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There a couple different approaches in doing cardio to burn body fat. Some people recommend you do "low intensity" cardio for long stretches at a time to burn body fat. The thought process is that you need to train at a moderate intensity to get your heart rate to the target zone to burn body fat. It has been argued that if you get your heart rate too high, you will begin to burn carbohydrates instead of body fat. Some people argue that high intensity cardio will allow you to burn more total calories in your cardio workout. Creating a "calorie deficit", by burning more calories than what you take in, is another great way to lose body fat. Let's compare the two different approaches in detail.

The Low Intensity Cardio Workout

This is the cardio workout that is currently being pushed by the mainstream. This cardio workout is often used due to the great results it gets. Low intensity cardio is very effective at targetting body fat for energy instead of just burning calories in the body. If the body burns fat for energy, you will lose body fat. It just makes sense. Most of the cardio equipment these days comes with a heart rate display. This is the best way to make sure that you reach the correct intensity level to burn body fat. In about 10 minutes of low intensity cardio, you will reach your target heart rate. It is suggested to stay within that zone for at least 30 minutes for good results.

The High Intensity Approach

This form of cardio is used much less than low intensity cardio. Training at a high intensity level can be tough, since you have to push yourself pretty hard. This cardio method gets great results as well. High intensity cardio will burn a lot more calories than low intensity versions, since it gets your heart rate to a much higher level. The calories burned are a mix of fat calories along with carbohydrate calories stored in the body. The idea behind focusing on burning calories in your workout is to burn more calories than what you consume each day. Creating a calorie deficit, by burning more calories than what you eat, will allow you to lose body fat.

The Challenges of 2 Types of Cardio Workouts

Once you get your heart rate up to the correct level, the low intensity cardio workout will burn body fat. The problem lies in the fact that it can take anywhere between 5-10 minutes to get your heart rate to the optimum level to burn body fat. The first 5-10 minutes of low intensity cardio aren't very productive at burning body fat. Working at a high intensity is tough to maintain for long periods, even though it is effective at burning calories. Working at an intense level for over 10-15 minutes is extremely difficult.

How to Combine The Two Approaches Into One Awesome Cardio Workout

If planned strategically, you will benefit from doing both high intensity and low intensity cardio in the same workout. If you replace that "unproductive" first 10 minutes of the low intensity cardio with high intensity cardio, you will get better results when you hit the low intensity cardio after that. Find a treadmill or exercise bike and set it at a high level. Push yourself really hard for 10-15 minutes. After working your heart rate up with high intensity cardio and burning a bunch of calories for 10-15 minutes...switch to low intensity cardio and keep it there for another 20-30 minutes. This will burn calories and create a calorie deficit as well as burning body fat during the workout. I keep my body fat around 8% year round training in this manner.