high, moderate, or low intensity? which works best?

Hi my name is catherine, and im sorry to ask so many questions, but im not realy sure on what fitness plan to follow anymore. Right now ive got musles, with fat ontop of them, so im trying to loose fat in all areas (arms, stomach, butt, etc..) anyways i was wondering which type of intensity of workout should i do? which one will get rid of my fat the fastest?

-High intensity cardio lasting like an hour.

-moderate intensity lasting like 2-3 hours.

- or low intensity like 3 or more hours.?

some say that low intensity is the best to lose weight because at this intensity the body can use the bodyfat as energy source, but do this for more than 30 minutes, the first 30 minutes the body use the glycogen produced from last meal or the glycogen stored in your muscles. At low intensity you still can breathe easily and bring enough oxygen to the heart. High intensity, the body use glycogen more than fat storage, and your heart doesn't receive enough oxygen. I prefer high intensity because I'm intense but it depends which days. anyway you can do low intensity all day long by walking, running, keep moving, going to the grocery store, working, etc.

Personally, I've had better luck with low intensity, long duration, but everybody is different. Whenever I do high intensity, I find it harder to recover without eating way more calories than I burn. Personally, I run slowly for what averages out to be an hour a day, six days a week. After a couple weeks of this, I had to move to a new notch on my belt buckle. Maybe you could alternate to get the benefits of both? Best of luck, and please never be sorry about asking questions .

Mike

I find that everytime i do high intensity too, i eat like crazy the nest day. And i feel so stressed out. But then when i do low intsenity i just get bored. like i can stop anytime i feel like it. Are you even supposed to do high intensity everyday? i realy dont understand training.

A general rule of thumb I like to follow is to not do high intensity workouts two days in a row. I'm not sure what your overall training looks like (if you're doing weight training, etc.), but I would think you would be fine doing high intensity interval cardio on Mon, Wed and Fri, and low intensity recovery cardio on Tue, Thur and Sat.

For me, I really don't do any high intensity, except for speeding up and slowing down randomly during runs (fartlek). So, if you wanted to avoid the high intensity stuff completely(because of the hunger effect), you could just incorporate fartlek into your cardio to keep it from getting boring. Having a specific time/mileage goal also helps get rid of the option of stopping.

What's your current routine/goals/etc?

Well right now my current routine, isnt a very good one. Ill do pilates like 3 times a week and then go to the gym for cardio, and sundays ill spend 2 hours on nthe gym doing cardio. so like i usually try to weight train everyday then do intense cardio for an hour, but it hasnt worked out that well.. um my goal is just to loose like 14 pounds around.

It depends how intense your Pilates sessions are. If they make you energized and ready for more, I would do high intensity cardio right after you do your Pilates and do low intensity cardio on your off days. If Pilates really kicks your butt, so to speak, I would do the low intensity after Pilates and high-intensity cardio on your off days. Either way, just be sure to take one day a week to rest or, even better, go for a nice, slow walk. You could do some easy weight training with your Pilates, but I would try to save your energy for the cardio.

Another option, and I'm just putting it out there, is to plan to run a race in the next few months and find a schedule to help you train for it. When it comes to weight loss, I haven't found anything better than sticking to a steady running plan and keeping your diet in check.

low intensity and a BCAA taken during workouts to not burn up your lean muscle, IMO

and I would never do 3 hours in one day... would be too afraid I'd eat up too much muscle, even at low intensity. This is different advice that that of endurance athletes whose primary goal isn't bodyfat loss, which it sounds like your goal is...