Guide to Fat Burning Cardio Exercise

You know you are in need of some fat burning cardio workouts once you feel the pants get a little snug, and you get winded just walking up a flight of stairs, and you have no energy during the day. There's no quick fix to your overall health issues but you can adopt a weekly regime of moderate workouts that will give you a long-term solution to keeping you lean, fit, and happy.

It will have to be a daily and weekly program since there is no one single fat burning workout that can be done occasionally to take off the pounds. In addition, you must combine a workout program with a properly balanced meal plan to be successful. This means creating a calorie deficit in order to burn off excess body fat -- which means doing more exercise and eating less. Since a pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories worth of "fuel" to the body, you must burn 3,500 more calories in one week than you take in, in order to burn off just one pound.

Start Getting That Heart Rate Up

By using the term fat burning cardio, what we are really suggesting is doing a form of aerobic activity. This is exercise that helps you use oxygen in your muscles more efficiently. Aerobics can be described as almost any exercise that quickens your breathing and gets your heart pumping faster, and is maintained for at least 20 minutes.

This can even include brisk walking! One thing walkers and runners share is that they can no more miss time spent in a daily workout than they could skip brushing their teeth or catching the news. Most avid walkers can cover a distance of five miles easily and are quite trim individuals. Running is considered the apex, the hyper fat burning cardio exercise, but not everyone can handle the constant pounding on the knees.

An Ideal Indoor Aerobic Program: The Cardio Circuit

If running isn't an option for you, consider pursuing a low-impact aerobics workout using cardio circuit machines such as treadmills, elliptical machines, bikes and so on. These are the big expensive machines you'll find at the health clubs but you can also buy economically priced equipment for your home gym. Trainers and health experts recommend using fat burning cardio machines because they don't put the stress on the joints like road running does and they do elevate the heart rate -- which is, after all, the most important point of a "cardio" workout.

Consider two important points: an effective fat burning workout should be both weight-bearing and be sustainable for a period of time. Fitness activities such as running are especially effective at burning more calories because you have to carry your own body weight (as opposed to swimming weightless in water). As for the time factor, it's recommended by all fitness experts that you should work out aerobically for a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes and do so at least three times a week.

The great thing about doing cardio circuit training is that the workouts target the large postural muscle groups in the body, i.e., the legs and trunk, but also the chest, abs, and back. When these large muscles are involved, calories get consumed at an even faster rate. When you start to get strong and have built up endurance, then it's time to increase the resistance and challenge your body to do more.

Cardio circuit machines will help you burn about 500 calories in an hour if you stick to a moderate to intense fat burning workout, the equivalent of doing a 5-mile road run. For variety, try doing 20 minutes each on three different types of machines for an intense hour of activity.

It's no secret that the way to lose weight is to: Eat Less + Work Out. And now we'll show you how to add one more step to your fat burning cardio program to really get your butt in shape.

Combining Cardio with Weight Training

Here's a great way to get the result you want -- fast! Add some resistance exercise such as weight training to your weekly fitness schedule to help tone your developing body. You can alternate by doing weights one day, aerobics the next day, and so on. However, if you must do both on the same day, always lift weights first before doing aerobic activities.

There are two reasons for this: first, if you do the cardio first, you'll get tired and you should not lift with fatigued muscles. The second reason is that lifting weights beforehand will help to burn off the blood sugar and stored glycogen before you start your fat burning cardio phase. Otherwise, it takes up to a half an hour to reach this zone when doing aerobic activity alone. Remember: lift first, then do the cardio. Before long, as you watch the pounds melt away, you'll have a slimmer, more toned body and you'll find that your endurance and energy levels will increase dramatically.