treadmill: faster speed shorter distance?.. or slower speed longer distance?

Question

which is better for you??

Answer 1

staying in the "fat burning zone" during cardio is an antiquated and less than optimum method of performing cardiovascular exercise.

if you are healthy (no heart problems) besides needing to drop a couple of pounds you should switch to high intensity interval training.

HIIT Cardio
http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

the key to making progress in the gym whether it's cardio vascular or resistance training is to continually perform more work than the previous training session in the same amount of time. for cardio you want to increase the distance traveled in the same amount of time. for weights you want to do either more weight or more reps than the previous training session. this is how your force the body to adapt by continually training harder.

Answer 2

For weight loss, longer and slower is better, as you have about 20 min of glycogen stored in your body after which your body starts to burn some fat, slower still means 60% of your max heart rate. (220- your age times.6) Faster workouts are better if you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness, 70-80%+ of your max HR. You can also combine the two on some days do long workouts for endurance, a couple times a week push yourself to work on your speed.

Answer 3

Depends on your goals.

For fat burning, slower/longer is better. Longer, for me, means in the 4-5 hour range or more.

If you're racing, you need to work some threshold training and sprints into the mix. These drive your lactate threshold higher and improve foot speed. I do some of each, usually a sprint session on the track once a week, and one in the pool.

edit: PBLEEK, check your facts. It takes me something like 2 hours at 20+ mph on a bike to get close to glycogen depletion. Fat burning happens more or less constantly, but you can't convert fat fast enough to carry on with any sort of workout once you're glycogen depleted. That's the condition runners and cyclists know as 'bonk'. See article below on fat metabolism.

Answer 4

Slower speed and longer distance. As long as you keep your heart rate up, the longer you go the more calories you will burn.