Myth: You Don’t Start Burning Body Fat Until after 20 Minutes of Doing Cardio…
By admin on Jun 6, 2010 in Health and Fitness
It can be downright scary listening to some of the most pervasive fitness myths out there. For instance, I was at a local gym the other day and I actually heard a personal trainer tell his client that he needed to do at least 20 minutes of cardio because "you don’t start burning any body fat until after the 20 minute mark."
All I could do is put my head down and hope that this client did a little research into that statement or somehow question how that could possibly be true. On the flip side I do know what the trainer was getting at since when you’ve been doing cardio for more than 15-20 minutes your body will end up burning a higher percentage of fat (to preserve glucose). If you’ve read my previous post on “Burn More Body Fat When Doing Cardio” you saw what percent of body fat you are actually targeting during different types of cardio sessions.
The funniest part about this whole myth is that you actually burn a greater percentage of body fat sitting on the couch than after 20 minutes of cardio. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll burn very many calories crashing on the couch, but it does mean the actual percentage of calories from fat will be higher. So the big take away is that while you’ll certainly burn a good amount of fat during a 45 minute workout, you don’t have to wait until the 21st minute to get it started.
Credits to:Nutrition Data: Dieting & Weight Loss Blog