The Best Way To Fire Up Your Metabolism, Burn Fat Fast and Develop Lasting Health
By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of ‘Fat Burning Furnace
Ask ten people what type of exercise they should be doing to burn fat and fire up their metabolism and they’ll all probably tell you the same thing. They’ll tell you that you need to do 30-40 minutes of moderately-paced aerobic exercise on a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair climber, etc. for 3-5 times per week.
They’ll probably also tell you that more is better…4 times per week would be better than 3, and 5 times per week would be even better.
People will tell you this because that’s been and continues to be the mainstream recommendation for fat burning by many fitness professionals. Get in a certain target heart rate and stay at that heart rate for 30 minutes or so, several times per week. I am here to tell you there is a better way.
Sure, you’ll burn some calories while you’re running to nowhere on a treadmill, but you won’t make a complete physique transformation with this type of exercise alone.
In fact, this type of exercise can actually be counterproductive to burning fat. Here are just a couple of reasons:
Long duration, lower intensity aerobics calls upon your stored body fat for energy during the sessions. While this may sound good, this can actually cause your body to create more body fat in reserve after the workout is over to have ready for your next workout.
Yikes!
What’s worse, this type of exercise when done frequently as typically suggested, trains your cardiovascular system to be efficient. Again, while this sounds good, your heart and lungs can actually reduce their capacity for work as they are getting more efficient at doing easy work (your long duration, low intensity aerobic workouts), which reduces their ability to handle stress.
This can lead to a host of other problems including higher change of heart attack. You are only working within your current aerobic capacity because you’re never challenging it to go beyond what it’s capable of. And anything that is easy will not yield results even close to what’s challenging for the body to accomplish.
Instead, you should be challenging the body to increase its capacity, so that it is stronger and able to deal with stress more easily. How is this done?
The fastest and most efficient way to rev up your metabolism, burn fat faster, and develop lifelong health and fitness is to add lean muscle to your body through resistance training – period. You want life changing results in the quickest possible time? Get stronger and build some muscle. When you add lean muscle to your body you’ll be literally turning your body into a fat burning machine!
Let’s say that you were eating the amount of calories that allow you to maintain your current bodyweight, but began to add lean muscle to your body through proper resistance training…you’ll need to use some of those calories you’re eating to feed the new muscle, creating a calorie deficit in your body.
In addition, when you stimulate your body with proper resistance training like I teach my students, the repair and growth process will call upon your stored body fat for energy. This calorie deficit combined with the repair and growth process will allow you to burn fat all day long, every day. You’ll even get these fat burning effects when you’re sitting around doing nothing at all.
Also, properly conducted resistance training actually increases your heart and lung’s capacity for work. By placing intense demands on your body, it is forced into being ready for anything you throw at it. This makes you more resistant to cardiovascular health problems that plague most people…even those that exercise with aerobics frequently.
And the beauty is I’ve discovered that you don’t have to spend much time working out to get the fat loss effects, and strength and muscle gains that will create this environment…you can actually get it done with 2 or 3 weekly workouts that last between 20 and 30 minutes, and even less time at an advanced level.
And it’s easy to make this type of exercise part of your life because of its efficiency…and it will help keep you lean and healthy for the rest of it…muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of! That I can promise you.
Click here to take a look at some great fat burning exercises.
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Resistance training reminds me of what we do in ballet class. Of course, it’s important to know what muscles should be doing what to get the most out of it. Although I’m an advanced dancer, I can break into a sweat with the most basic class due to resistance/control of muscles used.
I am a cronic Asthmatic and cannot exercise, can any one tell me how to loos weight as I know this would help my breathing.
Nobody ever gives advice to the infirmed only to the healthy
Bunny, to lose weight, you can start following the eating plans in the Diet Solution Program. For exercise, try adding walking into your daily routine. This healthy eating program is designed to help everyone!
This is truly amazing website. I am enjoying reading it and incorporating some of the good ideas into my … already healthy life. I was in sports for ages, so it came natural. I had a car crash 8 years ago, which basically left me with my right hand with not more than 0.05 percents of movements. However, with the help of my doctors, I made it to 40 percents. It shows, of course, but I’m sane in the head. And I keep working on myself as if I am a teenage, not a full frown mom!
It is actually miss Bunny, whose question triggered me to write this post.
My son used to be a chronic asthmatic, allergic to everything which people breathe and eat. He survived on the greenies and that’s all. Today, he’s running, swimming, exposing himself to all the triggers he’s still allergic to. However – his metabolism is as strong as titanium, due to careful diagnostics, but also due to our careful diet in his food, when he finally started to eat various – it’s not like we were going to allow already asthmatic kid get fat… and, additionally, asthma is a condition, it’s not a sickness. You know you can treat it every time you get bad. So, get up and get on some healthy diet, boost up the lazy organism and fight your own adrenalin with – adrenalin. That’s how my son gets rid of his attacks, who didn’t manage to stick for more than 4 years now!
