3 Fat Burning Interval Training Workouts to Lose Stomach Fat

Old school fat loss is out, and new school fat burning workouts are in. Shocking research from Australia shows that short, interval training workouts are more effective for fat burning than long, slow aerobic cardio workouts.

In the study conducted at the University of New South Wales, women who used interval training lost more belly fat than women doing cardio ?even though the cardio workouts were twice as long!

At first, my clients have a hard time believing that they can cut their workout time. Most people, like my client Nick, were used to doing long, slow cardio workouts. Every book, every magazine, and every other trainer they ever talked to always said they needed to do long cardio workouts to burn fat ?sometimes trainers even said they had to do the workouts first thing in the morning on an empty stomach!

But research shows that isn抰 true, and when Nick switched over to interval training, he lost 4 pounds in the first 2 weeks. Plus, everyone loves shorter workouts. As a busy lawyer and parent of two young boys, Nick doesn抰 have time to be wasting at the gym. So intervals have been a godsend for him.

Here are three of the interval training workouts that Nick does to burn fat. (Make sure you do a thorough warm-up before and a cool-down after each workout.)

The first interval program is copied straight from the Australian research study that found the best way to burn belly fat was to use intervals, not long, slow cardio. Subjects in this study trained three times per week, and alternated between 8 seconds of hard exercise and 12 seconds of easy exercise for 20 full minutes.

This workout is tough to do on cardio equipment at your gym because it is hard to speed up and slow down so fast. But you can do this with a jump rope, or by running in place, or you can do it outside running or biking.

However, if you only do interval training inside on cardio equipment, it will be easier for you to stick to classic 搒ports-training?intervals. I first started using these with athletes for fat burning over 10 years ago, and they work great inside and outside.

After a warm-up, do six intervals of 60 seconds of hard exercise followed by 60-120 seconds of easy exercise. If you are a beginner, take it easy and don抰 work too hard in the work interval phase, and also take 120 seconds to recover. As you get fit, you can work harder in those 60 seconds and decrease your rest periods.

If you do a 5 minute warm-up, followed by 6 intervals of 60 seconds work and 60 seconds rest, you can finish with 3-minutes of cool-down for a 20 minute workout. If you are a beginner, do fewer intervals (3-4) when taking longer rests, and you抣l also be done in 20 minutes. You can do these workouts on any cardio machine in the gym.

Finally, you can also do timed bodyweight intervals in the comfort of your own home, and these are my new favorite interval workouts. In fact, I抦 off to do one right now after I finish this article!

You can use a simple stopwatch or gym timer to help you out. Set up the intervals for 15 seconds of exercise and 15 seconds of recovery. Do bodyweight squats for 15 seconds, then walk around the room for 15 seconds. Repeat this 8 times. You can follow that up with the same protocol for lunges (doing 6 rounds), pushups (doing 3-4 rounds), and even planks (doing 6-8 rounds).

The time flies on this workout, and you get a total body workout that isn抰 boring like cardio. You抣l be shocked by how effective these three interval training workouts are for fat loss. Do interval training only three times per week in combination with 2-3 strength training workouts, and you抣l sculpt a lean, beach body in 6 weeks or less.

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