Exercising for fat loss: The biggest mistake that most people make & what to do instead!

This may surprise you, but only doing cardio is the biggest mistake you can make when it comes losing fat and trying to get a shapely, toned body.

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with cardio (it does have a variety of health benefits) but going for long runs at the same pace or just sitting on an exercise bike for 45 minutes whilst hardly working up a sweat is not going to get you good results.

You need to do the right kind of cardio, for maximum impact, in the fastest time possible to achieve progress and results.

I’ll let you know my recommended method in a moment.

Firstly, lets look at the best exercise for fat loss and why

Ok, so forget the long, boring, drawn out cardio sessions and start off with replacing them with 3 x weight training sessions each week. WARNING: You will not get bulky! I promise you that, its actually A LOT of hard work for women to put on muscle, both in the gym and in the kitchen.

The reason that women may think that they are getting “bulky” when they do weights is because they are not eating the correct foods for fat loss to compliment their training routine. As a result, it’s the fat that you are seeing that’s creating the “bulk”, not lean muscle mass.

Women have far less testosterone levels in their body compared to men, making it another reason as to why its so much more difficult to become big and muscular.

Why is weight training the best form of exercise for fat loss?? Because it helps to build lean muscle which in turn creates a faster metabolism, it also burns more calories than cardio and thirdly it will shape and tone your body at the same time.

Who doesn’t want shapely legs, toned arms and a flat, defined tummy? This is achieved through challenging yourself by lifting weights, not hours of boring cardio sessions.

Here’s my recommended method of cardio

The best type of cardio to combine with resistance training is HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

This can performed in many ways, using a treadmill, exercise bike, crosstrainer or even get outside to your local park or oval if that’s what you prefer.

The key is to sprint at your maximum rate for 20 seconds with 20 seconds rest in between. Repeat for 15-20 minutes, 3 times per week.

The intervals can be performed at so many different durations etc, this is just a basic starting point that will still challenge you and give you a great workout, you will find yourself more out of breath, sweatier and with a higher heart rate in just 15-20 minutes of HIIT in comparison to a long, 45-60 minute steady cardio session.

The science to support HIIT training is that it actually makes you lose more fat over a24 hour window as your body continues to burn fat post training.

I hope that you can now see why HIIT is the best kind of cardio to combine with weight training, don’t forget to mix up your routines on different machines and change the duration/frequency whenever you feel your body starting to adapt.