Burn Fat and Stay Lean Without Calorie Counting

Watching “Calories Burned” on your favorite cardio machine? Don’t. There’s a smarter way to burn fat and stay lean.

When it comes to burning calories during exercise, a lot of factors come into play. Age, height, weight, sex, fitness level; the list goes on. And even if a machine asks for your weight and age, it doesn’t know whether you’re an elite athlete or a couch potato with a resolution. It all matters.

Forget about calories burned

You probably don’t really care how many calories you’re burning, anyway. You just want results.

What are your fitness goals? You might want to lose 10 pounds. Or get jacked and lose your spare tire. Maybe you want a six-pack or a sexy V-shaped back. There are a million variations, but “I wanna burn calories!” isn’t one of them.

Burning calories is just a misguided approach to a more important goal.

There’s a better way to burn fat

First of all, if you’re just churning away on a cardio machine–watching the TVs, reading a mag, not doing any sprints or other interval work–you need to find a better hobby. Stamp collecting might get you a better body.

Lift some damn weights!

This is how you’re really going to change your body composition.

In addition to literally reshaping your body, resistance training has many other benefits:

Higher resting metabolism: burn more calories at rest
Improved hormonal profile for men and women
Reduced risk of injury
Increased focus
Generally feeling and looking awesome

To all the females out there: you are NOT going to get “big and bulky” from weightlifting. This is fitness marketing hype. But you WILL get lean, as long as your diet is right. Don’t listen to celebrity trainers (with no exercise science credentials) who say never to lift anything heavier than 3 pounds. I could beat this point into the ground, but check out this article on fitness marketing and its effect on women.

High-intensity interval training

If you’re going to do cardio, focus on intensity.

This type of training alternates high-intensity and low-intensity periods within the same workout. So a run might consist of a 20-30 second sprint followed by a 60-90 second recovery. Repeat. After 20-25 minutes you’re done.

You can be creative with the time intervals, and this can be applied to any type of aerobic exercise.

If you go much longer than 25 minutes, you’re not working hard enough. And remember to always warm up for a few minutes before you start sprinting.

Note: If you’re a brand new beginner, don’t try this yet. Build an aerobic base first. Starting with 25-30 minutes of uphill walking or jog/walk for a few weeks (consistently!) should do it.

But what about those calories?

When it comes to calories in vs. calories out, focus on your diet. Even doctors and exercise physiologists agree: we don’t have a precise understanding of how many calories are burned during workouts. Exercise is crucial for altering your body composition (and has a zillion other benefits), but your diet is where you need to think about calories.

There are many formulas to figure your daily caloric needs, but the most simple one is this:

Take your body weight in pounds and multiply it by:

10-12 for weight loss
14-16 for maintenance
16-18 for mass gain

More active people should use the higher end of the range; less active should use the lower number. So an active, 200-pound man trying to get bigger would need around 3600 calories/day (200 x 18 = 3600). An overweight 135-pound desk jockey who drives everywhere might need closer to 1350.

So next time you hit the gym, be smart about your workout, and focus on the intensity. And ignore that damn calorie counter.