Our metabolism is the key to burning fat. To lose weight we need to increase our total calorie burn. As mentioned in earlier posts, to loose fat one needs to go into calorie deficit. To increase our total calorie burn we need to increase one (or more) of the following:
1. Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is essentially the calories you burn at rest. BMR is important because it makes up a large percentage of total calorie burn, but unfortunately we can't do much to increase (or decrease) it drastically. It is mostly determined by genetics and body weight.
2. Your thermic effect of feeding, which is the energy your body expends while digesting food. This can be increased by eating small meals several times a day rather than just a few large meals. Stimulating foods such as green tea can also speed your thermic effect of feeding. Also including in your diet plan food items, such as spinach, cabbage,lettuce etc, which are calorie negative in nature help in burning more calories.
3. Your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, which is the extra calories you burn after exercise. Your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is also known as the "afterburn". The amount of calories you burn post-workout will depend on the type of your workout, if you heart rate is increased during your workout and stay increased your will burn more.
Now there are two basic ways to boost up your metabolism:
1. CARDIO
2. STRENGTH TRAINING
Both will help you loose fat, however the difference between strength training and cardio workouts is like the difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lance Armstrong, simply said. Comparing the two is absolutely pointless. And while both may be different, they each have their strengths.
Cardio burns an average of 10-12 calories per minute whereas strength training burns an average of 8-10 calories per minute. Considering breaks in between lifting weights, so over 30 minutes the actual number of calories burned doing strength training will be even less. But there is a little more to strength training.
Both cardio and strength training gives you a metabolic spike which means that you continue to burn calories for a couple of hours after the workout. Strength training gives you a large metabolic spike as your body is trying hard to help your muscles recover and increases your overall resting metabolism rate over a long time. Hence you continue to burn more calories long after your workout is finished, i.e in a sense it spikes your BMR for a longer period of time before it settles down.
The facts can be determined from following data:
* Approx 6 calories are burned per day for each pound of muscle that your body houses.
* Approx 2 calories are burned per day for each pound of fat that your body houses.
Thus we can say: More the muscle, more calories burnt.
So doing cardio alone might not give you good results if you are looking for fat los. Involve weights in your training schedule. However don't replace all cardio with strength training, it is good to have a mix of both-this way you will burn fat and build muscle which will keep you strong and healthy and keep your heart healthy at the same time.It is also important to keep diet in mind, exercise alone won't do it (and neither will diet alone). You need to focus on creating a diet and exercise plan and sticking to it!!!
