Thursday, February 26, 2009

Fat Burning Cardio Workouts Can Be Fast, Easy and Free

By Michael Dickens

When you have the motivation to stick with fat burning cardio workouts they become pretty easy. Combined with eating in a way that helps promote fat burning, they result in a leaner, meaner you. And the best part is they're free.

Every day, seven days a week, do some sort of aerobic activity. When your heart pumps more quickly, not so fast it struggles, but enough to make you sweat you're doing aerobic exercise. Walking, running, swimming, even some types of yard work are aerobic exercises. Include intervals into the aerobic work outs. Periods of higher activity that help boost the metabolism even more are intervals. That means jog between periods of walking, or burst to speed while swimming at an steady pace.

The health guides that say to do aerobic exercise three times a week or even five times a week are wrong. The body needs this work each day. For an activity that will be repeated every day, make sure it's something not too hard. In order to burn stored fat make sure to exercise before breakfast or at least before your next meal. In addition to this aerobic exercise install a 10-30 minute after lunch or dinner walk to your daily routine. And remember that life is full of other opportunities to move, whether it be parking further from the store for a little walk or raking the leaves instead of blowing them.

Do simple weight exercise three times a week. Bigger muscles make your metabolism speed into overdrive. A faster metabolism will burn more calories even when you're not moving. You'll also generally look and feel better.

Don't skip breakfast, lunch or dinner. If you do your body thinks that it's starving, and breaks into slow metabolism mode. A slow metabolism is the enemy of fat burning. Another way to avoid slow metabolism is to make sure to eat enough every day. For most people this means at least 1200 calories each day. Any fewer and your body is back in starvation mode, working against your efforts to use up fat.

Fat burning cardio workouts combined with healthy eating can create amazing results. They don't have to be hard. In fact if it's too hard you'll lose motivation and drop the program. Most people make it less than a month with a new workout routine. Don't be one of these flash in the pan health enthusiasts. - 16004

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