If you’re a woman and you’d like to know how you can burn more fat faster (15 pounds or more)… and with less time spent working out… then you’re going to love this article.
If you’re a guy then you should pay attention too because this applies to you just as much…
I don’t feel like I bash steady-state aerobic training NEARLY enough. It’s not that I absolutely hate it… it’s just that everyone else loves it so much and recommends it for fat loss.
Most muscle magazines, diet books, and the like are all repeating the same old training methodologies from the 60’s… “exercise in the fat burning zone” and all that garbage.
Poor girls trying to lose weight 
And what really breaks my heart is I see so many well intentioned women out there busting their ass trying their best to lose those pounds.
They want:
- Their midsections to be tight and slim
- A “hint” of definition in their abs
- Their thighs to stop jiggling and look sleak and sexy
- A tight bottom (maybe a little bit bigger too?)
- And toned arms…
They have motivation, determination and tenacity that would put most athletes to shame… they’re in the gym every day for hours on end… the problem is they’re using the wrong methods!
It’s enough to make a grown man cry…
Meet Rachel Crosgrove, this is a picture of her after training for and completing an ironman competition:
Now just so you don’t think I’m picking on this poor girl, here are her own words:
“I didn’t even want to wear a crop top at my race because I didn’t have abs, to show. In fact, I felt like I had rolls for the first time ever! My body had started to look like that of a flabby endurance athlete.”
Want to know the REALLY sad part? It’s how much she worked out to achieve this body!
- She worked up to 20 hours of endurance training a week…
- She ate 2,000–2,500 calories per day
- Some of the workouts were eight or nine-hour sessions with a 10-mile run, then biking for a 70-mile ride, and finish with another 4-mile run.
- And even more…
So what were her total results?
Would you train for 374 hours to lose 5 pounds?
In seven months of training, she worked out for 374 hours (an average of over thirteen hours a week!) If she burned just 10 calories a minute, it adds up to 224,400 calories. Doing the math (at 3,500 calories per pound of fat) — 224,400 calories should equal sixty four pounds lost!
But poor Rachel did NOT lose 64 pounds. Over those seven months, training an average thirteen to fourteen hours a week, she lost all of… Five… whole… pounds.
Doesn’t that suck?
If you’re a girl and you’ve stopped seeing fat loss even though you’re still working out hard doing aerobics… can you see that you could do 10… 20… 30 times as much and STILL not be any closer to achieving your goals?
Doesn’t it just drive you insane?
Don’t you wish there was a better way?
How about 8 weeks (instead of seven months) to get the body you want?
After Rachel did her Ironman, she made fat loss her primary goal for eight weeks. (Remember, she had already spent seven MONTHS training and only lost 5 pounds with aerobics).
She eliminated all steady-state endurance exercise. No running, biking, swimming, or anything else in the steady-state aerobic “fat burning” zone.
Her workouts consisted of:
- High intensity for short bursts, whether it was with weights or doing interval sessions.
- She lifted weights three days a week, and performed interval-training workouts on the other days.
- She didn’t do the interval workouts on a treadmill or a bike…
- She only used bodyweight exercise circuits, along with kettlebell circuits, as cardio workouts.
In total she spent only 5-6 hours per week… instead of 20-30 hours per week like she was doing with the aerobic training. In case you missed that, let me repeat it:
8 Weeks/5-6 hrs per week V.S. 7 Months/20-30 hours per week
Meet Rachel Crosgrove now after spending only 5-6 hours in the gym for 8 weeks:
What were her results? Did she get fatter by ditching the “Fat burning zone”? Did she get unhealthy because she wasn’t spending 30mins 3x per week doing aerobics? Hell no!
Rachel dropped 15 pounds of fat in 8 weeks and toned up her whole body!
So what’s her secret?
The secret is aerobics suck for fat loss! And you should do intervals to burn fat instead 
Are you wondering…
Why do intervals work so well to burn fat?
It’s because they don’t just burn calories DURING the exercise, they burn them for HOURS afterwards. If you do a thirty minute walk at a steady-state, moderate pace, you’ll burn about 150 calories.
If you mixed in eight thirty-second sprints, you’ll burn closer to 200 calories. But the biggest factor is that after an interval session, your metabolism can stay elevated for a full day and you’ll end up burning two to three times the total calories you’d expect to burn from lower intensity exercise.
Here’s at tip to burn fat if you’ve been doing aerobics for longer than 8 weeks
You need to switch to alternate cardio workouts because you’re body is already used to the movements you’ve been doing.
If you’ve been on the treadmill, no more treadmill. If you’re been stair-stepping, no more stair stepping. No more biking, etc.
You should:
- Lift weights 3x per week
- Do cardio intervals the other two days but…
- Don’t do those same machine workouts, do barbell complexes and bodyweight routines for fat loss
- Or you could follow a program like crossfit…
- And you too can lose more fat and tone up your body!
Personally, I like to use kettlebells like Rachel does for fat loss and cardio work. But that’s just me (plus I wanted another excuse to put up a picture of Rachel’s new hot bod )
To read the full article about Rachel’s amazing transformation, click here to go to figureathlete.com and read it — it’s called “The Final Nail in the Cardio Coffin” and I think that about sums it up
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Im wondering during the wieght training do you lift heavier or do you try to do interval’s during weight lifting. I haven’t been working out for like 8months since my knee injury. Its better now. I have a high metabolism so durning the 8months I lost weight. Im 5″9 went from 143 to 122 pounds. Ive always wanted to be more ripped but always just look either a lil toned or just under a lil toned. Not just ripped I want to be Shredded! Do you have any advice on how to train the lower body when your easing back into working out. I don’t want it to be all for nothing agin. Ive spent hours training with such little or no results. Most the wieght I lost was fatt oddly enough. It was fatt on my lower body. I get now it was from all the cardio. But don’t understand how when I was inmobile for 8months I loose all that fat. Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated.
Thanks Man Angie
Sounds like what you're doing is working
But yes, during the weight lifting lift heavier and do the intervals later …
Or you could do intervals with weights instead, which works too
I really appreciate articles on your site. You’re doing a fine job! Thanks a lot.