* This article involves tips on interval training / burst training with a treadmill in order to lose weight, and so before attempting any sort of rigorous training, consult your physician to make sure your health is OK first!
Today’s question – “How do I lose weight on a treadmill?”
#1 – Start With A Warm Up
Well, first things first. You need to be organized and efficient with the time you have.
Starting with a five or ten minute warm up at a moderate pace is a good idea, but your warm-up time will depend on how much time you have that day.
Keep in mind, too, as we go through these steps, that in regards to the number of minutes you should be working out on your treadmill or the speed of the belt, everyone’s perceived exertion levels are going to be different.
This means, you will have to see what is most comfortable for you, while at the same time, you must realize that in order to burn fat, the most efficient way to do that is shorter intervals with harder exertions.
Knowing this, once we’ve sufficiently warmed up (whether it’s 2 minutes or 10 minutes), the second thing we want to start concentrating on is bringing our heart rate up, and then back down.
And then, we can build it back up again after that.
When you’re on the treadmill, understand that during first warm up phase, we want to do just a slow walking pace.
This can be around an incline 2.0% with a 2.0 MPH speed, but it can be whatever you are comfortable with – just nothing too strenuous to start.
Regardless of the brand of treadmill you have, you’ll want to keep things slow in the beginning.
| Proform 2000 Treadmill |
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| Sole Fitness F80 Folding Treadmill |
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| Sunny Health & Fitness Treadmill Folding Motorized Running Machine |
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| Sunny Health & Fitness Sf-T7603 Electric Treadmill W/ 9 Programs, 3 Manual Incline, Easy Handrail Controls |
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#2 – Increase Your Speed
So after a decent warm-up to get the blood pumping, the next thing you want to to do, to get that heart rate up as much as possible, is to increase your speed on your treadmill.
At this point, you can raise your speed up to around 7 or 8 miles per hour to get a nice solid jog going.
This is what makes this interval training, and how efficiently you do this will determine how efficiently you will start to burn fat.
Here is a video of someone jogging at that speed which is perhaps in the neighborhood of 7 MPH, and for you, this might be as fast as you can or want to go.
If you are more of the athletic type, you might agree that this guy is going not too slow, but not too fast, and maybe you think you could jog a lot faster.
If you can handle something faster, then by all means do it, but we always recommend caution when running on the treadmill – especially if your body isn’t prepared for it.
Shortly we will talk about “burst training”, which involves running at top speed in order to burn fat.
As you continue to increase your speed, you can tell by your voice (if you happen to be talking to someone) that your heart rate is getting up there, because your words are a lot shorter, and it’s a lot harder to actually talk.
In fact, singing your favorite song as you jog may become impossible at this point.
#3 – Maintain Your Speed
After about a good minute and thirty seconds, or two minutes at a brisk pace, you want to bring it back down.
A minute or so is actually a long time in the world of interval training, where your brisk jog can actually be as short as 20 or even 10 seconds, if you are really pushing yourself.
We will discuss this further in the next section about “burst training”.
For those who are not accustomed to physical exertion, it is always good to go back down to that medium speed that you know is a really safe, slow speed for you, so you can really get your heart rate down, and then be able to boost it back up again.
Again, this is a great form of interval training, and another really good way to do this, is also by increasing the incline.
Check out the InMotion T900 Manual Treadmill in the video below, to see a treadmill that is really easy to adjust the incline.
#4 – Watch The Incline
By increasing the incline on the treadmill, and keeping that same low speed, walking uphill is pretty difficult, and of course will have you breathing hard once again.
So, as you continue to do your interval training exercises on your treadmill, your heart rate is also going to continue to go up, the more you continue to walk up that hill.
You might even start to notice that your strides are a lot different. You might need to take bigger strides or bigger steps, and really come up on your toes, so you can really get up the hill.
After a minute and a half, or two minutes, or once you’ve reached your desired heart rate, bring it back down again, and that is going to be your most efficient treadmill workout, and best way to burn fat.
Burst Training On A Treadmill
With burst training on a treadmill, you’re going to burn at least 3 times the amount of body fat using this method, than you would with any sort of long distance cardio routine.
This method will get you lean, and it is, experts say, the fastest way to burn fat in the shortest amount of time.
Keep in mind, it is considered high intensity interval training, and while we normally talk about the health benefits of walking around here, there’s no denying that some of you will want to try something a little more rigorous.
When it comes to burst training, there are a few ways to do it, like doing 10 seconds on, followed by 10 seconds off, or you can do 30 on then 30 off, or you can try a “tabata training” which is 40 on and 20 off.
Basically, what this involves is hopping on the treadmill, doing a quick warm up, and then running as fast as you can for a certain number of seconds, followed by a brief period of rest.
You’ll need to have good balance to do this,or you might just go flying off the treadmill when you put your shoes down on the moving belt, if your balance isn’t great.
Burn More Fat With A Steeper Incline On Your Treadmill
To make it even more of a challenge, you can increase the incline, and you will definitely feel it immediately as you will be breathing hard, as if you just did a sprint.
At this point, you take the 10 (or however many) seconds to catch that breather, then you straddle the treadmill and it’s back on it again for another 10 seconds.
Don’t forget to use proper running form.
As Dr. Axe mentions in the following video, proper running form is key to weight loss.
As he says, you’ll want comfortable, barefoot like shoes, and you’ll want to keep your hips up as you run, and keep those arms pumping.
After you do this a few times, you will most likely be reaching for your water bottle, and gasping for breath, but this is exactly the point of burst training.
By repeating this method a number of times, you will start to burn fat in a way that cannot be achieved simply by walking or jogging.
This is the reason that sprinters, if you’ve ever seen them, have basically no fat on them, and are often made of solid muscle, because this is the kind of training they do.
Think about it – have you ever seen a pudgy sprinter? No, because they don’t really exist.