Aerobic exercise is normally the first thing that comes to mind when people think about burning fat. While most people dread the thought of endless, boring hours working in the aerobic heart rate zone, it is normally what people turn to to lose fat. But the good news is, combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is the best for burning fat.

But before I tell you why combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is better than aerobic exercise alone, lets talk about what "aerobic" and "anaerobic" means.

Aerobic means in the presence of oxygen. Any activity performed at a low to moderate intensity for more than 90 seconds, allowing oxygen to release energy through metabolism, is called an aerobic activity.

The benefits of aerobic activity are...

Increased Cardiovascular Function

Decrease in Body Fat

But prolonged aerobic exercise has its negatives...

Decreased Muscle Mass

Decreased Strength

Decreased Power

Decreased Speed

Decreased Anaerobic Capacity

You should start realizing why combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is a better option.

Anaerobic means in the absence of oxygen. Any activity performed at a medium to high intensity for less than 2 minutes, where energy is derived without oxygen, is usually called an anaerobic activity.

The benefits of anaerobic activity are...

Increased Cardiovascular Function

Decrease in Body Fat

Increased Muscle Mass

Improved Strength

Improved Power

Improved Speed

Increased Aerobic Capacity

And the negatives of anaerobic activity are...

Anaerobic activity requires an aerobic foundation

As you can plainly see, anaerobic activity is the better choice. And you might be asking, "Why do you say combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is best? Why not just do anaerobic exercise?"

Combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is necessary because it is impossible to exercise at the high intensity level of anaerobic exercise for the entire workout. Even if you try to work at such a high intensity, you eventually become fatigue and drift back into the aerobic zone. So, while it is possible to exercise in the aerobic zone for the entire workout, it is impossible to exercise exclusively at an anaerobic pace.

This is why combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is a must for an optimal fat loss workout!

Here is the bad news. Most people that want to lose fat and build a muscular body ARE combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise. They are just combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise all WRONG!

The sad fact is, most workouts claiming to burn fat by combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise are doing "bodybuilding" style weight training followed by an aerobic activity. And unless you plan to spend hours a day in the gym (like bodybuilders do), then you won't get the results they do.

Think of it this way. There should be two "types" of exercise you perform... resistance training and energy system training. And when you are combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise, it is not just in the energy system training portion. You should be intelligently combining aerobic and anaerobic activity during the entire workout.

So, combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is key to your fat loss success. But how you combine the two is even more important, If you've been combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise with bodybuilding weight training followed by aerobic exercise and failed to get the fat loss results you wanted... you're not alone.

Combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is not enough... you need to combine both to get maximum fat loss results.