What type of cardio is needed to burn fat?

I'm fairly new to CV training and working out in general, and I didn't see a newbie thread in this section so I wanted to ask a fairly basic question.

How intense of cardio training do I need to do to purely burn fat? I am not looking to lose weight, and I'm actually going to try to bulk up about 10 pounds. I'm currently 155lb, but most of my weight is fat. I'm trying to get into the 165-170 range, but also want to do the right type of cardio to burn off the pre-existing fat.

Right now I run 2.5 miles a day on the treadmill but thats it. Very basic I know, but how can I improve my CV routine to burn fat?

 

You can start by taking a look at your diet. You can increase your cardio's intensity all you want but if you are eating more then you can burn then it's not gonna do you one bit of good as far as burning extra fat.

 

Yep, I agree with Semper Fi, cardio can only take you so far in terms of weight loss. If you're already breaking into a big sweat everyday and pushing yourself that should be enough cardio (for weight loss). You need to think about how you can improve your diet.

 

thread won

 

I'm working on my diet in conjunction with the cardio. The thing is I'm not trying to lose weight so I plan on changing my diet to actually eat more (and healthier) than I do right now, I just want to tune my cardio to burn fat (if possible).

So do I just keep running 2.5 miles a day? I get a really good sweat out of it and I push myself to make sure I'm out of breath by the time I'm finished. What about HIT? Do I need to change to that?

 

You will either want to increase the intensity that you run those 2.5 or increase the distance of your runs. Windsprints and such.

 

If you aren't trying to lose weight, why would you be worried about what type of cardio is needed to burn fat?

 

If your 155 and want to gain weight, cardio exercises to burn fat should not be your first concern. Monitor your diet and hit the weights.

 

Maybe they consider burning fat "losing weight". You can burn fat w/o losing weight... Hit up the gym and lift weights.

 

Sounds like he's trying to build muscle and burn fat all at the same time, from what I can work out from his posts.

 

Not so much - if you are on a calorie deficit, you are losing weight. If you are on a calorie surplus, you are gaining weight.

If you are gaining weight and working out under hypertrophy parameters you will put on muscle.

If you are losing weight and working out under hypertrophy parameters, you will lose fat.

Case in point, I've been lifting for about 8 months now and have lost 30 some odd pounds of fat, but my LM has remained about the same (around 155 lbs), I think I put on about 3 lbs of muscle.

 

Yohan,

That's what I meant but you expressed it so much better. =)

 

sweet!

 

Yohan put it excellently so I'm just going to throw two tips out.

Treadmill running is nowhere near as effective as real running, if at all possible find a place to run outside, trying to maintain pace with hills is probably one of the best things for cardio and fat burn.

As for diet, cut out corn syrup wherever possible. While deployed I practically lived off a variety of energy drinks and it destroyed my waistline. Having given up my greatest of vices (mountain dew and red bull) and switching to low sugar drinks (yes I know they taste awful) has dropped about 20 pounds off me.

....training outside in Virginia during the summer helps too.

 

SgtGF,

Aint that the truth! I went running yesterday around 7pm and it was hot as all h3ll. I am located in Arlington. I ran on the 4 mile run trail. If you take the side trails, you can take advantage of the hilly terrain.

 

you can burn it by turning it into muscle or interval training, when you run jog but then go into sprints then jog again and so on, heres another example,ride a mountain bike in high gear as fast as you can, then when you get tired go to the lower gear and cool down for 2 minutes then go back to the higher gear, the hills that they speak of are interval training

 

Turn fat into muscle?

I think you mean burn fat and build muscle in its place.

 

No, you can't

You can, but only a little.

Sort of.

That's crude interval training. Proper interval training is going to be timed with periods of high intensity training with periods of rest in between.

I would personally recommend stopping between sprints or hills - that way you focus more on the anaerobic energy system.

 

Should you maintain a similar amount of calories on rest days as on training days? Or should you east less on rest days due to lack of exercise? Could a calorie surplus on rest days counteract the calories lost on training day?

 

Hmm ok I'll try to find a place to start running outside.