The common misconception about fat loss is that it requires a lot of lean muscle mass to lose the body fat. This misconception was successfully created and advertized by the leading personal trainers. If muscle mass is the best way to look leaner, shouldn't the body fat percentage of the bodybuilders be less than 1%? After all, they are packed with muscles. We all know that this isn't the case.
The truth is that although muscles help to burn extra calories, the amount of calories burnt by the muscle is minimal. It is proven that one pound of lean muscle can only burn 12 calories per day. Therefore, in order to burn extra 180 calories per day, you would require 15 pounds of lean mass. The problem is gaining 15 pounds of lean muscle is not easy. It also increases your body weight. On the contrary, you can burn of the 180 calories with 10 minutes of high intensity cardio workout.
Cardio and a healthy diet are the best way to burn fat quickly. A properly structured diet and high intensity cardio routine can burn fat faster than the lean muscle mass. This is especially true for women, who would odd with all the muscle mass. A toned woman body is more attractive than one packed with lean muscle.
If cardio and a healthy diet is the best way to burn fat, why aren't all the trainers suggesting it? This is because it makes bad business sense. Cardio is something you can do on your own and you do not even need to go to a gym for this. There are bucket load of information available about diets. All this negates the need for personal trainers and even gym. Hence, contrary to what you may have heard from your personal trainer, cardio and a healthy diet is the combination to burn that extra body fat.
