Which sport is best for fat burning?
If you’d like to lose some weight, a healthy diet and sufficient exercise are crucial. Everyone already knows that daily exercise helps to reduce body fat, but which sport is best for fat burning?
As you get older, muscle mass often decreases and your body stores more fat — especially around the abdomen, on the hips, and in the thighs. But that’s okay, because belly fat serves as insulation and protects against bumps and falls. However, too much (belly) fat increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Low versus high intensity training
Scientific research shows time and time again that exercise helps to burn fat faster. It doesn’t really matter what kind of sport you perform, as long as you keep on exercising for at least half an hour a day. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-intensity workout. In general, low-intensity exercise burns more fat.
At higher effort you’ll burn more carbohydrates, but as soon as these carbohydrates are burned, your body still switches to fat. At a low intensity, the heart rate should be 50-70 percent of your maximum heart rate. With high-intensity training, this percentage is higher, namely about 80-90 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Move at a low intensity
These thirty minutes of your physical effort is best sustained when you do something you enjoy. Examples of low-intensity sports are walking, aqua jogging, yoga and cycling (e.g. to school or work).
There are all different kinds of daily activities as well, that you would not count as a sport, but can easily contribute to fat burning. Think of gardening, ironing, washing dishes, vacuuming, mopping the floor and washing a car. Making a bed and painting are also good options for burning fat. These activities of movement mainly consume oxygen, which stimulates the breakdown of fat tissue.
Exercise at a higher intensity
If you’d like to increase the heart rate a bit more, then you can also go for a more intensive training. This can be cycling, for example, but also running, rowing, swimming, jumping rope, jumping jacks and HIIT training help to burn fat.
Build muscle
Strength training can also be effective in burning belly fat or other kinds of body fat. Unfortunately, it is not possible to convert fat into muscle, but muscles burn much more calories than fat mass when the body is in a resting position. More muscle means burning more fat.
With strength training, you’ll perform exercises with weights, such as lunges with dumbbells or squats with a kettlebell. You can use everyday items too, such as bottled water, a full laundry basket, a well-stocked backpack, books or a large bottle of fabric softener.
Which sport is best for fat burning conclusion
Any form of exercise is good for fat burning. But choosing something you like is easier to stick to in the long run. Regular training is important to make this exercise a habit. For example, walking for half an hour every day will be much more effective than just a Saturday HIIT workout.
Whether you cycle to work for half an hour every day, rake the garden or walk: everything is fine as long as you increase that heart rate of yours!
