Burn fat from lebaran in 20 minutes!

Now Idul Fitri is over.. it's time to feel guilty of all the ketupat and the cakes you've eaten, right? Well, not if you do something about it! Let me suggest something proven to burn your fat more effectively. It is call interval cardio training. It works for me.

Look, I know you hate cardio. My friends and I always talked about how much we hate going to the gym knowing we would be doing something so boring for an hour. Lets face it, cardio is boring. Period.

I am such a fan of Bill Philips and his method of training and eating. He came up with a solution that actually save time and very effective, at least for me (and a few hundred thousand people). He called it 20 minute solution. In short, you will only need to do cardio for no more than 20 minutes each time (you still have to do it 3 times a week though). What's amazing about this 20 minutes solution, is that you will burn more fat in the process compared to doing one hour or -even worse- an hour and a half regular slow pace cardio.

Without going to much into the logic behind this method (because I am not Bill Phillips), let me just tell you what to do. If you want to know why, ask me, I will give you answers in great detail on "why" this 20 minute solution works. The simple "why" is that the 20 minute solution actually trick your body to use fat as the source of energy, instead of using carbohydrate (which is typically use by your body for energy source). So, it burns your fat more efficiently than if you train some other way, even at longer period (like an hour).

Here's the "how": Imagine the amount of energy it takes you to sit on your desk or at home. The level of energy you use is level 1. Now, imagine you are being chase by a crazy dog your neighbor own. You would run as fast as you can right? That level of energy is level 10. Or maximum. Now, I need you to imagine from level 1 to level 10, there is steady increase in energy use. So easy walking would be a level 5. Fast walking would be a level 6. Fast running would be a level 8. And so on. That's the key for this exercise.

So, go to your gym. (Yes, that does take some effort I know:). After doing some light, but important, strecthing, pick any cardio machine you want. It can be a stationary bike, a stairmaster or -if you like to swim- go to the pool. Now make sure you have some type of stopwatch to monitor the time. Remember, only 20 minutes and you are done!

First two minute, do a level 5. Nice walk in the park. Shock your body on the third minute by going into a level 7 for one minute. Yes ladies, that is running. Minute four and five, back down again to a level 6. Walk again. Go hard again to a level 8 for one more minute after that. Again, your breathing should increase intensely by this time, back off again to a level 6 for another two minutes. Keep this cycle over and over between level 8 (one minute) and level 6 (two minutes). Now at some point, you can replace level 8 with level 9. That is one level lower than you being chased by a crazy dog! Once you twenty minutes is up.. do some light walking to cool down. Then you're done.

How do you know you burn enough fat and not cheat on the intensity. Simple: Right after you're done with your 20 minute solution, look at your stopwatch and count your pulse. How many beats per minute is it? If it is 80% from your maximum heart rate, you did your job of burning fat. What is 80% of maximum heart rate? The formula is: 220 minus (your age) times 80%. Whatever number you come up with must be the number of beats per minute after you're done with this exercise.

Okay ladies.. this stuff works for me. Try it. I am going to the gym now. I hope you will too!

Tiara