article - exercise less and burn more fat
Exercise less and burn more fat.
Mixing bouts of intense exercise with more moderate ones, also known as interval training, burns more fat in less time than doing your regular same-paced run (or walk or swim or bike ride). Here’s why it works and how to incorporate intervals into your cardio routine.
“When you begin to run, your body thinks something must be chasing you—that’s the way we’ve evolved—and that you need as much energy as possible to outpace it," explains Bikini Blast trainer David Barton. “That’s the kind of fat-burning place you want to be in. However, your body soon realizes that you’re not trying to escape from something but actually going to be jogging continuously for 20 minutes or so—and it switches into energy-efficiency mode to ensure you have enough fuel for the journey. That’s what you don’t want." Intervals keep you out of that fat-conserving mode; every time you pick up the pace, your body goes into fat-burning overdrive.
Try Barton’s interval workout (and keep an eye out, because he’s going to switch it up next week):
- Warm up for five minutes.
- Exercise at an intense pace for two minutes.
- Switch to a more moderate pace for one minute.
- Continue these intervals for 20 minutes.
- Cool down for five minutes.
