Are you looking to shed more fat on your next morning jog but aren’t sure how? While running is a great calorie burner on its own, there are a few ways you can tweak your cardio workout to maximize your fat-burning potential while staying fit. With these tricks, you can become the ultimate fat-burning machine that will help you reach your goal weight in no time.
Reduce Snacking Before Workouts
It’s easy to get carried away with carbo-loading before an endurance run. Carbo-loading is the perfect way to fuel your body before a workout, but if you overeat, you won’t be able to burn enough fat. Only carbo-load excessively before a marathon to boost your energy but keep as many calories off your plate as possible to avoid belly bloat and weight gain. On average, runners who have a pre-training snack are more likely to display lower levels of fat metabolism. Eat something in the middle of your run to keep your metabolism in working order.
Use Fat Burning Supplements
With fat-burning supplements, it’s possible to eat reasonable portions while still shedding unwanted pounds. Specific vitamins and nutrients can shift your body from fat-storage mode into fat-melting mode. For example, a vitamin D supplement helps to ensure body cells respond to insulin, which pushes glucose into the cells. A calcium, omega-3, and CLA supplement will help you shed fat faster. Thermogenic fat burners found on Amazon can also support healthy weight loss, especially if they contain the energy-boosting ingredient L-carnitine.
Focus on Running Uphill
Runners typically jog on flat surfaces because they’re easy to find and simple to train on. However, if you give yourself a bit more of a challenge and run uphill, you’ll quickly notice the benefits of hill training. You’ll feel exhausted at a faster rate than on a flat surface, which is good news for your waistline. Running up a steep hill will land you in the fat-burning zone and increase overall performance in future runs, but be careful not to overexert yourself. After running up the hill, go back down to its base to rest before continuing your workout.
Try High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
High-intensity interval training is a form of exercising that involves getting your heart rate to 90% of its maximum beats per minute. Through HIIT training, runners can instantly propel themselves into the fat-burning zone for a few minutes at a time. To do this, run as fast as you can for 1-2 minutes. Then, slow down to a jog, so your heart rate has the time to stabilize. Since your heart rate spiked quickly, your body’s working overtime to bring it back down. Regulating a quickening heart rate burns significantly more calories in 30 minutes than straight endurance jogging.
Resistance Training
The amount of weight you lose during a workout is directly tied to what you do before you start exercising. Strength or resistance training will improve muscle endurance and strength, but it also helps to burn more calories during a second workout and at rest. Runners with a low resting heart rate have a built-in fat furnace because their muscles require a lot of energy and calories to stay large. Creating a resistance training routine will benefit your overall fitness as well, so start lifting weights and performing squats to burn more fat.
Track Eating Habits
When you start to work out, you tend to consume more calories than you expect. Exercising multiple times a week will put you in a calorie deficit, which sets off an alarm in the part of your brain that regulates hunger. To stay on top of your eating habits, write down everything you eat inside a journal or on your phone. After the first week, examine where the bulk of your calories are coming from. Are you eating more junk food than you realized? Do mornings start well but end in a binge at night? Locate the possible problems of your diet and tackle them quickly.