Intense Fat Burning With Cardio

Intense Fat Burning With Cardio
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If your goal is to burn fat as quickly as possible and you're willing to put in the work to do it, look no further than cardiovascular exercise. Cardio training is among the most efficient and effective fat burning workouts. Depending on the intensity at which you train and your current body condition, it's entirely possible to burn more than 1,000 calories in a single cardio session.

Significance

An intense cardio workout can burn through a very high number of calories, which can greatly assist in the burning of excess fat on your body. Because of this, intense cardio workouts are the staple of many obesity weight loss programs. One pound of fat equals approximately 3,500 calories. Thus, in order to trim a pound of fat from your body, you have to burn through 3,500 calories more than what you have eaten.

Types

An intense cardio workout is one that consists of either perpetual movement or little to no rest time. It can involve running, jumping, biking or swimming. The goal of the workout is to raise your heart rate to between 80 and 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, leading to maximum calorie burn. Of the calories that are burned in the "cardio zone," 30 percent are fat calories.

Benefits

If your goal is to trim fat while building muscle, you need to have intense fat burning cardio workouts two to three times every week. This allows you to eat a large amount of calories to assist in muscle growth without simultaneously adding on fat. If your only goal is to trim as much fat as possible, these cardio workouts can potentially be life-changing events. An obes e person who is borderline diabetic can lower his body fat and improve his health to the point where he no longer isat risk of becoming diabetic.

Potential

The potential number of calories that can be burned during an intense cardio workout varies depending on a number of factors. The two most important factors are the type of cardio workout done and the duration of the exercise. Running vigorously ranks as the highest calorie burning exercise available, topping out at over 1,500 calories burned per hour for a person weighing 190 pounds. Assuming your heart rate was between 80 and 90 percent of your personal maximum, that would result in more than 450 calories burned in just 60 minutes.

Warning

If you begin to feel light-headed, pain in your joints, nausea or extremely short of breath, it's very important to slow your workout down gradually and take a break. This can be a sign of your body being overworked or dehydrated. To help avoid this, you can keep your body hydrated by keeping water or a sports drink with you throughout your workout. To fuel your body before a workout, the Mayo Clinic recommends eating a large meal three to four hours before your cardio session, and small meals a minimum of two hours beforehand.

References

Article reviewed by GlennK Last updated on: Jul 27, 2010

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