There are a number of theories, but some are superior than others because some adhere to a few simple principals that will be outlined below.



The body is a machine. It is built for adaptation, procreation, and survival. This is what has kept us alive as a race for the millennia. The problem is that only recently has our sedentary lifestyle demanded that we lose extra energy that we store as fat around our waist, thighs, and other places. When we used to hunt for food, we not only ate more nutritious food, but we worked very hard, burning many calories acquiring every meal.

None of us has any trouble ordering a fast meal at a local diner, and this has led to the accumulation of fat in the body that has unsightly and unhealthy consequences. So how will you go about losing this fat? Well, fat is essentially stored energy. In order to get rid of it all, you need to do is burn more of it than you replace through eating. Sounds simple? Well, ask anyone who has ever dieted and you will soon find it isn't anywhere near as simple as it seems.

Why? Because many people focus on long bouts of cardio which do burn energy, but do not increase metabolism. The key to truly losing weight and building muscle is increasing metabolism, or your body's rate of burning fat; while also increasing the rate at which your body builds muscle. Here are some tips that will help you.

The first aspect is diet. I am sure many of you have tried dieting without much success. Well, your body is an adaptive machine. If you would like it to burn fat while you are sitting watching television of reading the paper, it will. Believe it or not, all your body needs is the proper queue to increase its basal metabolic rate, or the rate it burns energy while resting.

You can actually make your body burn more fat than it normally does, but you wont achieve this by running for miles on end. No, a more sound approach would be to do intense BURSTS of anaerobic activity, namely sprinting for about 20 seconds, then jogging for about 20 seconds, then repeating this 5 times twice. If you do this, your body will believe it has become necessary to sprint for survival. Sprinting requires a large amount of energy, and your body while preparing itself to always be ready for a life or death sprint will keep a lot of energy ready for the burning, and in the meantime will burn much more calories than it usually does.

Don't believe it? Check out any sprinters physique and get back to me. So take home point-do not worry about what you put in as much as what you put out. The second major influence is your training habits. You need to focus on performing some intense work at least three times per week. I am sure this sounds low to many of you. Well, instead of jogging for an hour each day, do sprints every other day for a total of 10 minutes and you will reap benefits that will astonish you.

If you want to build muscle, the sprinting actually increases the amount of growth hormone your body produces, so yes, sprinting coupled with sound resistance training is your ticket to burning fat while feeding the muscle. Do not take it from me, get out there and train!