One of the most effective methods for burning fat fast entails doing cardiovascular exercise. The American Heart Association recommends that adults do a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week. If you do vigorous aerobic exercise, you should work out for a minimum of of 75 minutes per week. However, to burn enough fat to promote weight loss, you should commit more time to a cardiovascular workout.
Moderate Cardiovascular Workouts
Moderate cardiovascular workouts raise your heart rate, pump oxygen through your system and burn fat. However, strolling through the park or window shopping will not raise your heart rate high enough to burn a significant amount of calories. Aim for a brisk pace, walking at least three miles in one hour. Breathe deeply to engage your core muscles and swing your arms to further elevate your heart rate. Make a walk more challenging by setting your treadmill at a grade or walking over some steep hills for part of your route. Other moderate-intensity cardiovascular workouts include low-impact dance, water exercises, playing golf, skiing downhill, bowling and lifting weights. Depending upon your current weight, you burn between 250 and 550 calories per hour doing moderate aerobic exercise.
Vigorous Cardiovascular Workouts
Increasing the intensity of your cardiovascular workout results in your burning more fat quickly. You can choose a higher-impact aerobic exercise, such as vigorous aerobic dance, jumping rope or running. Some lower-impact but vigorous workouts include swimming the butterfly stroke, swimming freestyle, using an elliptical trainer at a fast clip, rowing on a stationary machine or climbing a stair treadmill. Vigorous aerobic workouts burn between 600 and 1,475 calories per hour.
Interval Training
You burn more fat more quickly by varying your pace during a cardiovascular workout. Rather than maintain a slow and steady approach, integrate speed intervals. Begin your cardiovascular workout with a warmup such as a slow walk or marching in place. After a few minutes, increase your pace until you are moving at a vigorous but sustainable rate. Every five or six minutes, shift to a sprint level. Spend 30 seconds to one minute running fast, doing jumping jacks or skipping rope. Slow down to recover for up to one minute, but keep moving. Speed up to your vigorous rate and prepare for the next speed interval.
Combination Workouts
Some workouts combine the fat-burning benefits of intense cardiovascular exercise with the metabolism-raising benefits of strength training. For example, doing intense calisthenics such as pushups, pullups, triceps dips, squats, lunges, burpees and abdominal crunches raises your heart rate but also targets your major muscle groups. As your build more muscle, your body works harder to maintain it, burning more calories while you are at rest. Other combination workouts include boot camp, functional fitness training, circuit training and power yoga.
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