Long live provenfatlossdiet!
I do not eat meat. What types of choices should I make for protein? I know to limit the processed soy products. How about dairy? What other choices do I have? Thanks.
Karen, check out the FAQs about following the DSP as a vegetarian – that will answer all your questions about what proteins are out there other than meat. Try to limit your dairy intake as much as possible, and if you are going to consumer dairy of any kind make sure it’s organic.
thank you! very unique approach that makes alot of sense
I have been doing DSP for 1 whole week and i feel great…BUT i work alot and go out to eat alot. Any sugg to dining out? and any sugg to people on the go?
KAren, try taking whey powder,it’s 75% protein and most are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
It tastes pretty foul but mixes easily with any liquid and can be taken quickly.
I have a glass pre and then post workout. Taking it before exercise gives the muscles fuel and after means the protein and amino acids are there to build and repair the muscle. Good luck
@Bunny Firks,
If you eat a diet high in refined carbs and sugar (of any kind, including fructose and other natural sugars), a carbohydrate restricted diet will sometimes reduce your asthma symptoms (as well as help you lose weight). But you will need the resistance training to maintain muscle tone and fire up your metabolism in a lasting way.
If your asthma is largely allergy related, check out http://osteomed2.com/asthma.aspx. They may be able to help you as well. But it’s not cheap.
There are also many low impact ways to begin resistance training that you can work your way up from, too. I started out walking on an incline for as long as I could manage. I also walked (no incline) with ankle weights and wrist weights–only 2 pounds to start. When/if the asthma clears up some, you can work your way up to more.
Good luck and best regards.
isabelle is doing WONDERFUL WORK!!!!! what a great service with great information. tons better than anything else i’ve read online for the mainstream.
I do a cardio kickboxing class for 45minutes and up to four times a week. I don’t do it for weight loss but an all around body workout as as we do bag work, jump rope, squats, lounges, weights,etc,etc. You tend to let out some stress and I always feel better afterwords. To lose weight it comes down to proper eating and educating yourselves on what’s really good for you. Just by watching out for sodium, sugars, and the wrong types of fat takes out your process foods. Stay away from simple carbs and eat your more complex carbs. So I do agree with you.
hey jz asking, is swimming considered a low intensity workout? i usually swim 30-50 minutes free style… around 15 laps i think… i do not its not health damaging like u said in long term…..
John, swimming is great exercise! I would suggest doing a little more exercise outside of that though – more like what Rob discusses in this article.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
I have severe, ulcerating Crohn’s disease, fibromyalgia, mitral valve prolapse syndrome, and numerous other maladies which have left me debilitated and in chronic pain for years. While I don’t have much of a weight problem save for the abdominal area (the rest of me is nearly skeletal), I want a diet which is vegetarian, easily digested (have to be very careful of ileus), and does not add fat, of course. I’ve not found any doctors or nutritionists to be helpful – just ‘sympathetic’. I’m interested, but uncertain.
I would like to stay in touch, What is your facebook page?
Isabel is doing a fantastic job with the Diet Solution Program.
My clients have found that adding regular resistance training really helps to accelerate the weight loss.
Go for it!
it’s easy to make this type of exercise part of your life because of its efficiency…and it will help keep you lean and healthy for the rest of it…muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of! That I can promise you.
This is to vmm from back in June. I am a 45 yr old asthmatic and was looking for a way to boost my metabolism when I came across this site. Reading through I couldn’t help but notice your comment, “get up and get on some healthy diet, boost up the lazy organism and fight your own adrenalin with – adrenalin.” Just FYI, just because someone is asthmatic and looking for a way to boost metabolism is no reason to assume they are lazy. As one ages, metabolis naturally slows down.
I also took offense to your assuming because Miss Bunny is asthmatic she just sits around doing nothing. I have “sports induced” asthma, but I still play soccer on a weekly basis (Yes, play not watch, coach or just “kick the ball around”). Since I hit the age of 40 however, my weight gain has been disturbingly aggressive.
Dear Elspeth, tell your doctor to check to see if you have a wheat allergy. I used to have all of those problems along with a severe pain in my lower left quadrant but after being diagnosed with a wheat allergy and excluding it(wheat and gluten) from my diet I find that I am in a lot less pain, the symptoms of all of the malformities have disappeared and I am able to loose weight without even trying!!!!
i loved your article about swimming being a low intensity work out i found swimming hard as it wexercisise all the muscles dont you think?
thanks again keep posting
I am 7months pregnant & my previous exercise of choice was walking &running. Now I’m realising that that’s probably the reason I still have belly fat even when not pregnant! But for now what kind of exercises should I be doing? I love the idea of FBF, but not sure it would be pregnancy or post partum friendly.
Wow, thanks for the tips about low tempo aerobic exercises. What you told in the article made total sense – increasing the capacity to burn calories through resistance training will bring longer lasting effects than temporary calorie burning. Thanks a ton!