Fat-burning Exercise Plans For Men's Health

The belly fat men are particularly prone to affects their health more than the hip fat women typically develop, notes Dr. Deborah Clegg of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. As a man, if your waist measurement is over 40 inches, you may be at greater risk for problems like diabetes and heart disease. Wherever your excess fat is, regular fat-burning exercise can help you improve your health and your physique.

Planning Your Routine

In addition to cutting calories from your diet, to lose fat, you'll need to burn an extra 200 to 300 calories daily through exercise, advises Dr. Lynne Smiley from the University of Arizona's Campus Health Service. You may need 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise five days weekly, suggest experts at the American College of Sports Medicine. A strength-training workout at least twice weekly adds muscles mass, boosting your metabolism. A naturally higher percentage of lean muscle mass is the reason men burn more calories than women, even while at rest.

Interval Training

Cardiovascular exercise is necessary for fat loss because it burns calories at a much faster rate than strength training. By upping your workout intensity, you can cut your cardio time to just 20 minutes. Perform your chosen cardiovascular activity, such as running or cycling, at a moderate intensity for 40 seconds, then work as intensely as you can for 20 seconds and repeat these intervals for 20 minutes, suggests Michael Berg, NSCA certified personal trainer, in a 2002 article in "Men's Fitness" magazine. For calorie burning, the exact length of your moderate and intense periods doesn't matter.

Strength Training for Fat Loss

Lots of repetition with light weights makes for inefficient training, Berg advises. To build more metabolism-boosting muscle, choose weights with which you can do around eight to 12 repetitions. The weight should be heavy enough that it's a challenge to complete this many repetitions. More sets with fewer repetitions raises your metabolism even more, so for each exercise, try six sets of eight repetitions per set. Exercises that use explosive movements, such as plyometric pushups and squat jumps, are helpful for increasing the amount calories you burn while building muscle.

Efficient Circuit Training

Circuit training involves completing sets of several different exercises one after another. Your best options for circuit training are free weights because they allow you to perform compound exercises, which involve more than one muscle group. These exercises burn more calories and build muscle mass more efficiently than weight machine exercises. To boost your levels of fat-burning growth hormones, work your whole body in each session. A full body circuit should consist of 14 exercises at most, including exercises for your legs, back, chest, abs, shoulders and arms. You should be able to complete your circuit once or twice in 20 to 30 minutes.