Keep those workouts short, but effective

Some people think that the more you workout, the more fat you lose. Well, to some extent that is true. But there is a point at which over excessive working out becomes counterproductive. Here's what I mean:

If your workout lasts longer than an hour your body goes into a catabolic state. At which time you start to breakdown muscle tissue to convert into sugar for energy. This also happens if you aren't properly fueling your body before and after your workouts.

And of course we all know that muscle loss (no matter who you are) is not a good thing. It isn't just the weight lifters that want muscle. Muscle powers you through any type of exercise you choose to do. And the more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you burn at rest. Who doesn't want to have lean sexy muscle definition? Soft squishy body - no thanks!

This is one of the primary reasons I'm a huge advocate for intervals and weight training. I can get a weight training session done in under an hour and intervals take 30 minutes. I just alternate the days. My fitness goal is to build sexy muscle, not use it to fuel long boring cardio.

I can get into an anabolic state (where muscles grow) when I'm weight training and a metabolic state (where fat is being burned) when I'm doing high intensity interval training. I also make sure to eat a healthy breakfast (pre workout) and a healthy post workout meal consisting of lean protein and healthy carb (yam, for instance).

I have read that some studies prove morning fasted cardio burns more fat but I've also read that some studies prove this is false. I don't usually go by one study or another, you really have just do what works for your own body. For me, morning fasted cardio, didn't speed up or improve my fat loss at all. What did work is having breakfast, waiting an hour or two, then doing a 30 minute interval session. Intervals are another topic of debate. Some say that you have greater "after burn", where you continue to burn more calories during the day. Where as with steady state cardio (like running) you only burn calories while you run. Like I said, you will read a lot of conflicting data on this theory. I happen to prefer intervals, and they work for me, so I do them ;)

The safe bet for maintaining muscle: keep your workouts under an hour. Train hard, and get on with your life! Who wants to spend HOURS a day working out, anyway?! I mean, I like lifting weights but that doesn't mean I want to do it 2 hours every day!