Burn Fat While You Sleep

Now that I have your attention, let me clarify . . . there is a catch. If you want to burn fat while you sleep, you need to work hard while awake. I guess it’s not just about working hard, but more about working efficiently to get your fat-burning machine rolling. So how do we “burn the midnight oil (or fat)” while sleeping?  You may be surprised, but it doesn’t happen by spending hours per week on the treadmill, elliptical trainer or stationary bike.

While steady-state cardio and endurance training has its place in the world of health and fitness, it is not ideal for maximizing your fat-burning potential. In fact, long periods of cardio training can trigger the body to burn lean muscle for energy.  Sure, you are burning calories (energy), but there is a difference between burning calories and burning fat. If your goal is to "tone" and create a shapely body without sacrificing lean muscle mass, you need to increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR). The RMR is the amount of energy your body burns while at rest. If you are able to boost your RMR, the fat burning process will continue even after you step out of the gym.

So, the answer is to shift towards more anaerobic interval training where you perform a series of high intensity exercises followed by short rest periods. Another catchy term for this is high intensity interval training (HIIT).  HIIT training is simply performing short bursts of exercise, at a very high intensity, followed by short rest periods. Various studies have shown that this type of training not only increases aerobic capacity, but also burns more fat over a 24-48 hour period than traditional endurance training. There are a number of ways you can stack exercises into metabolic circuits. One of the most common protocols for HIIT is a Tabata, where 20 seconds of intense exercise is followed by 10 seconds rest.  The intervals are repeated for 8 rounds (4 minutes total).
Here is an example of the tabata protocol using a punching bag.  You can see the effort is all-out for the 20 seconds, and by the end of the 8 rounds I was pretty worn out.  
(I highly recommend getting proper training and coaching on the technique of punching before hitting a bag.  I was fortunate to learn from the great team at Sonoma County Martial Arts Center) 


The amount of time spent exercising and the amount of time resting is referred to as the work/rest ratio.  So a Tabata would be a 2:1 work/rest ratio.  That is you are "working" for twice as long as you are resting.  Some other examples of work/rest ratios might look like this:

1 : 1 (Ex: 30 seconds exercise : 30 seconds of rest)
1 : 2 (Ex: 30 seconds of exercise : 60 seconds of rest)

You can come up with your own work/rest ratio numbers, but keep in mind that the only way HIIT is going to work is if you keep the intervals short enough to give 100% all out effort!  If you finish a Tabata and feel like you can go run a marathon immediately after, you didn't do it correctly.

Give it a try at the end of your next workout with jump rope, kettlebell swings, burpees, squat jumps, battle ropes or any other exercise that is explosive in nature. The most important thing about making this work is that you go all out for those 20 seconds of work. This may be the most intense 4 minutes of your entire workout!

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