Written by Angele Satariano

We’ve got a little fat loss secret for you  ✨Wanna hear it?

Are you one of those who gets on the treadmill or air walker for 30-40 mins a few times a week? You break a sweat but you’re not completely pooped by the end of it. You’ve banked in your exercise for the day, so you’re satisfied.

That’s 100% ok and better than doing no exercise at all! But doing that is not gonna cut it in the fat loss department!

Woman six pack

What if I told you that doing shorter intervals of higher intensity exercise is WAY more effective for burning fat? Does that intrigue you? I’m sure it does!

You’re better off spending less time training (20-30mins is enough), but during that time making sure that it’s at the right intensity to promote fat burning.

Now I know that you’re asking yourself, “how do I know when I’m working out at the right intensity?” Here’s your answer:

  1. Make sure you get hot
  2. You must get sweaty
  3. You must feel out of breath
  4. You should feel the burn in your muscles and keep on going until you can’t do anymore in short intervals/bursts!

You could do this either on a cardio machine, out in the street, at the gym or even at home with no equipment.

If you’re using a cardio machine, during the work interval you must work hard enough to achieve all of the above mentioned points, aiming to be completely maxed out by the end of the interval. Then you take your rest (make it active, move slowly) and repeat.

If you’re doing exercises in the gym, with weight or without, you could either do an AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) workout i.e. performing a set number of exercises for a set number of reps as many times over as you can in the set amount of time (with very little or no rest between exercises). Or if you prefer, you could use a timing app and set it for e.g. to 20/30/40 seconds work, 15 seconds rest, and calculate how many exercises and how many rounds you need to arrive up to 15-20 mins of high intensity work.

The sky is the limit here! There are SO many things you can play around with to make a workout more intense and more interesting.

Woman doing quad stretch near rubble wall wearing Nike Pro setOk, enough rambling from my end!! Here’s an example of an interval workout:

⚡️10 mins warm up – easy jog or power walk or dynamic stretches with some bodyweight cardio (if you’re in the gym or doing a home workout)

⚡️Decide on your interval time:

If you’re doing cardio (i.e. running/rowing/air walker) I would aim for anything betwee 3-6 minutes of hard work and then take 60-90 seconds rest.

If you’re doing a gym/home workout, as mentioned above, decide on whether you’re going to do AMRAP (I would aim for minimum 5 mins work for AMRAP) or shorter intervals of work/rest time for a circuit style kind of workout.

⚡️Whichever kind of training you’re doing, perform as many intervals as is needed to end up with a total ‘high intensity’ workout time of 15-20mins.

⚡️Cool down – If you’re doing cardio (i.e. running/rowing/air walker) continue that activity for another 5-10 mins at a lower, more relaxed intensity and then stretch. If you’re doing a gym/home workout you could end with a nice relaxing stretch.

And there you have it!! That’s how you do fat loss  ⚡️⚡️

Here at Active Spirit this is exactly what we do in our fitness classes! All our classes are set up to get you working in a way that will not only strengthen your whole body, but target fat loss too!

If you need some inspiration for workouts you could do at home or in the gym by yourself, check out our Facebook and Instagram pages where you’ll find plenty of workout videos (Facebook: @activespiritmalta & @activespiritmums Instagram: @activespiritmalta & @activespiritmums).

I hope that you’ve found this informative and helpful and that it will help you see the fat loss results you’ve been striving for. Don’t forget that nutrition and lifestyle is a huge part of the picture so be sure to do your best in those departments too!

If you’ve truly enjoyed reading this, share it with your friends so that others can be in on the secret too ✨Sharing is caring!

At Active Spirit we offer a range of fitness classes that cater for all fitness levels. The classes are designed to help you strengthen your whole body and improve your cardiovascular fitness. We’ve also got specialised classes for pregnancy and post natal. Check out our class timetable and also do not hesitate to contact us if you need any fitness tips or have any questions!

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