The Biggest Myth in Fitness

For years people have been following the advice that long, slow duration cardio is the best way to burn fat because it uses more calories from fat in our body. That's why in big mega gyms you see hundreds of pieces of cardio equipment with people slowly moving along each and every day. Unfortunately, science has disproved this myth years ago but people still continue to buy into it. But just for conversation sake, here's another study that came out last year.


Irving et al.
Effect of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat and body composition.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Nov;40(11):1863-72.

The study consisted of three groups:

1. No exercise
2. Low intensity aerobic exercise (5 days per week low intensity)
   
3. High intensity (above Lactate threshold) exercise (3 days high intensity, 2 days low)
   

The exercise groups burned the exact same calories (so exercise time was adjusted down in the higher intensity group.

At the sixteen week point the high intensity group had significantly reduced abdominal fat
The low intensity group saw no changes.

It's clear that if you want to target belly fat - a higher intensity training program works better. But here's the take home advice -- these researchers adjusted the time down in the high intensity group (so that calories burned were the same) - for example only doing 20 mins instead of 30 mins.

But that's not real world. So if you have 30 mins to train - 30 mins of high intensity work would make an even bigger difference. Because when calories burned are the same - it's more effective - you'd see an even bigger effect when the calories burned were higher.

Bottom line - train harder to target belly fat more effectively.


Here's something else to keep in mind. High Intensity exercise doesn't necessarily mean on a treadmill, elliptical or bike. Circuit training performed properly can build strength and become an interval workout at the same time. Don't believe me? I guess you'll have to try it and find out.