Most people’s gym journeys begin with the simple desire to lose a bit of body fat. Whether this be to look and feel better or to perform better in a sport, this is a perfectly okay goal to have in the gym, given that intended exercise (For example, your training in the gym) is a major modifiable factor in the calories you burn per day, as shown in the TDEE Figure below. The diagram below shows that roughly 10 percent of your calories burnt in a day is due to intended exercise.

What is Your TDEE?

When looking to lose weight or burn fat, our primary concern is our calorie balance; how many calories we are consuming versus how many we are burning. Calories in is simple, it is just how many calories we have eaten or drank. But calories out is a little more complex, as shown by the TDEE Figure. There are 4 main components to TDEE.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate

This simply refers to the energy used for the body to maintain homeostasis, i.e., keeping the body functioning normally.

NEAT - Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

Often referred to as non-intended exercise, NEAT refers to the calories we burn during the day during normal activity, for example, walking around the house, changing postures, and even fidgeting.

TEF - Thermic Effect of Food

This refers to the calories burnt in digestion, absorption, and metabolism of food.

EAT - Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

Often referred to as intended exercise, EAT refers to organised exercise that requires conscious effort.

What Exercise is Best for Fat Burning?

Lower intensity, longer duration exercise is generally accepted as a more appropriate method of exercise for burning calories due to your ability to exercise for longer and thus accumulate more calories burnt. Whereas, during higher intensity work, you will fatigue much faster and have to stop.

We recommend long ‘Zone 2’, otherwise known as 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, cardio workouts if your primary goal is to increase calorie expenditure and burn more fat.

How Do I Know I'm in Zone 2?

If you don't have a heart rate monitor, then a nice way to aim for an appropriate intensity is to maintain a ‘conversation pace’ during your workout. You want to be working hard but not too hard so that, if required, you’d be able to hold a conversation.

Why Are Kettlebells Great For Fat Burning?

A Kettlebell is a great choice for your Zone 2 training if you want a low impact way to get your heart rate up rather than running, which can be too high impact for a lot of beginner gym goers. The kettlebell is also well shaped for continuous, cyclical exercises; you can flow seamlessly between multiple reps without needing to rest.

Kettlebell Fat Burning Workout

20 Minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) at a conversation pace

Scale the reps and weight to a sustainable level to make sure you are in that ‘conversation zone’, so that you can maintain your efforts for the full 20 minutes.

Kettlebell Swings (10-20 reps)

• Stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart, facing forward, and a kettlebell on the floor in front of you, 1-2 feet away.

• Push you hips back to the wall behind you to hinge down to the kettlebell, before reaching to the handle with arms straight.

• Lift the bell off the floor, pulling it into your hips to begin your swings.

• Explosively stand tall to pop the weight out in front of you.

• When the weight reaches the apex of the swing, guide it back into the hips before cyclically repeating the movement.

Dual Kettlebell Squat Thruster (10-20 reps)

• Hold a kettlebell in each hand in a front rack position.

• Sit between your knees into a squat position.

• Stand back up and drive the kettlebells to the sky when you reach the top of your squat, using the power from your squat to help you with the press.

• Lower the weights back to your shoulders before dropping back into your squat for the next rep.

Kettlebell Side Bend (10 reps per side)

• Hold a kettlebell in one hand, standing tall.

• Lower the weight to just below knee height, pushing your bum laterally to the other side of the room.

• Pull the weight back up as you pull you bum back into the midline.

• Repeat on both sides for the desired reps.

Add this workout into your training to increase the calories burnt in your session. We recommend that you still train in a variety of ways and don’t use this to replace your strength and power training entirely, for these qualities are important!

Alongside this, you may look to increase your step count through the day, as an easy indication of an effort to increase your NEAT expenditure, alongside a healthy and balanced diet…

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Equipment > Kettlebells ; Exercise Type > Cardio ; Misc > Workout