Is There Really Such Thing as a ‘Fat-Burning Exercise’?

Now, should exercise ever be a means of punishing your body for overeating? Absolutely not. Should you use exercise as a tool for burning calories you wish you hadn’t eaten? Not if you want a healthy relationship with food. But does finding ways to increase your calorie consumption, thereby easing feelings of dietary restriction, make sense? I’d argue there’s a place for it.

If I were to really answer your question at face value: no, there isn’t such a thing as a strictly ‘fat-burning exercise’. We have very little control over the type of calories we burn while working out. The fuel substrates we use while exercising (ie, are these calories coming from body fat, dietary fat, dietary carbohydrates or stored carbs?) will be influenced by the intensity of the workout, what we’ve eaten recently, our hormones and our genetics. What we will always be burning, however, is calories. And when it comes to weight loss, that’s what matters, right?

I understand it’s tempting to think that if you want to burn more calories, you should be performing your workouts at a higher intensity. But, in reality, fat loss isn’t achieved through some secret air bike protocol that leaves you in a sweaty puddle on the ground. It happens when you manage to figure out how you can incorporate as much low-intensity exercise, or movement, into your day as possible.

Hardcore workouts can cause our bodies to compensate by slowing down for the rest of the day, which can actually have a net detrimental effect on the number of calories we burn. Conversely, lower-intensity activities, such as cycling to and from the train station, taking lunchtime walks or the oft-touted option of using the stairs rather than the lift can all contribute significantly to your daily metabolic burn without leaving you feeling exhausted and burned out.

One of the most effective and structured ways you can build this type of low intensity exercise into your life is with simple, brisk walks after each meal. Post prandial activity, as it’s scientifically known, has been shown in studies to result in increased weight loss, with some research suggesting that this could be down to walking’s ability to regulate blood sugar, helping to control appetite.

Walking also has a litany of other incredible benefits for both your body and mind, and if getting out for a power stroll after two or three meals a day also counts as a fat-burning exercise or workout, and helps you to shift a few pounds, well, that’s just the calorie-reduced icing on the cake, isn’t it?

How To Use Exercise To Lose Fat

Boost your burn

Fat-burning exercises may not truly exist, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to use more energy during a workout.

Best of the rest

Use techniques, such as supersets (two moves back-to-back) or EMOMs (starting a new set at the beginning of each minute), to increase the energy demand of your workouts.

Go slow

Bookending fast and furious sessions with steadier cardio efforts will increase your energy expenditure. If you’ve scheduled 60 minutes in the gym, use it all.

Strength and stamina

Build sets and circuits around a mixture of compound lifts and conditioning bouts to up the metabolic effect. For example, five rounds of bench press, pull-ups and rowing.

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