in. There is also no sensation of muscular burn as with anaerobic.
Basically, this form of training is needed to build strength and power. Opt for scheduling this into your training regime, about 2 times per week, depending on your goals. - The tried and tested aerobic system – longer duration cardio
Now, it’s not completely the end of the road for steady state cardio, as it’s effective within the mix of all the other energy systems. But we must understand that you can’t get too much of a good thing, from one alone. So do use this as an option for fat burning, at a much lower intensity. Just don’t rely on this one on it’s own for results.
Although this is a very laborious way to lose body fat, it can provide some benefits in terms of your daily movement expenditure. Light walking, jogging or low intensity exercise can burn both carbohydrate and fat. It can become boring and cumbersome. One way around this is to ensure you have some great tunes on your phone!
One thing you may like to know, is that low intensities burn just fat alone, but when you increase the intensity, you will be burning both carbs and fat. A good alternative is to walk at a faster pace, or pivot between walking and jogging, in order to activate both.
The harder you work at using these three energy systems thought your training regime, the easier it will be to create the results you want for weight loss and body composition. It’s important to note that diet plays a key role in your results, and I recommend you look into changing it first, and then implementing some exercise strategies. You cannot out train a bad diet.
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