The expression “aerobic” is defined as “needing oxygen”. It refers to any type of exercise that is low intensity and long duration. An example would be an hour jog or and hour-long aerobics class.

Anaerobic exercise is “with out oxygen”. Anaerobic refers to any type of exercise that is high intensity and low durational. An example would be a 100 yard sprint or a set of 20 pushups.

Old, outdated fitness information told us that aerobic exercise was better for losing fat because the majority of the energy used for an “aerobic” work out is burned from our fat cells. We were told that the fat burning would not start into 20 minutes into the session and we had to exercise for at least 60 minutes.

There are three main problems with utilizing aerobics and aerobic type of exercise for fat burning.

Not Enough Time To Exercise

With the fast pacedness of today’s society and the speed of information, it seems that we all have less time in a day. We simply do not have enough time to perform aerobic type of exercise for 5-8 hours per week.

Interval Cardio is a more time efficient exercise. What we are seeing is that more fat loss is coming from 2 or 3 thirty-minute interval cardio sessions than 5-8 hours of aerobic “jogging type cardio”. The reason for this is because “aerobic type cardio”

Trains The Body To Become a Fat Storage Machine

You see, when you do low intensity long durational “aerobic” type cardio the body is smart and says “Wow, it’s a good thing I had that fat in the fat cells to supply energy for that aerobic work out.” So what it does is it stores more of your future carbs as fat in the fat cells to prepare for future aerobic exercise. Conversely, when you do anaerobic exercise your body becomes an energy storage machine. It stores more of your future carbs as glycogen in your liver and in your muscles. Glycogen is anabolic and burns energy just sitting there ready to be used. It is like rocket fuel, where as fat is well, fat. It just sits there and burns no calories.

Your Body Stops Burning Calories When You Stop Exercising

When you are done with aerobic type of exercise your body is done burning calories; because the intensity of the exercise is not high. When you are done performing anaerobic exercise, your body burns extra calories for the next 4-8 hours after the exercise. So in summary losing the most body fat is not about where your body gets the energy for the work out from nearly as much as it is about “total calories burned. Because you get the large window of burning extra calories after the aerobic “interval cardio” work out, you win the fat loss game. And the kicker is you can do it in less time. So it fit’s in to your busy lifestyle.