Inside’s Guide to Fat Loss Part 2

INSIDER TIP #3
Cycle your cardio

Maximizing the efficiency of  your cardio  is better than aimlessly running for hours on end and hoping for a midsection miracle. Remember, you want to strike a balance between fat-buring and muscle growth, and doing too much of the former can hinder the latter. “Cardio doesn’t keep you from gaining strength and muscle, but it does compete with the characteristics of skeletal muscles that allow them to increase in size and strength,” Hinojosa explains. To avoid this, vary your approach to cardio, doing 4-6 sessions per week and alternating between steady-state and HUT cardio.
“HUT — alternating between all-out sprints and slower-paced recovery periods — relies mostly on carbohydrates during exercise but will burn more fat afterward due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption,” Hino-josa says. “Steady-State cardio, in which you aim to work at 500/0-700/0 of your max heart rate for a set period, tends to burn more fat as fuel during exercise because you can go longer. And as exercise duration increases, so does the use of fat as fuel.”
While HUT has gained ground as one of the best ways to perform cardio and hold on to muscle, it’s tough to do with regularity, which is why the sessions are generally shorter. That’s why Hinojosa recommends performing 2-3 HIIT workouts a week and sprinkling in 2-3 easy-to-moderate steady-state sessions to get the best of both worlds. “Consider the steady-state days to be active recovery,” he says. » Perform 2-3,20-30-mlmite HIIT cardio workoutR per week to maximize postexercise fat-burning. Mix in 2-3, 30-4ธ-minute easy-to-mod-erate steady-state cardie sessions each week to burn more fat during exercise and to allow your body to recover.

INSIDER TIP #4
Exercise patience

what you do in the gym isn’t the only factor in shedding your spare tire. A great many people become discouraged if fat loss doesn’t come quickly.

The truth is, it’s hard to experience any meaningful alteration in body composition in less than three or four weeks after starting a new program. “It takes time for the body to respond with significant change,” Hinojosa notes. Also, many people tend to use the scale as the measure of progress, forgetting that muscle is denser than fat and that weight training may be paying yet-unseen dividends in the form of new muscle throughout the body.

For the first month of a program5 avoid the scale. Rely Instead on the mirror when assessing your body composition. After* a month, start weighing yourself on a weekly basis. ¥©« ean also have a trained professional assess your hodyfat to traek your progress.