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It’s easy to think that when you’re at the gym or at home and you’re doing the latest aerobics routine that you’re getting a really good total body workout. After all you’re actively working the whole body aren’t you? Your arms and legs are rapidly pumping like a steam train, the sweat’s pouring out of you and the body fat is melting away like snow in summer. The reality is that while your heart’s getting a good workout and your burning extra calories, the rest of the muscles in your body are only getting at best a minimal workout.The problem with aerobics is that while it’s great for burning off a lot of calories, if it’s your only form of exercise you won’t be just burning off body fat. Assuming that you’re actually burning up more energy than the calories you’re consuming you will be losing weight, but some of that weight will be in the form of lost muscle tissue, not just fat. Look at the physique of a marathon runner. There’s no doubt they’re incredibly fit and lean, but it’s at the expense of muscle tone. This loss of muscle is the body’s way of adjusting to this type of training. The lighter you are the easier it is for your body to keep going for longer distances.

Another downside to only doing aerobic workouts is you’re only speeding your fat burning furnace up, and shedding those extra calories, while you’re actively exercising. Exercise for 20 to 30 minutes and that’s about how long you’ll burn calories for. Shortly after you stop exercising your heart rate settles back down to normal and so does your fat burning furnace. So your base metabolism, the rate that you burn calories during a normal day, goes back to its normal rate. And it’s your metabolism that determines how much you can eat without adding extra body fat.

As an aerobics workout is usually performed at the same low intensity for a long period of time, it doesn’t take very long for your whole body to recover. After all, it usually won’t take you more than a few minutes to recover from being out of breath, and most aerobic exercises are only done at a level where you’re only just out of breath, in order to maximize burning body fat. Not only does your body quickly recover from each individual aerobics session, it soon starts to adapt by increasing your level of fitness. As your body gets fitter it also gets better at using less energy to do the same workout.

Obviously as your body gets fitter and more efficient at using energy you soon reach a point where you either have to workout more intensely or workout for longer to continue losing body fat. With aerobics you can only increase the intensity so far because otherwise you’d be able to run 15 to 25 mile marathons at the same speed you could do the 100 metres. If you choose to workout longer, then as you get fitter so your workouts will become progressively longer in order to continue losing body fat. The most effective way to keep your aerobic workouts to a reasonable level is to combine a proper weight training routine with your aerobics workout.