What Exercise Method Is The Best To Lose Body Fat?

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I wish I had a $1 for every time I was asked this question. I could retire and live on the passive income that the $1 a day multiplied by 50 would generate such is the popularity of the question. So, once and for all, I’m going to debunk all the myths that exist out there about what’s the best way to lose body fat. Is it cardio, is it weights, is it low intensity, is it high intensity, what is the answer?

Well here it comes…

But first, let’s clear up a huge untruth. How many of you exercise to burn calories? Go on, put your hands up!!

For years we have been told that we need to exercise to burn calories because we are told that the whole body weight gain equation is the simple equation, calories in minus calories out and that is true to a certain extent.

However, today I’m going to set the record straight.

If you exercise for the sole purpose of burning excess calories then you are in for a rude awakening. Exercising to burn calories is A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME. And here’s why? You simply cannot exercise for long enough TO BURN OFF YOUR EXCESS CALORIES.

The reason is better explained in the following sentence. How many calories in a Big Mac? The answer is 540. Now, how much exercise to do need to perform, to burn off those 540 calories? Well the answer depends on how much you weigh, but for a 70 kg person running at 5klms on the treadmill, you are looking at 65 mins of continuous running just to burn off those 540 calories you ate in that Big Mac. Even longer if you turn the run into a power walk.

So the short answer is, if you try to exercise to burn off the calories you eat during the day, then for every meal (let’s say you have 3 squares a day plus 2 iddy biddy snacks in between) you’d have to exercise for about 3-3 ½ hours a day (based on each meal containing around 500 calories) every single day of your life.
Now who in their right mind has time to do that? No-one right?

Your other alternative is to eat less calories, but we all know that calorie restrictive diets don’t work because they slow the body’s metabolism and become difficult to maintain over the longer term.

So, what’s the answer?

The answer is to simply change the reason why you are exercising.

Instead of exercising to burn your excess calories, exercise to burn more calories, WHEN YOU ARE NOT EXERCISING!

Yep, that’s right, when you aren’t exercising, you still burn calories. How much, will all depend ON THE TYPE OF EXERCISE you do, when you do exercise.

What if I told you that there’s a way to train that will have you burning a truck load of extra calories for up to two days after the training session has long finished?

Sounds a little too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Fact is, it’s true and it’s proven, but most people don’t know how to trigger this effect, known as “EPOC”.

Let me explain what makes this massive calorie burning phenomenon possible.

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EPOC stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. It’s when you train at a high enough intensity that your body goes into a metabolic deficit. The process of making up for this metabolic deficit equals calorie burning. Your metabolism increases after the workout to cope with the metabolic deficit in order to recover.

…And depending on your level of intensity, it can take your body up to 48 hours after your training session to make up for this deficit.

That means that your body burns a truckload more calories around the clock for up to 2 days! How’s that for an effective training session?

The take home point is that intense workouts get you MORE muscle and MORE fat burning in LESS time. Now can you see why I’m always harping on the importance of intensity?

And the absolute best way to trigger the EPOC effect is to do high intensity interval training or H.I.I.T workouts, not long, steady-state cardio. Interval means doing short bursts of super intense exercise followed by a rest period, repeated a number of times.

The problem with long, slow continuous training sessions is that while they burn calories during the session, but they don’t cause the “EPOC” effect. Your body doesn’t go into metabolic deficit so once you stop your training session your metabolism slows right back down to where it was prior to the training session.

Whether you perform a traditional cardio workout or a weight training workout, the result is the same, high intensity interval training is GOLD when it comes to losing body fat because of a number of reasons, but mostly because of the EPOC effect.

So, next time you go out training, make sure you train for all the right reasons. Train to be healthy, fit and strong. Train to speed up your metabolism. Train because it’s fun, train because it leaves you feeling energized and alive.

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