Participating in a consistent exercise program provides numerous health benefits, including the burning of fat and building lean muscle. To achieve both fitness goals, however, you may need to complete both cardiovascular workouts and weight training. There is the option of circuit training, which is designed to both burn calories to support body fat loss and to build muscle.
Burning Fat
To lose fat, you must significantly increase the total number of calories that you burn. You do this by participating in consistent cardiovascular exercise activities that are effective at burning calories per unit of time. Cardiovascular workouts include activities such as jogging, swimming, biking and riding on an elliptical machine. Every time you burn 3,500 more calories than you consume, you will lose 1 lb. of fat, and the American Council on Exercise recommends exercising for about 60 minutes on most days of the week to see body fat loss.
Effective Exercise
According to Mayo Clinic, the most efficient calorie burning cardiovascular activities include running, rollerblading and jumping rope. A 160 lb. person will burn about 986 calories for every 60 minutes she runs at 8 mph, 913 calories in 60 minutes of rollerblading and 730 calories every 60 minutes she jumps rope. Choosing these activities for your workout will result in a greater total of calories burned, so they are the most effective for burning fat. Unfortunately, cardiovascular activities, while great for burning calories, do not provide enough of a resistance for your muscles to overcome to stimulate an increase in lean muscle.
Building Lean Muscle
To build lean muscle, you must provide some type of outside resistance that adequately overloads your muscle fibers and stimulates the muscle-building process. A high-volume weight-training program is necessary to create this stimulus. A program designed to build lean muscle requires at least three days of training, with each weight-training exercise being completed at three to five sets of six to 12 repetitions each.
Circuit Training
Those who are interested in effectively burning fat and building lean muscle participate in both cardiovascular workouts and weight training. You will likely see more significant results if you dedicate time to each activity. If you're looking to burn fat and build lean muscle while completing one workout, you may want to consider circuit training. Circuit training involves completing activities for short bouts, for about 30 to 90 seconds each, and then moving directly onto the next activity until all of the assigned exercises are completed. You mix both weight training and cardiovascular activities into the circuit workout. For example, you could complete 60 seconds of jump rope, then move directly onto 60 seconds of push-ups, and then another 60 seconds of jumping jacks and so on. Circuit training is designed to keep your heart rate elevated throughout the workout so that you burn a significant number of calories while getting some weight training into your regimen at the same time.
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