When is the last time someone told you that a low intensity cardio workout was the best way of achieving maximum weight loss in the shortest time possible? I hear it from clients everyday. Its about 5 minutes later I go into this little routine in one form or another.

Now lets see why the leading sports conditioning trainers and fat loss coaches in the world recommend a quicker approach to leaning out your midsection.

Could you really have been steered wrong all this time? Everything you've read over the last ten years has said that when you want to lose weight fast that slow and low intensity cardio workouts are the rule.

If you dare to buck the trend and do that new high intensity interval training all you will do is burn of carbs and not experience fat loss. Right? Wrong!

If you have come this far I know I have you interested in the possibility that there must be a better approach. There is. High Intensity Interval Training may be the next big thing. I can promise you that if you keep reading you will never look at a treadmill the same way again!

First, what is "normal" slow, static, weight loss orientated cardio workout defined as? A low intensity cardio workout is when you exercise at 60-65% of your max heart rate.

Your max heart rate can be most easily figured out by subtracting your age from 220. For a person that is 35 the equation would look like this. 220-35= 185 max heart rate. Take the 60-65% fat burning recommendation and you would be shooting for a sustained heart rate of 120 beats per minute.

If that is a low intensity workout, then what is high intensity cardio workout?

High intensity cardio is defined as exercise that gets your heart rate into the 75% and up range. This can be done in a sustained fashion but not for very long and that is where the interval training part comes in.

Intervals of high intensity combined with a downshift in gears to rest for 30 seconds to a minute before ramping it back up. You go fast then slower to catch your breath a little.

So how exactly does H.I.I.T. burn more fat then the slow and low method? Again, another great question! Let me explain.

Low intensity cardio training burns about 50% fat for energy while a high intensity workout burns about 40% fat for energy. So the low intensity method is best right? Just wait.

Lets take the average walker doing cardio on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Once they have finished they have racked up a calorie burn of 160 calories. If 50% of those calories are fueled by fat then they have burned 80 fat calories

Then over on treadmill number two, you have a mixed martial arts fighter doing wind sprints in the high intensity cardio style. He is doing one minute high and 30 seconds at a jog or a walk. He keeps this up for 20 minutes, is drenched in sweat and breathing like a freight train. In those 20 minutes of HIIT he has burned 350 calories.

If you take the lower fat burning percentage of 40%, what do you have? What you have is 140 fat calories burned and in less time then the low intensity person. As a matter of fact, our HIIT person is in the showers as we speak while the slow cardio workout person is getting bored out of their mind looking for something to read on the treadmill.

The bottom line is that you almost doubled your fat burning with the high intensity cardio workout, and less time to boot.

Now you can see that in the long run you actually burn more fat calories in total with HIIT then the regular style while you are doing it. What about the rest of the day?

The fact of the matter is that slow-low cardio workout only helps weight loss while you do it. Once you get off the treadmill that's all you get as far as weight loss goes after a couple of minutes rest.

Here is the clincher on HIIT. It burns calories long after you stop! It sounds too good to be true but even after you stop your interval training your body will continue to rev its metabolism for up to 24 hours depending on how intensely you did your intervals. This is a great thing for weight loss wouldn't you say?

The fact of the matter is that even after you hit the showers and are sitting on the couch, HIIT is still working towards your weight loss goals for you. Now that's efficient. Less time spent working and longer lasting effects.

Small changes like this to your workout make all the difference when you really want to lose that weight fast. I hope that helps you out!

By: Raymond Burton
"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU To Painlessly Create Your Own Fat Free, Swimsuit Ready Body... Without Being a Spandex Wearing Gym Nut or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Personal Trainer!" (Even If You Can Barely Do A Pushup..) Ray Burton reveals the secrets of rapid fat loss…without spending a dime on expensive equipment or fancy supplements. Free Details==> Fat To Fit Secrets.

Featured by Resources For Attorneys, a Legal Resources and Lifestyle Resourcess directory portal.

Relaxation is a big part of fitness and a good way to relax is to laugh. Check out our jokes section where you will find jokes, humor and humorous anecdotes.

Low fat diets have been extremely popular over the past several decades. As of late there has been a trend to reduce carbohydrate consumption and increase dietary fats and proteins. This newer diet strategy has shown to be extremely effective in improving overall health, body composition, and performance. There has been some confusion lately regarding low fat diets as research studies are still ongoing that examine the efficacy of low fat/high carbohydrate diets for weight loss. A lot of the confusion stems from the fact that low fat diets work when it comes to weight loss.

That's right. I said low fat diets work. But this shouldn't be a surprise if you think about it because throughout the 80's and 90's bodybuilders all over the world got extrememly lean using low/no fat diets. The reason low fat diets work is because anytime (there are exceptions) you decrease a person's caloric intake to a level significantly below their energy expenditure they will lose weight. It isn't rocket science just simple math.

The question should not be if low fat diets work but if they work the best? The answer to that is a resounding NO. Lowering your carbohydrate consumption and increasing your fat and protein intake yields a diet that is more effective at ripping fat off your body, preserving and building lean body mass, and improving health. Moderate Carbohydrate, protein, fat diets also increase your level of satiety (you feel full longer), increase blood sugar control (yielding better weight loss), and improved compliance. Improved compliance is arguably the most significant benefit the more you stick to your plan, the better your plan will work.

