Many slimmers will want to burn fat and even target specific parts of the body, such as belly fat.
Speeding up the metabolism with some fat-burning exercises could make this possible, according to a fitness expert.
Balanced Body education director at Balanced Body Joy Puleo shared advice on getting the metabolism to work harder and burn more fat.
She told GB News: “To burn fat and avoid weight gain we need to rev up the metabolism. How we burn fat is the real question.
A fast metabolism can burn more fat and calories
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“To understand this we need to understand a few physiological principles to make the best and most effective exercise choices.
“Firstly, fat is a potential energy source (think of fat as unused potential). The question then is how do we get our metabolism to tap into this reserve?”
The fitness expert suggested exercises that get the heart rate up are the best for targeting fat during workouts.
Joy continued: “Fat needs oxygen to burn. Cardio and rhythmic whole-body exercise are excellent ways to tap into fat stores.
“If you are doing cardio with the intention of tapping into fat stores you want your pace to be fast enough that your body requires more oxygen, hence your breathing rate increases, but not too fast that you exhaust.
“When your oxygen need meets your muscle need you are in what is often called ‘the zone’. It is a place you can sustain for a period of time.
“If your muscles are crying out for more and your heart rate rises too high in order to try to meet the demand, your original smart device, your body, will shut down the fat burn and burn readily available fuels, such as carbohydrates. Not the intention at all.”
Joy shared there are many exercises that fall into this category that slimmers can add to their routines to boost results.
Weight training can improve fat-burning
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She listed: “Cardio, biking, running or jogging moderate to longer duration with periods of higher intensity spikes [are all good].
“High-intensity interval training can work here, provided you build up to the high intensity then back off to more sustainable levels of intensity.
“Weight training, body weight training and general resistance training are all excellent ways to trigger long-term fat-burning.”
This comes as Joy shared the best time of the day to workout to burn fat.