In this article, we will look at five of the best cardio fitness tips that speed up fat loss.
If you’re on a quest to lose weight, the best way to go about it is to modify your diet, and exercise regularly. Dieting alone will help you to lose weight. However, you will achieve your goal faster if along with cutting calories you also increase your level of physical activity.
One 20 to 30-minute cardio session two or three times a week is a good starting point. This will boost your metabolism, enabling you to burn more calories. For faster body fat loss, gradually increase the time you spend working out to between 45 and 60 minutes, up to five or six times a week.
The more calories you burn, the faster you will reduce your body fat percentage. Seeing positive changes quickly is motivating. For some people it can be the difference between sticking with a fitness program and giving up. With this in mind, here are 5 cardio fitness tips that speed up fat loss.
5 Cardio Fitness Tips that Speed up Fat Loss
1. Circuit Weight Training
Weight training is excellent for body fat loss. Circuit weight training is even better. The latter involves doing three, four, or more exercises back-to-back, moving from one to the next, or taking a very short break in between.
For example, do 10 Squats, 10 Push-Ups, 10 Sit-Ups, 50 Jumping Jacks, and whatever other exercises you wish to include. This counts as one set. You will then start at the beginning again and do another set.
The reason exercising in this manner promotes fat loss is that it increases your heart rate to a higher level than when doing traditional one-set-at-a-time weightlifting, so you burn more calories.
Tip: If you are new to exercise, start with just one set. Add a second set when your strength improves, taking a one or two-minute break in between. Over time, you should be able to do 3 sets, with only a short rest between these or no rest at all.
2. Inclines
If you walk, jog, or run outdoors for exercise, choose a route that has some hills. As with stair climbing or swimming against a current, when going up hills, your body weight will act as resistance. Your lower body muscles will have to work harder to carry you upwards and forward, with more muscle fibers coming into play.
Along with building greater leg strength, the extra effort required to go uphill will burn up to 50% more calories compared to doing the same workout on flat terrain.
If you exercise indoors on a treadmill, set it at an incline.
Tip: When adding hills to your sessions, start with a gentle incline when exercising outdoors and no more than a 2% to 4% incline if using a treadmill. When your strength and fitness improves, you will be able to work at a higher incline.
3. High-Intensity Interval Training
Steady state cardio is excellent for health and fitness but adding some shorter more intense exercise such as HIIT or Tabata will speed up fat loss and increase your stamina even faster due to the nature of the 
exercise being anaerobic.
The reason HIIT is so effective for body fat loss is that it involves doing intervals of differing speeds. When exercising this way, your body doesn’t have a chance to adapt to any one intensity level. Your heart rate will increase to the max when doing high-intensity moves, start to decrease during your breaks, then rise again with your next moves. During this process, you will burn a lot of calories.
This type of workout produces excess post-oxygen consumption, (EPOC), which increases the resting metabolic rate for up to 24 hours after working out.
Tip: HIIT and Tabata are not suitable for new exercisers. If you haven’t exercised before, stick to steady state cardio. Do not attempt more challenging workouts until you have acquired a degree of fitness. When you are ready to introduce more intense workouts, take things slowly.
Click here to read an article on the top 10 Tabata exercises for beginners
4. Resistance training
Undertaking regular resistance training sessions will speed up fat loss. This is because as with when doing cardio, it elevates the heart rate and boosts the metabolism so that you burn more calories.
Additionally, resistance training increases lean muscle, and with more lean muscle your body will continue to burn calories long after you’ve finished your sessions.
Resistance can be added to almost any type of exercise. If your fitness training involves walking, jogging, or running, try doing so wearing wrist or ankle weights. Another option is to wear a weighted vest or carry a pair of light hand weights during your sessions. The extra effort required to do your workout will help you to burn more calories and fat.
Tip: If you train with resistance bands, regularly progress to a stronger one or add an extra band as your strength improves.
5. Split your sessions
Another way to speed up fat loss is to split your cardio sessions. This cardio fitness tip is little-known, but it can be extremely effective.
If you usually do one 60-minute cardio session a day, do one thirty-minute session in the morning, and another thirty minutes later in the day. By exercising in this manner your metabolic rate will be elevated for longer and you will burn more body fat. Another benefit is that when splitting your sessions you won’t feel as tired so you will be able to put in more effort.
Working out in the morning will energize you. An early evening workout will help to ease the day’s stresses, enabling you to sleep better.
Tip: Don’t use being busy as an excuse not to train. Even 10 minutes of exercise done in a single session has health benefits. If you can fit in two sessions, you will get twice the benefit.
Cardio Fitness Tips Summary
If you regularly follow the above cardio fitness tips and stick to a healthy diet, you should see visible results within thirty to sixty days.
To get the most benefit from exercise, vary your routine, its intensity and your resistance level. Doing this will enable you to reach your goal faster and it can help you to avoid a fitness plateau.
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