This post has been edited since its initial date: 02/02/22 to feature more expert insight and information.
Increasing your body’s fat burning capabilities is one of the best ways to achieve healthy and sustainable weight loss, and exercise is the easiest way to do so. While some forms of exercise are ideal for boosting fat burn throughout the work period, others are better for promoting lasting calorie burn, even helping to improve your metabolism which will allow you to easily lose weight without exhausting your energy stores or starving yourself.
Not sure which forms of exercise are the best for promoting increased fat burn and consequently allowing for healthy weight loss? We checked in with Robert S. Herbst, personal trainer, weight loss and wellness expert, and powerlifter to get to the bottom of optimizing your workout, once and for all.
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Alternating Cardio & Weight Training
It may come as no surprise that the best exercise routine to follow first thing in the morning is the same as the best routine overall. A combination of cardio and weight training is one of the most effective workout plans to help achieve healthy weight loss by strengthening your muscles, which will in turn boost your metabolism and therefore, calorie burn.
Starting off your morning with weight training, first and foremost, can help to increase calorie output throughout the day, extending long past the time you were actually active for. “One can do weight or resistance training two or three days a week as they cause your metabolism to be elevated for 48 to 72 hours afterwards as your body rebuilds muscle that was broken down,” explains Herbst.
Not dedicating each and every morning to weight training, however, will preserve your muscles so a great workout split for achieving significant results is three days of weight training and two to three days of cardio. Thankfully, cardio exercises like HIIT are also known for increasing the metabolic rate through their interval format. “You can do high intensity interval training (HIIT) as that will keep your metabolism elevated for the rest of the day,” suggests Herbst. “You can do that more frequently although a few days a week is best to prevent burnout.”
While there is concrete evidence that weight training over time can help to increase muscle volume and therefore kick start your metabolism, so too can cardio first thing in the morning, notes Herbst. “There is evidence that other cardio type work such as running or rowing will cause you to burn fat if done first thing in the morning in a fasted state,” he says. That being said, fasted cardio may leave you feeling low on energy, putting the intensity of your workout at risk. If you try out fasted exercise and it isn’t for you, there’s no harm in having a banana or a slice of peanut butter toast in the morning to offer a hit of fuel before you throw your body into motion.
There is no singular workout better than the rest for creating increased fat burn within the body, and at the end of the day you’ll have the best luck sticking to a workout plan that you genuinely enjoy following. However, as a general rule, alternating between weight training and cardio in the morning can help you to shed excess pounds and build up muscle, toning your body while giving your metabolism a natural boost. All this being said, if you don’t have time to exercise in the morning and can only squeeze your sweat session in at night, you will still be able to see changes on the scale, provided your diet is nutrient dense as well.
