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By Don Heatrick
“Burning fat” best describes the most efficient method of shedding unwanted body fat. Forging yourself a new body shape with short, intense bouts of exercise is the way to go. However, many gym goers still labour under the false pretence that hours of slow cardio exercise is the best way to lose fat. Not so.
 Although steady, long duration exercise uses a higher percentage of fat for fuel, the amount of calories burned is minimal. Higher intensity exercise may use a lower percentage of fat for fuel, but, it's a smaller percentage of a lot of calories – consuming much more body fat.
Training at higher intensities also produces numerous other fat metabolising benefits. The shorter bursts of exercise trains the body anaerobically, promoting growth of lean tissue – that is muscle! The more lean tissue you have, the faster your metabolism and the more calories your body burns at rest – even sleeping at night. Before all the female readers turn the page thinking “I don't want big manly muscles!”, you won't build a masculine body training in this way. The truth is that women don't naturally produce enough testosterone to produce that amount of muscle.
High intensity interval training involves working hard for a period of time then taking a short recovery period before hitting it again. This creates a highly effective and condensed workout and also a measurably increased rate of oxygen intake – intended to erase the body's "oxygen debt" following strenuous activity. This excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is part of the processes the body employs to regain its resting state, before any exercise. Sounds technical, but all we need to know is we'll burn extra calories directly from stored body fat – at a rate greatest soon after the exercise is completed, and decays to a lower level over time (but still has a measurable effect even 38 hours later).
Use exercises that work as much of the body as possible. Don't isolate smaller muscle groups, target big compound movements employing many larger muscle groups. You'll get a much greater metabolic training effect, achieving more in less time. Use body weight, free weights, kettlebells, powerbags, medicine balls, punch bags even tractor tyres! Anything that works all the major muscle groups intensely. So don't waste excessive hours at the gym. Get stuck in, work hard and fast, then go home. Simple as that.
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