Aerobic vs. Anaerobic: Cardio is the best way to burn fat, but is long aerobic cardio or short, high-intensity anaerobic cardio better? Experts will tell you that science supports high-intensity training as the best way to maximize calories burned from jogging; but if you have more than 10 pounds to lose, it really isn’t.
Aerobic versus anaerobic exercise
If you want to reduce the size of your stomach or get rid of the layer of fat that hides your great body, I recommend that you first focus on aerobic exercise and then move on to anaerobic exercise to maintain your new look. Aerobic exercise increases your efficiency for longer periods so you can create the huge calorie deficit you need to burn fat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of anaerobic HIIT (high intensity interval training), but there’s not much you can do and there’s only so much calories you can burn at one time. When you train aerobically, on the other hand, if you follow the guidelines below, you can burn calories over a longer period of time and make up for the huge calorie deficit you need for significant weight loss.
Build your aerobic efficiency first to burn the most calories
When you begin a calorie-burning phase of exercise, it helps to take a step back and think deeply about your goal (to burn a ton of calories). Think about the specific exercise and compare it to the physiological changes and benefits it will bring you.
Let’s take running as an example, if you train anaerobically you will gain speed, you will gain strength, but you will also get very tired. Exhausted, you will finish your workout having burned as many calories as possible during the short amount of time it could last.
On the other hand, if you teach your body to run efficiently in an aerobic state, you can exercise relentlessly for much longer and create a huge caloric deficit. It takes longer but you achieve your goal and have more energy for the rest of the day.
Benefits of anaerobic exercise
Anaerobic exercise increases your steady state, which means you can run a greater distance in the same amount of time. This is one of the reasons why people love HIIT; you burn more calories per minute and have a high metabolic rate for hours after exercise. What limits your ability to burn as many calories as you need for impressive fat loss is that physiology limits the amount of time you can sustain the effort. You get tired and you can’t keep it up for long.
The Science: Why Anaerobic Exercise Makes You So Tired
When you exercise anaerobically, your body cannot supply enough oxygen to your muscles and chemical changes are initiated in your body’s metabolism to provide the extra oxygen your muscles need. This cascade of events that occurs so your body can continue the anaerobic run is called “oxygen debt.” The problem is that it comes with a buildup of lactic acid in your blood which gives you tired muscles that won’t keep working. Therefore, your calorie burn is limited. Anaerobic exercise is the most efficient per minute, but you are limited by the number of minutes you get.
Benefits of aerobic exercise
Your ability to burn fat is controlled by your ability to take oxygen from the air, move it to your muscles, and then use it. This is called the maximum steady state. If you stay below this limit, your muscles do not experience the oxygen debt explained above and can continue indefinitely. The trick is to recognize when you start to feel tired, understand that you are becoming anaerobic, and slow down. If you do this, your muscles will not get tired and you will be able to continue. As long as you stay below your maximum steady state, you will burn your fat, not create the lactic acid that tires your muscles, and can continue for a long period of time.
Start with aerobic training and then move on to anaerobic training
Aerobic vs anaerobic? Both have their benefits when it comes to calories burned from jogging. I recommend that you start with mainly aerobic exercises and then switch to mainly anaerobic exercises to keep your body lean.