Have you ever wondered which cardio exercises are best for burning off unwanted body fat fast and effectively? Is walking (low intensity) or sprinting (high intensity) better for burning body fat more effectively? How about a combination of both types of exercises (high intensity interval training)?

Well, both low and high intensity exercises will help you burn body fat as both types of exercises will burn calories. The question is which is more effective and burns more body fat.

When scientists first reported that during intensive exercise, your body burns glycogen, which is a form of carbohydrate stored in your liver and muscles for energy and that during low intensity exercises, your body burns body fat, everyone suddenly change their workout routines to perform low intensity exercises to burn body fat.

Does it work? If low intensity exercises do work, then why are there still so many obese people around although they are working out with low intensity exercises frequently? Why are low intensity exercises not working as effectively? Was low intensity the wrong answer?

No. The scientists were correct when they said that our bodies burn more fat during low intensity exercises like taking a stroll or a leisurely swim. But during a high intensity exercise like running, our bodies burn a lot more calories. Even if some of the calories burnt are from glycogen, we will still burn many fat calories as well.

When you are performing high intensity exercises and your store of glycogen is low, the carbs from the meal you eat later gets converted into glycogen to fill up the low glycogen stores and so much so that the carbohydrate calories will not be converted into body fat when left unused for energy expenditure.

High intensity cardio exercises crank up your metabolism even after your cardio workout is done. This will mean that your body will continue to burn fat calories hours after you have left the gym or stopped exercising. This effect is almost non existent in low intensity cardio aerobic workout. Your body burns many more calories during and after high intensity cardio exercises than low intensive exercises. That will mean that you will be losing weight much faster.

Now as a personal trainer, I do agree with many written journals that high intensity interval training (HIIT), is best for blasting away body fat. Watching my clients lose body fat rapidly with high intensity interval training is already enough to convince me that this is the best fat burning exercise.

You can add high intensity interval training exercises into your cardio or aerobic workout. You can walk briskly for 3 minutes to warm up and then breaking into a jog for another 3 minutes. Then walking briskly again until you have caught your breath and then sprint for a minute before walking again for another minute. From this point onwards, alternate between a one minute sprint with a slow one minute jog to catch your breath. Keep doing the one minute alternates for the next 20 minutes and you are done. When I said to sprint, I meant to go all out in your run. This is to keep your heart rate up and keeping your heart rate up is crucial for effective fat burning.

Do this for 5-6 days a week to blast away body fat. You will soon see your body transformation as you lose pound after pound of fat. When combined with a healthy eating habit, you will see an average of 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week.

This high intensity may be tough for beginners but it will be a breeze when your endurance and stamina build up. Good luck!