So, you’re thinking about investing in a treadmill. Or perhaps you’ve just bought one, and it is currently sitting idly in your home just waiting to be used. There are several reasons why people use treadmills; to improve their health, improve their fitness, but most common of all it is to lose weight. In this article, we will talk about how to lose weight on a treadmill.
How to Use a Treadmill to Lose Belly Fat
Fitness professionals like to dress things up a bit, but when it comes to weight loss, the most important factor is always going to be calories in vs calories out.
If you burn more calories than you consume, your body is going to have to burn some stored energy (fat) to create balance. A bit like earning $200, spending $210 and having to dip into your savings.
When you burn more calories than you consume you create what is known as a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is required for fat loss and therefore weight loss.
You can create a calorie deficit by burning more calories than usual (exercise), consuming less calories than usual (diet), or combine a bit of both. This last option is by far the best as it means you don’t have to exercise too hard or diet too strictly.
Treadmills are a fantastic way to burn calories, combined with dieting, they can help you to create a calorie deficit and therefore lose weight.
Reasons Why Treadmills are Good for Weight Loss
Here are five reasons why owning a treadmill can be really good for weight loss.
Reason #1: Treadmills can increase your fitness.
One thing that many people don’t realise about weight loss is that to be successful you need to have a decent level of fitness first. It can take several minutes of exercise before your body switches from burning glucose to stored body fat.
If you can’t currently exercise for those several minutes without needing to have a lie down, then you may never enter that fat burning zone. Luckily, you can use regular cardio to build your fitness, and therefore embark on your fitness journey.
You can start off with walking on a treadmill, walking on an incline, running, then running on an incline, then increasing the speed. Building your fitness up as you go, and then being able to enter the fat-burning zone.
Reason #2: Treadmills can get you into the fat-burning zone.
There are many ways to burn fat but entering the fat-burning zone via low intensity cardio is one of the most effective. Treadmills are perfect for this. They give you a safe and reliable workout, that can be set up to last 20-60 minutes. Allowing you to stay in the fat-burning zone for maximum results.
Many treadmills are set up to measure heart rate or at the very least can be connected to a heart rate monitor on your wrist or chest. Using your heart rate to gauge when you are in the fat-burning zone will give you the best results yet.
The ideal heart rate for fat burning is 70% of your maximum heart rate. You can work your maximum heart rate out very easily, just subtract your age from 220. If you are 40 years old, then your heart rate is 180 beats per minute. Your ideal heart rate would therefore be 126 beats per minute.
You may be wondering “how long should I run on the treadmill to lose weight?”, the truth is that the longer you can last at 70% of your max heart rate, the better you will do.
Reason #3: Treadmills can be used for HIIT.
Another excellent calorie burner is high intensity interval training (HIIT). To perform this, you need excellent fitness (see reason #1). It works like this; you work at maximum effort for a very short period of time. Usually, 10-30 seconds max. Then you either rest or lower your intensity massively for a rest period that is about 3-6 times longer.
For example, you could exercise at max intensity for 30 seconds, then rest for 120 seconds. Repeat this ten times and call it a day.
Treadmills are great for this as you can either change the speed of the treadmill or hop on at fast speed for 30 seconds then hop off and rest. This second technique is very popular, but due to the danger of falling it is not recommended unless you’re very competent.
Reason #4: Treadmills can be used for hill sprints.
Hill sprints are very similar to HIIT, but instead of increasing the speed, with this one you increase both the speed and incline. You then sprint up your “hill” for 30 seconds before lowering speed and incline. This is a bit safer and easier to do than treadmill sprints (mentioned above), because you can stay on the treadmill as it slows down and lowers. Your rest periods are longer. This is the best way to burn fat on a treadmill.
Reason #5: Treadmills are accessible for all fitness levels.
As we mentioned in reason #1, to lose weight you need to first be quite fit. Treadmills are perfect for this as they can be used by pretty much anyone. Even if you’ve never exercised before, you can climb on a treadmill and walk at a brisk pace while listening to podcasts.
Once you’ve got used to that you can turn that incline up, or increase the speed. So treadmills are great for beginners. But they are also excellent for intermediate trainees, and even athletes.
No matter what fitness level you are currently at, there is a treadmill workout that will suit you. It is rare that you can say that about exercise equipment, which can often be too difficult for beginners, or too basic for experts.
Final Thoughts
Your treadmill is good for weight loss, all you have to do is be consistent and work hard. If you can do that, and you are able to stick to a sensible diet, you’ll see weight loss results in no time. Just make sure that you find the right treadmill for your needs.
You will want a treadmill that is sturdy, powerful, has incline features, and can get up to a good speed quite easily. This will allow you to train to your full potential. Now you know exactly how to burn fat on a treadmill.
