Good fat burning program?

[iDShadow]

If you're trying to lose weight, there's nothing wrong with doing cardio and weight training at the same time.

If your goal was to gain weight/put on muscle then you tone down the cardio (just enough to retain some endurance) otherwise you hinder your gains since you're burning calories when you want a calorie surplus to gain mass.

Just start hitting the weights, as you starting shedding some more pounds you'll see the muscles that you've been slowly building at the same time which will likely motivate you to keep at it.

Drink water, water, and more water. Nothing but water, unless it's like brewed tea or something. Lot of calories come from drinks including ones that might seem healthy (Arizona green tea cans actually have as much sugar as a can of Coke).

Like mtneer said, stay away from salad dressing. Lot of people think "Hey, I'm gonna eat a salad since it's healthy" and load it up with the dressing which undoes the whole healthy aspect of eating a salad.

Eat more protein if you can: hard boiled eggs, canned tuna, or bulk chicken breasts from Costco or something. Protein takes longer to digest and keeps you feeling full longer so you won't wanna keep eating.

[stepka]

Get your sugar intake as low as possible and do that interval workout someone was talking about--I do that too, but I do 2 min warmup on bike, 30 seconds all out, 1-1/2 minutes of regular cardio and then repeat 8 times. It does help.

[HurricaneDC]

Okay, thank you all for the suggestions so far.

How about weight lifting programs? Should I just use the stuff in Prevention Magazine and mix it up every once in a while?

[AuburnAL]

Whale Oil Industry

[jambo101]

My trainer made a good rationalization the other day about exercise and diet.
I go to the gym 4 days a week and my usual routine lasts an hour and usually burns off 800 calories,knowing how much i hate working out my trainer says if i eat a MacDonalds Quarter pounder for lunch all that exercise was for nothing, so looking on the calorie counter for that burger comes up with 560 calories just for the burger
Guess its stay with the Greek Yogurt and a celery stick for lunch

[Croye22]

Well it's a common misconception that people think losing weight = losing fat. Not always the case. You can lose weight but still be fat to some degree.

If you're going to lift weights, then it's best to pay more attention to losing fat rather than losing weight. Don't go by with what the scale says, go by with what your clothes say.

I've done HIIT before and lost quite a bit of fat...that i later regained >.>

But that's not the point. HIIT is the best way to burn fat, hands down. Just remember that high intensity varies among people. Your intense zone may be far different than someone else's.

I can't really speak much about diet since I'm a young college student, and well our diets aren't the best even though I can still drop a few pounds without making drastic changes to my diet.

[LookinForMayberry]

Spend the first fifteen minute in the cardio room to warm up your muscles, and then workout on the weights until all your muscles are quivering. Use a trainer to learn proper form and progression so you don't hurt yourself. Once your done on the weights, spend 15 minutes in the spa or sauna, if there is one -- stretching if there isn't, and then go hit the cardio machines for another hour, or until you cannot stand up anymore.

Stretch every muscle for at least two minutes (over at least two sets, but never less than 20 seconds a muscle).

Spend the last ten minutes flat on the floor (yoga corpse pose), breathing through your nose in and out as slowly as you can, completely filling and emptying your lungs with a three count between inhale and exhale.

Then go shower and have a nice life.

Repeat five times a week with complete rest every third day.

[DennyCrane]

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

You have to mix up your cardio a bit. You cannot do the same type of cardio exercises each day or you will hit a plateau. There is no such thing as "fat burning"

If you perform cardio in the same way everyday (same duration, same intensity), your body will become more efficient and burn fewer calories. But as long as you increase the duration and/or intensity, you will still see results. As for there being no such thing as fat burning, that's false. By setting up the right conditions, you can favor the burning of stored fat. For example, if you do cardio first thing in the morning. Another great time to do it is right after weight training.

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

2. Cardio-do 4 to 5 times a week at least an hour with intervals as suggested above.
3. Weights-do weight training 3 times a week--the more muscle you have the more calories you burn.

How often you perform cardio should be dictated by your results. There is no set frequency that applies to everyone. One person may need to perform it daily while someone might be able to get away with 3 sessions per week. As for weight training, don't perform it with the goal of gaining muscle. When you're trying to lose fat, you have to be in a caloric deficit. To gain muscle, you have to take in more calories than you burn. In the context of fat loss, weight training should be performed for two reasons. One, to help minimize muscle loss which is inevitable when in a caloric deficit. And two, to elevate your metabolism. High intensity exercise which includes weight training and HIIT keeps your metabolism elevated long after your exercise session is over.

Originally Posted by veuvegirl

To loose weight and maintain yes you need to do lots of both.

This is false. As I said above, how often you do cardio or weight training should be based on your results. If you can lose fat, retain muscle and only have to do cardio twice a week, then don't change it. Only change it when you stop seeing results.