Doing high-intensity cardio at 100 percent of your maximum heart rate isn’t the secret to effective fat burning, claimed one of Australia’s top personal trainers.
Rachael Attard, Gold Coast-based founder of the Lean Legs program, prides itself on helping clients lose extra body fat and weight in the most efficient way; for this she teaches them the ‘fat burning zone’.
“When you’re working out, most people think you should give the workout all the energy you have and train as hard as you can,” says Rachael, a sports nutritionist, said†
However, the fat-burning zone theory says you shouldn’t push your body all the way to 100. Instead, you burn the most fat when you work at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.’
Doing high-intensity cardio at 100 percent of your heart rate isn’t the secret to effective fat burning, claimed one of Australia’s top personal trainers
Rachael Attard, Gold Coast-based founder of the Lean Legs program, prides itself on helping clients lose extra body fat and weight in the most efficient way; for this she teaches them the ‘fat burning zone’
Rachael explains that fat burning occurs when carbohydrates and fat are converted into energy called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
The body needs oxygen to convert fat into ATP and when you do low to moderate intensity exercise you can breathe more easily, so your body gets more oxygen than when you do an intense workout.
“The most efficient thing your body can do during lower and moderate exercise is to convert your stored fat into energy,” she said.
“The most efficient thing your body can do during lower and moderate forms of exercise is to convert your stored fat into energy,” she said.
“So according to the fat-burning theory, you need to do long, low-intensity exercise to use up the fat stores and burn enough calories to see weight loss.”
Rachael added that during intense exercise, the body burns carbohydrates (glycogen) rather than fat because it doesn’t have enough energy to burn fat.
“When you do an intense workout, your body burns through your glycogen stores and may eventually go back to burning fat, depending on the length of the workout and the amount of stored carbohydrates in your body,” she added.
“But if you eat before an intense workout (and especially if your diet is high in carbohydrates), your body is likely to burn a lot more carbohydrates than fat.”
“So according to the fat-burning theory, you need to do long, low-intensity exercise to use up the fat stores and burn enough calories to see weight loss,” she said.
This explains why walking is Rachael’s top exercise recommendation — and the one she says is the key to lean, toned legs.
“Walking is the best form of exercise for slender legs. It will help get rid of excess fat on your legs and make them lean forward,” she said previously.
‘The longer you exercise, the more fat your body will burn. So doing longer power walks will help your body burn more fat and help you get leaner legs,” she said.
Rachael said she tried “every workout under the sun” but found that “nothing is more effective for getting thinner thighs and legs in general than walking.”
What does your body type say about how you should train?
ECTOmorph
Ectomorphs are usually naturally slim (like Victoria’s Secret models) and they find it difficult to build muscle.
If you’re an ectomorph body type, you probably already have naturally thinner legs. So your goal here is to maintain (or maybe lose a little) some stubborn lower body fat while building lean muscle.
This way your legs get tone and definition and you avoid the skinny fat look.
MESOMORPHY
Mesomorphs can be quite athletic and respond quickly to exercise meaning they build muscle with ease.
They can lose weight very quickly, but they can also gain weight very quickly. Usually they are of medium size.
If you’re a mesomorph, excessive workouts like squats and lunges can easily result in fat legs. So your goal here is to lower your body fat percentage and avoid exercises that make your legs swell.
ENDOmorph
Endomorphs naturally have a strong build and a larger frame. They can build muscle very quickly and it is slightly more difficult for them to lose weight. But it’s not impossible!
If you’re an endomorph body type, your goal is to really focus on reducing overall body fat and completely avoid any workouts that could cause you to gain weight.
Rachael’s workouts have helped thousands of women to quickly shape their dream bodies
“Through my years of working as a PT with girls who had the same goal (especially getting thin legs), this has always been the best method,” she added.
Rachael added that a walk first thing in the morning will lead to better results.
“If you do cardio before you eat in the morning, you’ll have less glycogen stored, so your body will burn more fat and muscle,” Rachael said.
“Less fat and less muscle mass equals leaner legs, but for this to work, you need to eat low carb (try not to eat carbs the night before so your glycogen levels are already low) and you need to do cardio for a reasonable amount of time.” (more than 60-90 minutes).’
The bottom line is that there are three main steps to reducing muscle size and building lean, toned legs: learning your body type, doing the right type of cardio (walking), and eating a low-calorie, low-carb diet.
For more information about the fat burning zone, click on here†