You have probably heard the term the “fat-burning zone.” You often hear uninformed trainers recommend that their clients reduce the intensity of their workouts so that their bodies will burn more fat. In reality, all these trainers are doing is lowering the overall effectiveness of their clients’ programs.

Here’s a quick explanation of the fat-burning zone. At an aerobic pace, your body utilizes stored body fat as fuel to save its preferred fuel (stored blood glycogen) for more pressing matters. It sounds great because you’re burning body fat. And while this is true, you’re burning it at a very slow rate.

During higher-intensity work, your body turns to a limited supply of blood glycogen (often called blood sugar) for energy. While your body’s burning glycogen during this more intense period, and not fat, it’s breaking down more body tissue. Breakdown is a bad word for a good thing, because your body produces more hormones and increases its metabolism to repair this breakdown. As the tissue repairs itself, it builds more muscle so that next time you do a stressful workout it won’t be so taxing. This process of adapting to intense exercise is where your body makes rapid change.

Continually building on this process is called progressive overload. By continually adapting to stress and then adding more (either with weight or speed or programs like Insanity), you increase your body’s fitness so that it’s actually burning body fat for fuel as you rest. Interval workouts should be a key component in every phase of your training.

So, give a little extra cardio push a try.

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