If you are over forty years old and want to burn fat, you probably think you need to do more fat burning cardio workouts. However, the shocking truth is that you need to exercise less and do more intense workouts.

In this article, you’re going to discover the truth about burning fat over the age of 40. You’ll find out it’s a lot more important to do quality, not quantity, when it comes to your exercise sessions. So let’s get started by looking at why cardio fails for fat loss.

In a research study published in the prestigious journal, Obesity, researchers put men and women on an extreme cardio workout program. Each subject had to do one hour of cardio six days per week for one year. That’s a total of 300 hours of cardio.

Now most folks would expect big-time weight loss results from that much cardio exercise, but the results were extremely disappointing (although not surprising to me). The men lost an average of 6 pounds while the women lost only 4 pounds. That’s over 50 hours of cardio just to lose one measly pound!

There’s no way I would keep my job as a fat loss expert if my clients only lost one pound every 60 days. So that’s why I use interval training and resistance training with all of my clients, no matter what their age.

The truth is that someone who is over 40 needs to train using the same fat loss principles as someone who is under 30. Of course, you need to have your doctor clear you for exercise, and you might have some specific areas of muscle weakness that need more work, but other than that, everything else is the same.

Here are my top 3 fat burning rules for folks over forty who want to lose belly fat.

Rule number one is to eat a low-calorie diet focusing on whole, natural foods. We all need to be eating more fruits and vegetables, and it doesn’t matter what age you are. So try to add one extra serving tomorrow until you are up to 10 total servings per day.

The fiber will help fill you up and by reducing processed foods in your diet you will have more energy and you will lose weight. It’s that easy.

The second rule is to use resistance training to sculpt your muscles. As you get older, strength becomes more and more important to your health and well-being. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it, so make sure your exercise program includes total body strength training at least twice per week, and preferably three times per week.

Finally, you need interval training to help you burn belly fat in less workout time than long slow cardio. Research from Australia found that women who did only 20 minutes of interval training three times per week were able to lose more belly fat than women who did 40 minutes of long, slow cardio.

So switch your program to short, burst exercise and you’ll get more results in less time, no matter what your age!