Low fat (especially very low fat) diets are extremely restrictive and thus people don't follow them. This fact was most evident in the findings from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Study. The WHI was a HUGE study that spanned almost a decade. In this study some women were put instructed to follow a low fat diet (<20% of calories from fat). In the grand scheme of low fat diets this isn't even that low as Dean Ornish recommends <10% of calories from fat. At the end of the study the low fat group never reached their goal of <20% of calories from fat. Instead they consumed about 30% of calories from fat (down from 38%). The WHI showed that it is just not feasible to expect people to decrease their fat intake too much below 30%.

Are you having trouble sticking to your diet? If so is your diet on one of the extremes (high fat vs. low fat, high carb vs. low carb)? Remember the best diet is the one you can follow and people have the easiest time following a diet of moderation.

By: Michael Roussell
Mike Roussell is a nationally renown sports nutritionist studying to receive his doctoral in nutrition at Penn State University. Mike coaches people from a variety of background (athletes, business professionals, house wive, etc) in achieving the body of their dreams. Mike has distilled down his extremely effective approach to nutrition in the manual Your Naked Nutrition Guide. Go to http://www.NakedNutritionGuide.com to find out more.

So you've decided to start a fitness program, and you want to know what the best exercise machine is? I bet you've done some research on the web, and you're more confused now than when you started!

That's because almost everyone who's selling exercise machines and other fitness equipment is going to tell you theirs is the best, and they will probably have studies, research or testimonials to back them up. And if the product is being sold on TV, they'll probably dazzle you with the bodies of fitness models, both male and female, using their equipment. But you do know these people had these physiques before they ever set eyes on that particular piece of equipment, right?

If you're going to try and find yourself the perfect exercise machine, you have to ask yourself a few questions first, the main one being "what do I want from this equipment?". And you need to be specific. None of this "I want to lose weight", or "I want to get in shape" stuff. Nope, you need to hone in on the goal - "I want to have a 28 inch waist", or "I want to gain fifteen pounds of muscle and lose twenty pounds of fat". Then you can make some educated decisions.

Another question you need to ask yourself is whether you want an aerobic training machine or a piece of strength training equipment. If you really want to get in shape, you should be doing both - but that doesn't mean you need to buy two separate machines. More on that later. Among aerobic machines, you'll find the treadmill, elliptical machine, stepper or stairclimber, rowing machines, recumbent exercise bikes, spinning bikes and more. Strength training machines include multi-gyms, power racks, half racks, smith machines, and separate machines that concentrate on just about every individual muscle group in your body.

How many of these machines do you need? None, really. If you have the funds and the space for them, then they can make exercise more convenient. But you can get a great strength training workout with a bench and some dumbbells and/or a bar and weight plates. If for some reason, you can't swing that - not a problem. You can do bodyweight exercises such as pushups, dips, pullups, situps, crunches etc. You might think these are too easy to build any real strength or muscle, but there are ways to make them hard enough for even the strongest person. We don't have room to go into that here, but do a little research on the web for bodyweight exercises. You might be surprised at what you find. When it comes to your aerobic workout, you can jog, run, walk briskly, jump rope, do jumping jacks, or create your own interval workout from conditioning exercises like the crab walk, bear walk, walking lunge, jumping jacks, etc. Do a few sets of those without stopping and see whether or not it gets your heart rate up! Once again, if you don't know what these exercises are, just do a web search.

But I want an exercise machine! Ok, if you say so. When the elliptical trainer first became popular about ten years ago, there were some studies showing that you could get a better workout on that machine than if you invested the same amount of effort on the treadmill. Level of perceived exertion, they call it. But then some other studies seemed to show that it was really the treadmill that allowed you to get equal benefits while feeling like you were cruising a little bit. So where am I going with all this contradictory research? Well, the truth of the matter is that this research doesn't really matter that much to you. Or to me. Because if I hate to sit on a bike seat, it doesn't matter if a study comes out tomorrow saying that the exercise bike provides a workout ten times better than any other piece of aerobic equipment. If I'm not going to sit on that seat, I'd be stupid to go out and buy a bike. Actually, I own a spinning bike and love it, so that wasn't a very realistic example, but I think you get the point :-)

Experiment to see what works for you. Try a spinning class. Try jogging in the park. Try pushups and pullups, or a power rack, or bench presses. Hop on the elliptical at the gym, or find a friend who has one. Try them all to see what you like, and then build a balanced strength and aerobic program from those options. That's what'll keep you exercising consistently, and doing it consistently is the main key to getting the results that you want.

By: Joseph Serpico
If you want to read more about exercise machines and all areas of fitness click over to Joe's site at http://www.exercisemachinesguide.com.

Featured by Resources For Attorneys, a Legal Services and Lifestyles directory portal.

Relaxation is a big part of fitness and a good way to relax is to laugh. Check out our jokes section where you will find jokes, humor and humorous anecdotes.